Category Archives: Improve Productivity and Efficiency

By Molly Barnes, Digital Nomad Life

It can be hard to avoid time wasters at work, especially in the digital world we live in. But if you can identify where you’re wasting your time, it’s easier to eliminate the time wasters and fully take advantage of your time at work. Here are six time management strategies you need right now:

1. Delegate Tasks

We often get caught up in completing menial, time-consuming tasks. While these tasks are certainly important, they have a tendency to pull us away from projects that really matter. One of the easiest ways to free up some time at work is to identify tasks that can be delegated to others.

Finding someone to help perform monotonous tasks, like data entry or account maintenance, can help keep you available for the necessary tasks. Delegation can end up helping other … Continue reading 6 Biggest Time Wasters at Work and How to Fight Them →

If you’re thinking that the Inbox Zero craze will never work for you, you’re not alone. But consider the alternative. Can you let email continue to have so much control over your time? Do you want to keep feeling overwhelmed and demoralized by your Inbox? What else could you be doing with an extra hour a day? How would it feel to be aware of everything on your plate or to complete a project that you actually enjoy? Start changing the way you manage your Inbox today with these advanced common sense moves.

Shift Your Mindset

Treat your email Inbox like your snail mailbox. You don’t use your snail mail inbox for storage; and you shouldn’t use your email Inbox for storage. You don’t look at your snail mail, throw a piece of junk mail away, look at a card from a friend, and then … Continue reading Is Email Sucking Up Your Time? →

Miguel had an enormous list of tasks on his to-do list. He’d been working to increase his responsibilities to prove he could handle a leadership role, but now he was having a hard time keeping up with it all. He found himself coming in early and working through lunch in an effort to make it look like he had it all together. He couldn’t just shrug off his existing responsibilities, but he didn’t want to give up the exciting new projects he’d taken on. He simply didn’t seem to have the bandwidth for it all. What was he to do?

I’ve worked with countless clients like Miguel, helping them to reprioritize their work their seemingly endless to-do lists. I begin by reassuring them that time-management strategies like these ones can relieve a lot of their stress.

Weed out the nonessential tasks.

Go through your to-do list with … Continue reading Time Management Strategies & Prioritizing →

Every day tasks, assignments, and projects are demanding of your time. How do you determine which ones are urgent vs important. Urgent tasks are the ones that have an immediate deadline, require action, and a quick response. They have a certain urgency to them. Important tasks are focused on long-term goals. The big picture and high level view of your work.

Most of us focus our time and energy on whatever immediate tasks land on our plate each week – urgent vs important. That’s fine as long as we also commit time and energy to the important long-term projects (important ahead of urgent) that will get us where we eventually want to be. The key to Increasing your effectiveness on projects is to make time for what is most important.

Here are 6 ways to make sure the important projects don’t get lost in the wilderness of urgent … Continue reading Urgent vs Important
Make Time for the Most Important →

The idea of wanting to know how to increase productivity and efficiency often brings up images of someone with a stopwatch timing every activity with a watchful eye. Henry Ford first used the talent of an efficiency expert to build cars faster and more economically. What resulted was the assembly line where the same motion is repeated over and over to eliminate any wasted motion. You don’t have to work on an assembly line to take advantage of the time-saving tips they offered, however.

By taking a little time to plan and prepare, you can find extra hours in your day to complete the work you want to do and still have fun. These useful and effective exercises will only be beneficial if you are productive and efficient with your time.

Victor Hugo says, “He who every morning plans the transactions of the day and follows out … Continue reading Want to Learn How to Increase Productivity at Work? Here are 14 Ways →

Got plans for the summer? While you’re basking in the sun, consider this: you’ll spend more time looking for lost documents at work than you will on your vacation. Up to three times as much! That’s right. Americans average only 2-3 weeks vacation every year. Yet according to Fast Company Magazine, executives waste six weeks per year searching for lost paperwork.

In fact, employees spend up to 35 percent of their time looking for the information they need to do their jobs. And when you’re not trying to track down that lost file or report, chances are someone is interrupting you. Studies show an American worker is interrupted eight times every hour. Each interruption averages five minutes. It’s a wonder that any work gets done at all. These are some of the important issues that undermine time management.

Fortunately there are simple techniques and strategies you can use to … Continue reading 8 Important Factors for Time Management Success →

A project manager main role is to manage the team. Making sure everyone is in sync. The importance of an effective project manager is that the project is completed on-time, on budget and within scope. These 10 tips will make sure project management success is attained.

10 Tips to Ensure Project Management Effectiveness Focus Only on Three Major Projects.

Most people limit their success by juggling too many projects. This will cause ineffectiveness as a project manager. Make a list of all the things you have going on and get rid of everything except the three most important. Give yourself the opportunity to do great work on the three that mean the most. Define It.

What is the end result you want to achieve? You need to begin with the end goal in sight. Create Smaller Tasks Within Each Project.

Break the project into manageable pieces. Identify all the … Continue reading 10 Tips to Ensure
Project Management Effectiveness →

Are you experiencing the treadmill effect? That’s when you’re trying your best to keep up, getting farther behind, and the ground under you is moving so fast you’re afraid to jump off. Our jobs and our world feel that way a lot these days.

So how do you cope? Take a close look at how you’re spending your time. Consider  efficiency, productivity, and balance. How are you doing?

Here are 7 time management strategies to be more efficient. These simple suggestions will slow down the treadmill and enable you to get through your day with minimum stress and maximum satisfaction.

7 Ways to Maximize Time Efficiency Save Time In Your Daily Schedule.

Use time waiting in line or waiting for appointments to catch up on material you need to read. Use the technology of today to increase your productivity. Consolidate errands so that you make only one trip. Look at … Continue reading 7 Strategies to Maximize Time Efficiency →

Time wasters are the pitfalls we can fall into if we’re not paying attention. They seem to lay in wait for us as we innocently go about our day and will rob you of time, energy, and focus if you let them. The only way to avoid time is to be aware that they exist and stay alert, ready to block or divert them.

We all have our own personal set of time wasters at work, the ones that trip us up frequently. What are yours?

Client Examples of Workplace Time Wasters

To help you start your list, here are a few common time wasters that my clients often include on their lists:

Wasting too much time getting daily updates on routine activities as opposed to waiting for a more meaningful weekly summary. Jumping too eagerly into routine, straightforward work and putting off the more complex and difficult tasks. … Continue reading Avoid the Top 20 Time Wasters at Work →