
Ann Gabriel | ExecutiveChronicles
Building a company from the ground up is no easy task. Start-up managers are always forced to take a hands-on approach and are often faced with a humongous workload.
Time management and efficiency are usually the major concerns in any company.
Here are some techniques, habits and apps that you should consider in increasing you and your team’s productivity.
- Mind Maps. A mind map is a graphical way to represent ideas and concepts. It is a visual thinking tool that helps structuring information, helping you to better analyze, comprehend, synthesize, recall and generate new ideas.
- Pomodoro Technique. The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s. The technique uses a timer to break down work into intervals, traditionally 25 minutes in length, separated by short breaks. These intervals are named pomodoros, the plural in English of the Italian word pomodoro (tomato), after the tomato-shaped kitchen timer that Cirillo used as a university student. The method is based on the idea that frequent breaks can improve mental agility. The Pomodoro technique allows you to (a) Work with time and not against it. (b) Eliminate Burnout (c) Manage Distractions and (d) Create a Better Work / Life Balance.
- Declare a No Meeting Day. Clear one day in a week from meetings. This ensures that you have ample time for work that you were not able to do from the rest of the working week due to meetings.
- Outsourcing. We all have a lot of things on our plate, and might possibly lack the manpower needed to finish what we need to do now. Consider hiring part-timers.
- Post-It. Identify the three wildly important goals and write it down on Post-Its. Make sure that you put the post-it in an area where you can see them everyday. Prioritize these goals so that you get things done right and at the soonest.
- Less distractions are best. Turn your phones into silent mode . This lessens the temptation of having to pick-up the phone and engage in conversation. Close all apps that are related to social media. This way notifications would be able to distract your attention from your work priorities.
- Work early. Be there in the office earlier than what is required. Of course, you will invest more time and effort on this, but this will surely get things done, earlier than usual.
- Work on the easiest things to do first. Tasks that only require you to work on within a minute or two should be first on your list. By doing the easy things immediately, you’ll be able to get rid of these things out of your memory, and will be able to give you ample time on doing the most important and major tasks.
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