Productivity Archives - BOLLYWOOD SURKHIYAN

Improve Your Productivity When Focus Is Optimized Operating in Short-Bursts

If you have actually ever before dealt with situations where you may lose focus on a project or task, possibly a business associate or even a good friend has actually stated that you ought to attempt working in short-bursts as opposed to completing your job or project at one time. Even if you think this concept is strange, it isn’t necessarily a bad recommendation. There are three major advantages to working in short bursts.

1. You Will Be Less Tempted By Distractions

When you work in short segments, it lets you to be less tempted by interruptions. When you recognize that you can delay addressing interruptions or even ignore or at least just review the interruption in a few minutes, you lose the necessity to check it out right away and subsequently complete the task more efficiently.

2. You Can Plan Your Job Better

When you work in brief bursts, you can plan what you intend to do with each of your 15- or 20-minute work sessions. Since you can just fit so much work into one segment, planning these short work bursts makes it less complicated to decide what to do. It focuses you on concentrating on the essentials. It likewise assists because planning a 20-minute work session seems much less serious than planning a whole day, so you will not feel stressed out choosing what to spend your time working with during each short burst.

3. You’ll Be A lot more Concentrated, And Also Your Mind Will Be Clear

A Research study shows that the human mind can only concentrate at its maximum for around 20 mins each time or interval between a short break. This fact implies that you are combating or even overworking your mind when you try to concentrate for longer durations. When you take regular breaks from your job, like those detailed in the short burst work approach, your mind will obtain the break or rest it requires between tasks. Thus, every single time you start a brand-new burst of tasks, you will certainly be starting with a fresh mind that can stay focused for the whole project.

No matter exactly how you look at it, working in brief work sessions is really the way to go. It will allow you to be much less sidetracked, extra focused, a lot more concentrated as you function, and also you will not be as worn out. So when somebody recommends the brief burst method, listen to that person seriously and think about applying this strategy to your following project.

Planning for Successful Productivity During Your Career?

Looking for skills to help increase career opportunities or enhance current position? Then consider the importance of time, meeting, and project management skills and how gaining better control in these areas can lead you where you want to go in the business world. It may be easy to see these skills will help in current job, but how can you be sure they will apply to future opportunities? If you are skeptical, try looking at job descriptions on the various job-search websites and you will discover that most of them will require one or more of these management skills (also referred to as planning or organization skills). Think about how using these skills may be seen by others who may be able help with your desired career growth. Being able to organize yourself will be noticed by a few people within the organization. However, being able to organize others by leading meetings and projects will be visible by a wider audience.

The different managing skills related to time, meetings, and projects are not only similar in principles, but also in techniques used. Adopting one of these skills and applying the principles can progressively lead towards learning the others. An example principle would be, if you belief in the value of your individual time, it follows that you understand the value of other people’s time in groups as well. Therefore, meetings which will always involve the time of others, require proper planning and management to ensure no one feels the time was wasted. A well-planned and executed meeting can actually make most attendees feel it was well worth their time and their input was valued. Since meetings are an integral part of projects requiring team member and customer participation, it also follows that running them well will lead to more efficient project management and effective use of the time and skills of those involved.

Want more proof that these skills are related? A method that personal time management typically involves is having a written set of tasks to do and then prioritizing each task according to goals. The tasks considered of highest priority, which are those that get you closer to your goal, are given attention first and have the most time dedicated to them. In a well-planned meeting, the goal is the stated meeting purpose and the prioritized task list becomes the group’s meeting agenda followed by individual task assignments in the form of actions. Every project has a direct goal for what it is to accomplish in order for resources to be given to it. On a well-planned project, major tasks for reaching the goal are listed on a project plan and assigned to appropriately skilled people to meet their priority. Project priority then is stated as the critical path in which the tasks completion must take, as well as the start and finish dates assigned to each task.

Now that you know having these skills may help increase your career potential, consider what you need to do to develop them. Do you need training or an easy-to-use tool? Is there someone who can mentor or coach you? Should you closely observe meeting leaders for pointers or volunteer for more projects to increase planning skills? Think about the importance of time, meeting, and project management skills for your career growth and then plan accordingly.

5 Great Ideas To Boost Business Productivity And Reduce Stress

According to a recent business study, 92% respondents say they make or take work- related communications outside of the office, including during vacations.

Like most people in corporate America, there never seems to be enough hours in the day to do complete tasks leaving employees the options of either burning the midnight oil or infringing on ‘personal time’ with work projects. While one can’t create more hours in your day, there are effective ways to use that time more wisely. Discover better, proven, and efficient tips to increase productivity and decrease stress.

Make every hour count. Plan your day in 15-minute chunks and prioritize your tasks. That’s smart time management, but it doesn’t guarantee you’ll work productively. You’ll operate most efficiently if you banish aimless anxieties and the urge to procrastinate.

Here’s some ideas to boost workplace productivity and reduce stress:

1) Get it down…clear your mind! Have a pen and paper ready and list your anxieties, numbering them in order of importance. This exercise will help you clear your head-and maybe even reprioritize-so that you can return to work free of mental distractions.

2) Allot “worry time.” If you grow anxious thinking about all the work that awaits you, then reserve blocks of time to indulge yourself in worry. Don’t let these thoughts creep into the rest of your day-or you may wind up worrying about a job rather than doing it.

3) Confront, don’t complain. There’s a time and a place to vent your frustrations. But if you deplete precious time during the workday by dropping what you’re doing and talking about your irritations, you’ll dig yourself in even deeper. If you’re annoyed at a co-worker, don’t complain to whoever happens to walk into your office. Instead, speak directly to the person with whom you’re upset. This saves time and reduces the spread of ill will.

4) POP: Plan, Organize, Prepare. Plan ahead using solid project management skills. Make sure you map out milestones on your timeline and anticipate ample turnaround time for deliverables and deadlines. Organize your notes, tasks, and workload. Prepare for projects, such as fact gathering, logistics, or calling hard-to-reach project stakeholders.

5) Anticipate first, reflect later. If you make a high-profile mistake, you may feel compelled to dissect what happened in excruciating detail. That’s fine on your own time. But don’t waste the day analyzing a screw-up or justifying your decisions to any and all who’ll listen.

These are simple, proven tactics that can help you prioritize tasks and anxieties… and stop you from working in a constant crisis mode.

9 Compelling Business Benefits of Gmail Cloud Computing For All Your Office Productivity Needs

Deploying Google’s Gmail for my start-up internet marketing business has allowed minimal and secure IT administration of my 8 websites (28+ email accounts). Supporting a mixed operating environment which includes Microsoft, Ubuntu and MacOS, multiple browsers, and document file formats from Microsoft Office, Open Office is made possible and easier with an in-the-cloud computing environment like Gmail.

So why would you consider cloud computing like Google Mail for your business, especially an SME (small medium enterprise)?

In a two words – security and compliance. E-mail security, web security and message compliance are the underlying benefits to solid business reasons to have your mail and office documents served through Gmail.

Compliance to Security and Retention Requirements

Whether your organization is 1 person or thousands of people in size, you are faced with accounting, legal and government regulations and standards that dictate acceptable levels of IT security and records retention for all electronic files and e-mails. Gmail can help ensure compliancy plus provide you with real business benefits in streamlining your document and email management. Deploying Google Mail is just smart business. Some benefits include:

1) Organizing and Filing (Archiving) your email the anyway you want it.

Google uses labeling as a way to file and organize your emails. You can tag an email with multiple labels. For example, an email from your accountant with tax information could be label as “Corporate Taxes”, “Accountant”, “IRS”, “Revenue Canada”. Gone is the restriction of having to choose only one file folder to which you move an email.

2) Keeping Email conversations or threads linked together.

Appearing like cascading file folders, emails on the same topic (subject) will be kept together in your inbox or to the multiple archived labels you have assigned. No searching for the email trail or thread of emails about a particular subject. They are visually represented like a group of stacked file folders.

3) A free unlimited storage repository for all your email and messages forever!

At 7 gigabytes per gmail user account and growing as of August 2008, the Google mail tagline is ‘ you’ll never need to delete another message’.

Takin’ Care of Business, instead of computer or IT Administration

Reducing the time spent on administration of your computer storage, security, backup and recovery allows you to spend more time building your business. Manage all your email accounts entirely from within one or two Gmail addresses. Once set-up, Gmail offers this low administration environment.

4) No Mail is downloaded or stored on your server, desktop, laptop or PDA. This eliminates any stress or administration angst associated with:

– searching for emails stored and scattered across multiple client devices – some emails on your PC , some on your laptop, some on your PDA

– scheduling backups of your email, contact list and documents

– recovery (and loss) of email & documents due to client device loss, failure or theft

– expanding storage capacity due to continuing email and document growth and retention

– remote or mobile access for all your email, attachments and documents

– managing, consolidating and keeping intact multiple email addresses and personalities

– off-site backup of select files for SOHO or Small Businesses

Document creation, management and simple online collaboration

5) Use Gmail online Office Suite to create, manage, store your business documents, spreadsheets and presentations. Read and write Microsoft Office formatted documents as well as all the open document variants. Securely stored at Google, eliminate HDD file storage and backup. No more MS Office licensing fees to Microsoft.

6) Store images and pictures using Picasa Web Albums. Manage your images on your PC using FREE Picasa Software – crop, adjust, special effects.

7) online chat and messaging integrated, stored and managed just like your email.

Reducing the complex e-mail security threats to your corporate data

8) Google yet again has an very intelligent SPAM filter that checks each message content and therefore does not arbitrarily blacklist the email address, just the specific email due to content. No emails are downloaded to your PC or an office application; therefore, no waste of bandwidth or risk of infected emails on your hard drive.

9) Google’s anti-virus checking is also performed away from your computer. All attachments are checked at the Google server for viruses and, if infected, flagged/moved to SPAM right away. No infected e-mail ever arrives on your computer’s hard drive.

Traditional server or computer-based email systems download ALL your email, passing it through a spam/anti-virus filter on your computer. This is a waste of bandwidth usage (downloading spam email) and, even worse, exposes you to the additional risk of having spam and virus-infested e-mails get closer to your data files on your computer hard drives?

So why you need to seriously consider using Google Mail for all your office needs?

– Complete office mobility – via any browser, access to your email, documents, images, chat

– Access anywhere, anytime through any browser

– No backups required of email, office documents or contacts

– Manage multiple user profiles and email accounts in one convenient place

– Includes Anti-Spam and Anti-virus checking away from your PC, Laptop or Server

– Gmail Free Unlimited file space

– Next to No Mail Administration.

Gmail is the perfect Mobile Office Utility for Small Medium and Enterprise businesses. Google Mail Cloud Computing environment will allow you to focus on your business operations and growth. Implementing the Gmail in-the-cloud computing model for your email security and compliance makes a whole lot of sense.

Keep your head in the clouds!

Maximize Your Time: 10 Tips for Extreme Productivity

1) Know your work style and use the tools and systems that match. If you work well with technology, use your computer, phone, and apps for your scheduling and organization. If you are a visual person, consider using a paper calendar and a written to-do list. If you are a people person, develop a team around you to complement your strengths. If you work alone, find time to focus and remain distraction-free. If you are a morning person, attack the most important tasks early in the day.

2) Use ONE calendar. Sometimes people will have several calendars: one for family, one for work, one for personal appointments. Keep ONE calendar for everything. Use different colors or type styles to differentiate categories. Personally, I am very visual and remember things better when I write them down, therefore I have a paper calendar for my appointments, but due to the need for dynamic communication I have a Google calendar to support my scheduling, which might appear like two calendars, however, this calendar is a mirror of the paper one and has everything on it. While it is extra work to have both, it is one calendar (paper or digital) with all the information.

3) Make a to-do list at the end of each day. Your mind naturally begins to work on the list as you sleep. When you awake, you are ready to work, are very productive and organized. Estimate how much time each task will take you and only put on your next day to-do list what is reasonable to get done.

4) “Eat your frog first.” A Brian Tracy concept*: Do the hardest thing you have to do all day first before you do anything else. Doing this will provide you with the feeling of success in having a “burden” off your back and the momentum to accomplish the remaining tasks.

5) Have a clear goal; write it down and read it daily. When you have a goal you know what to focus on and work toward. If you do not have this at the front of your mind, it is easy to get caught up with the urgent things of the day or trapped in reacting to e-mail, phone calls, interruptions, and other people’s emergencies.

6) Have a “power hour.” Designate one hour each day to close the door, shut down e-mail, turn off the ringer on the phone and guard yourself from interruptions. Have a pre-picked project that you will work on during this time only. Make sure to go to the bathroom, get a drink, and do whatever else you need to in order to ensure you do not leave once this hour starts. Give yourself 30 minutes after this hour to return calls, e-mails, and care for people with whom you need to follow up that you missed during the POWER HOUR.

7) Touch it once. This means e-mail, mail, papers, etc. Touch it and make a decision. File it, toss it, or put it in a place for action. Sorting bins are helpful for this. Sorting bins often have labels like: read, file, do this week, urgent, bills, etc. Also, if your subject lines in e-mails are accurate, it is easy for both you and the recipient to find the e-mail. Paper, soft copy (computer), and e-mail folders should have matching labels.

8) Have daily habits. After you develop a routine of things that are simple but important, your body will naturally do them. This is important because we can get distracted by our regular routines and use them as vices to interrupt, procrastinate, and prolong important things that really need to get done. If you start your day right, you will be ready to do those urgent and important tasks, increasing your everyday productivity.

9) Pre-prep. Have you ever been amazed on cooking shows how they make a complicated dish in 10 minutes? OK, part is edited TV time, but they also have everything pre-prepped for quick assembly. Why not do the same? Prepare your information packets and new client folders, turn common documents into a template, set up e-mail group/ distribution lists for teams, etc.

10) Maximize car systems. Listen to a book on audio to maximize your windshield time and learn. Have a bin to put important things in, rather than having them all over the car. Have a trash bag to catch the liter. Always have a bottle of water in the car with you; dehydration causes fatigue, memory loss, and low concentration. Make sure your contacts are portable (e.g, phone, planner, business card file book) so you can keep people and numbers at your fingertips (so that you can call if you’re running late, caught in traffic, etc.). Enjoy relaxing, breathing, and taking in the day while driving (rather than cleaning, talking on the phone, etc.)

When you implement a few simple productivity strategies and develop them as time-saving habits, you will quickly enjoy the benefit of more time and energy and overall increased productivity.

*Tracy, Brian. Eat that Frog! 21 Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 2001