Technology is a tool, meant to overcome obstacles and problems with specialized solutions created for exactly that purpose. From surgery, to firefighting, and even airplane navigation, technology has a wide canopy for problems it can solve.
In this digital age, nearly everyone has a formidable understanding of technology, with the power of the internet at their fingertips, but this tech know-how doesn’t translate very effectively into being more productive. Social media, instant communications, and digital shopping all serve as tempting alternatives to staying focused.
Despite this, the right technology can effectively complement your own work to increase productivity in a substantial way. In this article, we will identify an assortment of tech tools that can help you maximize your productivity.
Eliminate Annoying Availability Email Chains
Often one of the most frustrating aspects of staying productive is determining the availability of others and communicating your own availability. With team meetings, one-on-ones, brainstorming sessions, networking, and more, there are a lot of situations where it’s necessary to sit down and figure out what time works for everyone, leading to inevitable email chains and back-and-forths that are the antithesis of productivity. It can require a lot of brainpower for an otherwise innocuous task.
You could avoid all of this by utilizing a meeting scheduler, allowing for your team and clients to see your availability and snag times that work for them. By taking the time to establish your availability beforehand, tacking on last minute meetings becomes a seamless, simple task. Offloading simple tasks like this to tech is an easy fix for an often overwhelming problem.
Being efficient and quick is only one aspect of productivity. Working to cut out meaningless and tedious interactions, like communicating your availability individually to anyone and everyone that needs it, is a great first step on your productivity journey. Tools that work to fully automate tasks are essential to keeping your productivity maximized and focused.
Delegate Notetaking To AI
Multitasking is often touted as a superb productivity skill, but often it creates a problem of quality versus quantity. Do you want the work you do to be more focused and valuable, or do you want to spread yourself thin while accomplishing a spattering of low-level tasks? Note taking is a classic example of this problem – notes are useful, can be beneficial for planning and meetings, but can also serve to get in the way of the actual meeting taking place.
Why not let artificial intelligence take notes for you? Forgo all but bullet points during your meetings, engaging with your coworkers and clients at a much deeper level, while having access to a full transcript of the proceedings afterward. Think of it as your robot intern, dutifully paying attention, just remember it can’t go on a coffee run – well, not yet.
Train Yourself In The Art Of Pomodoro
Complex tools can certainly be a quick and easy path to maximizing your productivity. How about examining your productivity from a psychological and biological perspective with something as simple as a timer? Time is something you never get back, so working to maximize its usage and being aware of how you’re spending is invaluable in epping your overall productivity.
One stand out method focused entirely on productivity is the Pomodoro Method. It consists of four consecutive work periods broken up by 5 minute breaks, finished up by a longer break before repeating the process again and again. Not only does this method work to increase overall productivity, it also helps build valuable skills such as time management.
This method also makes work feel more manageable, as huge projects are suddenly downsized into bite-size obstacles. Breaks, especially those that contrast with the work being done, are essential for maintaining high levels of productivity during your working periods. Together, these things create a method that ensures no task or problem is ever longer than a pomodori, or 25 minutes. While this method generally leads to less time interacting with tech, it demonstrates how some of the simplest tools can have the greatest effects.
Find Your Own Balance
There are thousands of different tools that can work to offload tons of mental strain, and help you towards being an absolute force of productivity, but setting up and learning all these tools can be overwhelming on its own. Striking a balance is key to ensuring that these tools are working for you and not you working for them.
Productivity is a personal journey, through and through. No tips can ever be more valuable than your own personal experience, as everyone is different and what works for one person might serve to inhibit another. Experiment and explore tools meant to help improve your productivity, but keep a close eye on their actual impact.
Technology is ever advancing, and its benefits are immeasurable if you take the time to invest in yourself and discover how you can maximize your own productivity.
