Successful Blog

How to Improve Your Freelancing Productivity

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I do a lot of my work from home. While this is great in many ways, there is one where I have a lot of trouble: productivity. It is just so easy to lose track of time, or to begin procrastinating. There are some days where you just can’t get started, and before you know it you realize it is one in the afternoon and you are still in your bathrobe, without a single bit of work done.

One of the reasons it is so hard to be productive at home is that it isn’t easy to feel stressed or like there is a time constraint when you aren’t in an office. Some days it is absolutely impossible – which is why making your home a place for relaxed productivity is a great way to fix the problem.

Here are some tips:

Invest in Tools

You wouldn’t believe how much time you can save once you up your tool game.

There are scheduling tools (like Calendly), AI presentation tools, smart SEO toolkits (try Semrush with a coupon), etc. etc.

Take a serious look at your daily tasks, and find ways to automate them!

Get Quirky With Your Seating Arrangements

Sitting in an office chair all day can be such a pain, whether you are at home or elsewhere. But they are also a necessity, so if you want to mix it up, it is better to add another couple of options around you so you can move around, get comfortable, and even improve the look of your workspace.

Have a sofa in your office against one wall for breaks. Or get really quirky and throw in a couple of bean bag chairs.

Have a Dedicated Work Space

Have you ever heard people say that if you want to sleep better, you should make the bedroom a place only for night activities? That same principle can be applied to your office. Treat your freelancing business as a real business.

Have a place where you always work, whether it is a full room or just a small segment of the house. Only use it for productive things (no playing games or browsing Facebook), and let that association boost your work output. It is a nifty little trick of the mind.

Using a hosted contact center is a good idea if you want to improve your productivity and take your business to the next level.

Surround Yourself With Serenity

A burbling waterfall art piece, a stereo playing gentle music, a couple of house plants, relaxing lighting….all of these can give your workspace a feeling of serenity that improves mood and keeps you loose and happy through the day.

You can even section off a portion of your office for stretching, yoga or workouts to help you de-stress and free your mind of unwanted thoughts.

Decorate With Bright Colors

Bright colors will trigger a reaction in the brain that makes you feel more energized and focused. Red, oranges, yellows and golds are great. So are brighter versions of usually cooler colors, like an electric blue or green.

You don’t necessarily want it to be so busy that it is distracting, but a splash of color can do wonders.

Have Everything You Need Within Reach

A coffee pot, some healthy snacks, your work phone, hand wipes or lotions, chapstick, a sweater or blanket; fantastic items to have on hand just in case you find yourself needing something and don’t want to leave the room.

Having the little things that improve your mood will keep you from getting too tense of having to go out for something. Try a weekly checklist to make sure that before the workweek starts that everything is fully stocked and ready for you.

Create a Schedule

A schedule is your best friend for keeping calm and on track through the day. Set times for work in blocks through the day, working in any meetings, conference calls, or emails you have to do. Add in plenty of breaks, a decent lunch time, and maybe a time for something active like a quick walk or workout. Here are a few cool calendar plugins for WordPress to always keep your schedule handy.

This will keep you at your best. Make sure you also have an end time for the day, and don’t work beyond it. Working from home, it can be really tempting to push things to the end of the day and overshoot our schedule, or just get a few more emails in.

Do you have a tip for making your home a place of relaxed productivity? Let’s discuss!

How to Achieve Consumer-Creator Balance

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Do you often find yourself completely overwhelmed with the amount of information that’s coming at you every day?

This article is for you.

Apologies/thanks to Hint Water for the image.

We’re going to go through a step-by-step process that will turn your consumption habits from a firehose to an irrigation system.

Because all of those email newsletter subscriptions, YouTube channels, blogs, and yes, even TikToks, should be adding value to your life.

It’s OK if the value is pure entertainment, but you should be cognizant of the percentage that is pure entertainment vs learning or business growth. Awareness is half the battle in taming the content shock beast.

Step One – What Am I Consuming?

Set aside 15-20 minutes and make a list of your subscriptions.

That should include newsletters, major media outlets you visit a lot, social channels that send you update notifications, etc.

Make sure you specifically focus on content that you receive on a regular schedule. These are sometimes the big time thieves that go unnoticed. Are there newsletters that you routinely delete or archive without reading them?

You may be over-consuming content, and putting your brain on information overload.

Step Two – Sort the Useful from the Non-Useful

Take a moment to look at each item in your list. For each one, ask yourself these questions:

  • What value, if any, is this adding to my life? (I’m learning things, I laugh, I’m gaining business skills…)
  • Do I have a system in place that helps me apply the information I learn from this item? It’s not enough to just read and move on, if the content is something that gives you business lessons. You need to have a process where you can use those tips to grow.
  • After I read/view this content, do I feel better or worse? (yes, some content just brings you down)
  • Am I subscribed to other content in the same niche that is better written, more valuable, more focused? Is this redundant?

One way to manage this evaluation process is to mark each item with a plus, zero/neutral, or minus. That will inform the next and final phase of the digital decluttering.

Step Three – Unsubscribe, Delete, Refocus

Time to pull the plug on any recurring subscriptions or content notifications that are of no value, are detracting from your mindset, or are redundant. Hit the unsubscribe button and be free.

Run through your inboxes and delete anything you haven’t read yet, that’s older than 2 days ago. Grant yourself the grace of an empty notifications icon.

The Internet will go on without you. If it was important, they’ll reach back out again.

For the items you’ve retained, set up a spot to collect notes and tasks that emerge when you’re reading/viewing that content. I use NotePlan 3 as a simple space for notes, inspirations, and ideas to apply to my life and business. There are tons of other note-taking and task-tracking tools out there to suit your work flow.

Post-Cleanup

Once you’ve gone through this process, you might want to follow the one-in, one-out rule. Any time you’re tempted to subscribe to something, force yourself to unsubscribe to another item, especially if they’re in a similar niche.

Share in the comments how you deal with content overload!

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About the Author: Rosemary O’Neill is co-Founder/CMO of Crowdstack, the best indie space for your groups online.

How Will Business Productivity Change After COVID?

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By Kayla Matthews

COVID-19 has changed almost every aspect of daily lives across the globe. For businesses, especially, things look different now — working from home and quarantines have kept people apart to slow the spread. Now, you and others are looking for answers as to what comes next. For business productivity, things are going to shift.

From remote work to the integration of new technology, your company will likely see some changes. Though the pandemic is still in full swing, its current state and effects will influence what comes next. Business operations and productivity are going to adapt, but how that happens will depend on certain factors.

Regrouping

The first factor is the regrouping stage. Businesses will have to work out the details of working from home, unemployment levels and employee benefits. The coronavirus has affected each of these areas for businesses of all sizes. From here, your business will need to focus on how it gets back to work.

Remote work is likely to stick around for quite a while. Even after the pandemic passes, businesses and employees may reevaluate their work. If they don’t need to come into an office, they might continue to work from home. This decision saves on commuting time — which leads to the potential for different work hours.

As more and more people continue to work remotely, work hours may become more flexible. Some people may start earlier or later in the day and change their schedules to work with their personal lives post-virus.

Some businesses have laid people off due to the virus. While essential businesses have been able to remain in operation, non-essential enterprises have had to shut down. This change has led to record spikes in unemployment claims in the United States.

After COVID-19 passes, companies and organizations will then need to focus on hiring talent. To improve the hiring process, you’ll want to keep some things in mind.

First, new talent is going to question how your business handled employee benefits during the outbreak. Your company will need to have open and honest communication about the subject, as well as about the new hiring process. Additionally, certain businesses that need employees instantly will have to streamline the process.

New Technology

After regrouping, the second post-COVID phase will include businesses investing in newer technology. While human productivity has understandably decreased during this pandemic, machine productivity is shining through.

For many businesses, employees are only able to do so much from home. Places like science labs or restaurants can’t fully function remotely. However, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and robotics will all start to become more standard in businesses. Many larger corporations already use these innovations, but smaller and medium sized-enterprises will begin as well.

Technology can’t get sick. Thus, it’s reliable for continuing to generate revenue and keep business productivity up. Certain businesses, like restaurants, may not be able to fully use technology to operate.

Other aspects of these innovations, though, like automation and data analytics will come in handy. This technology powers tools from chatbots to voice-automated customer service to predictive data. Your business may be able to use these resources and this information to continue to operate as best as it can for future pandemics or situations.

Technology can also operate at all hours of the day. To keep a business going in a pandemic, it needs to be available at all times for sales and assistance. As innovations continue to emerge that make accessibility possible, businesses will integrate them. More pandemics or unforeseen situations may come after COVID-19. This pandemic has caused businesses to rethink their productivity both for the present and the future.

New Productivity

The meaning of business productivity has shifted during this time. Employees are juggling the transition to working from home, the stress of the situation and staying on top of their work. In the future, you will be seeing changes like these come to businesses of all sizes, but especially medium and smaller ones.

Transitioning back to normal life won’t be entirely the same as it was. Using these changes to your advantage, though, is the best bet for staying on top. Productivity will fluctuate and take on new forms, like technology and working from home. Depending on how fast scientists develop a vaccine, these changes will continue to solidify in the meantime.

 

About the Author: Kayla Matthews writes about communication and workplace productivity on her blog, Productivity Theory. Her work has also appeared on Talent Culture, MakeUseOf, The Muse and Fast Company.

 

Photo by Domenico Loia on Unsplash

What is Workplace Personalization?

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By Kayla Matthews

If you traveled back in time and picked up an office worker from the 1950s, they wouldn’t recognize the modern office space as somewhere that you’re supposed to work. The cookie-cutter cube farm is a thing of the past, in favor of open spaces, natural lighting, and workplace personalization. What is workplace personalization and what are the benefits of personalizing your workspace?

What is Workplace Personalization?

If you’re not familiar with the concept, what is workplace personalization?  This is one question that if you ask 100 different people, you’ll receive 100 different answers, but most of them agree on one point — that personalization is all about comfort.  That can mean different things to different people.

Some might be more comfortable in a private office with a set of noise-canceling headphones while others might be at their most productive in an open-floorplan office where conversations mingle with business discussions.

To us, workplace personalization means making your workspace your own, so it’s a place where you want to spend all your time.  The average worker spends upwards of 90,000 hours working throughout their lifetime.  What sounds more appealing — spending 90,000 hours in a stark office space or spending that time in an office that you’ve customized to make it your own?

Benefits of Workplace Personalization

What are the benefits of workplace personalization? It can vary from office to office, but in general, workplace personalization can:

  • Encourage Productivity — People thrive in different environments. For some that noisy open-floorplan office is ideal, while for others it’s detrimental to their productivity. With that in mind, employees can bring noise-canceling headphones or even take steps to diminish noise in the office so they can be as productive as possible without interfering with others.
  • Improve Communication — It can be tricky to stay on task while you’ve got people walking past your desk or talking to you all day long.  Allowing employees to personalize their work space gives them the tools to communicate more effectively, whether that means putting a sign up that says “E-mail Only” or restricting communication to specific times during their scheduled workday.
  • Creates a Staff-Led Office Culture — Workplace personalization helps to foster a relationship between employees and employers that makes the employees feel special, creating an office culture that’s led by the employees rather than by management.
  • Keeps Costs Down — In some situations, personalization means bringing in your own tech and equipment from home, as long as it works with workplace security. This can be an incredible benefit for small businesses and startups that might be looking for a way to cut costs since they won’t need to provide expensive equipment.
  • Makes People Want to Come to Work — Finally, while it isn’t the only thing you can do as an employer to make people want to come to work, it definitely helps.

How to Personalize Your Workspace

If you’re not sure where to start, here are a few ideas to help you personalize your workspace so you’re comfortable in the office.

  1. Make it feel like you. Add knick-knacks to your desk, hang pictures on the walls, whatever it takes to personalize your space and make it feel like part of you.  What you bring might depend on how secure your space is and how well you trust your coworkers, but you get the idea.
  2. Make it work for you. If you can’t stand being interrupted during your day or ambient conversations bother you, soundproof your office or invest in some noise-canceling headphones and hang a sign on your door telling people to email or message you.
  3. Encourage others to do the same. If your employer is encouraging people to personalize their space, they might be hesitant to be the first to jump on that train.  Blaze the trail and others will follow.

Looking Forward

Office personalization is a new and emerging trend but it is one that will likely gain more popularity in the future.  However you look at it, those cube-farms that were so popular during previous generations are a thing of the past. We won’t be seeing them again anytime soon.

 

About the Author: Kayla Matthews writes about communication and workplace productivity on her blog, Productivity Theory. Her work has also appeared on Talent Culture, MakeUseOf, The Muse and Fast Company.

Photo by Carl Heyerdahl on Unsplash

What Is Ergonomics, and Why Is It Important for Productivity?

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By Kayla Matthews

Some may ask why is ergonomics important, but the reasons become apparent if you’ve worked in an office that doesn’t accommodate for it. Harsh lighting, excessive ambient noise and loud, multi-colored walls can all be the downfall of employee productivity.

Efficiency is king in the modern world, and many employers implement new technologies and methods to maintain it — but employee comfort isn’t always at the forefront. Reconstructing a workspace for ergonomics is simple, though, and it benefits everyone in the long run.

Learn about the core elements of ergonomics and why they’re important — then check out some ways to make your workspace more bearable. Wave goodbye to the days of lost productivity, because you’ll be back on the ball in no time.

The Basics of Ergonomics

Ergonomics studies efficiency, productivity and comfort within the workplace. It looks at what makes employees comfortable and what doesn’t, allowing employers to adjust the environment accordingly. When you think about ergonomics, you consider elements like lighting, temperature and desk positioning. All of these can make or break a workplace, taking it from a warm, friendly environment to a chilly, dimly lit dungeon.

Consider the different ways that acceptable or poor ergonomics can impact your environment:

  • Lighting: Natural light is better than harsh fluorescents or dim bulbs. It reduces stress and anxiety, promotes better concentration and improves your mood. Dim lighting causes eye strain and fatigue, while fluorescent lights cause blurry vision and migraines. Natural light boosts your vitamin D levels and regulates your circadian rhythm, helping you sleep better at night.
  • Temperature and humidity: You know how it feels when you’re freezing and can barely move your body — now imagine that while trying to complete office tasks. A cold workplace can impede typing, writing and verbal and mathematical tasks, which hurts efficiency even if you don’t immediately notice it. Warmer is typically better, but a hot, humid space makes workers sticky and uncomfortable. An appropriate temperature balance is crucial.
  • Color: Anyone with a history in marketing knows the importance of color schemes on the human psyche. A lack of color can make employees feel like they’re in a sterile, cold environment. Red can seem angry and bold, while pink and orange are fun but distracting. Blue is the safest option for many companies due to its calming, dependable characteristics.
  • Desk, chair and computer positioning: Sitting all day — especially with improper posture — can cause back and shoulder strain and fatigue. Prolonged sitting has ties to premature death and cardiovascular disease, and it doesn’t paint a pretty picture when compounded with the sedentary lifestyle many people already lead. Plus, a monitor that’s too close can headaches and myopia.

Employee Comfort and Productivity

Although every employer doesn’t plan their workplace around ergonomics, it displays its importance with efficiency rates. It’s difficult to concentrate in an office unsupportive of employee satisfaction. An open-plan office works for some, but others struggle to focus with so many distractions around. Others like a cold space, but some freeze and find it hard to accomplish tasks. Pleasing everyone is unrealistic, but your work environment should at least aim to heed the requests of the majority.

A study from the National Center for Biotechnology Information revealed that workers spend 62% of their day in a chair. This percentage alone raises concerns, but worries become greater when considering how many workers have improperly aligned chairs and desks. Your computer should ideally be 20 to 30 inches away from your eyes, and your arms and hands should be parallel to the floor. Your chair also needs to provide adequate lumbar support and a proper recline level.

A study of 388 special education teachers and teacher’s aides showed that 86% of them suffered musculoskeletal disorders resulting from their work. Caring for disabled students often involves lifting, carrying, pushing and pulling, which results in teachers sustaining similar injuries as more labor-intensive jobs.

Any job involving repetitive movement and awkward positions — such as manual labor, office jobs and nursing and doctoral professions — pose a risk for musculoskeletal disorders. This risk increases when ergonomics are ignored.

How to Implement It

If you’re unable to suggest a workplace-wide revamp, do small things within your space to make work more comfortable. Keep a small space heater if your workplace is too cold or a fan if it’s hot. Some employees keep blankets at their desks, though you may have to ask your employer first. Dress warmer by storing a sweater or cardigan in your bag.

Buy a natural light lamp if your workplace is dim or painfully bright. Position your lamp to provide enough light without causing a glare on your screen — this prevents eye strain. Ask about turning your workspace into a standing desk set-up. Some offices integrate sitting and standing desks in the same area for employees to choose their preferable work style.

Keep your desk decor sparse, and leave only the essentials within view — such as your laptop, writing utensils and paper. You’ll save time searching for documents and help your mind flow by minimizing clutter. Any decor you decide to keep should be in colors that make you feel relaxed and ready to work, such as blue or purple.

Ergonomics Provides Numerous Benefits

Employee comfort has an undeniable impact on the workplace. Workers have been making small improvements at their cubicles for decades, but it’s time for many employers to catch onto the game. Ergonomics is important in maintaining happy employees, and happy employees make for smooth operations.

 

About the Author: Kayla Matthews writes about communication and workplace productivity on her blog, Productivity Theory. Her work has also appeared on Talent Culture, MakeUseOf, The Muse and Fast Company.

 

Photo by Lee Campbell on Unsplash

What Are the Phases of Project Management?

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By Kayla Matthews

Project management involves using a team’s knowledge, skills and resources to accomplish a common goal — the successful completion of a project with a specific beginning and end date.

The phases of project management, from initiation to closure, are designed to help team members understand their roles and how functions intersect. Research has revealed companies who implement project management initiatives save 28 times more money than their non-planning counterparts.

While a solid strategy can’t solve every problem that may arise, it can ensure the processes runs as smoothly as possible.

Phase 1: Initiation

The initiation phase comes before planning a project. This is where you identify a specific need, problem or challenge and how your team can solve it. Brainstorm ideas, get creative and don’t be afraid to think outside the box. During this time, it’s essential to figure out your project’s objective — what you hope to accomplish.

You should also use this phase to determine the feasibility of a project. Is the timeline workable and how much will the implementation cost? According to one study, one in six projects sees an average budget overrun of 200 percent. Identify which resources your team will need to successfully bring the project to fruition.

Phase 2: Planning

Project management techniques are used by 28% of businesses — and only 2.5% complete 100% of projects successfully. The planning phase, the most crucial, is when you identify goals to break the project up into actionable chunks. Each should be specific, realistic and measurable. Unobtainable or unrealistic goals are a recipe for failure.

One person, a project manager, should take reins of the team and control operations. Use a schedule to determine task durations and set deadlines for completion. Decide on the best means to communicate progress and unexpected set-backs. Before moving into execution, learn what risks might arise, how they can impact the project and how they can get resolved.

Phase 3: Execution

Your plan has been developed and approved. Now it’s time for team members to take action. Project managers will need to maintain constant communication with employees to ensure the project is moving along as planned. Help team members stay organized and hit deadlines by sending updates regularly.

Other responsibilities of a project manager include:

  • Briefing team members
  • Monitoring work quality
  • Organizing tasks with workflows
  • Allocate spending and resources
  • Communicating with management

As the project develops, project managers will need to follow the pre-created plan, assign new tasks and assess ongoing progress with project management tools. PMs also interact closely with clients to update them about the project and ease any concerns or questions about development.

Phase 4: Monitoring

Every project — no matter if it lasts one hour or one year — should be closely monitored. Project managers should look at work quality, costs, risks, scope, changes and more. Out of all high-performing projects, 77% use project management software to track progress and provide detailed reports. These metrics determine if a project is meeting budget and timeline requirements.

Project management software can be used to monitor all moving parts of a project, including time tracking, task distribution, budgeting, resource planning, cloud-based collaboration and much more — but only 22% of businesses take advantage of it. Project managers use this software to monitor team members and communicate wants and needs, but many companies lack access to real-time key performance indicators.

Phase 5: Closure

No project is complete without closure. Has your project been a success or a failure? Most project managers determine a project’s success based on the ability to stay within budget. Other factors to consider include the quality of the end product and client satisfaction. Carefully listen to any feedback to determine areas of improvement.

Once the project is analyzed as a whole, the project manager should also determine the output of individual team members. Did they meet goals? Did they produce high-quality work? Interview team members and ask about their experience. What did they learn? What could be done better next time? What could make their role easier?

The phases of project management are in place to ensure higher chances of success. From initiation to closure, team members should have a clear outline of goals, expectations and deadlines. Success is ultimately determined by a project’s quality, timeline and budget.

 

About the Author: Kayla Matthews writes about communication and workplace productivity on her blog, Productivity Theory. Her work has also appeared on Talent Culture, MakeUseOf, The Muse and Fast Company.

Featured Image: https://unsplash.com/photos/_pc8aMbI9UQ