Business productivity is a constant goal.
It could be your daily, monthly or quarterly goals.
Great planning and hard work are only a part of the entire execution. Workplace efficiency ultimately gives the results you work for all through the year.
So prioritising productivity is rightfully your major objective. It takes patience, time and flexibility to execute the same.
From KPIs or OKRs to physical wellness, productivity can be achieved in different ways.
In this blog post, we offer the top 10 ways to achieve the same.
Let’s dig in!
What Can a Business Do to Improve Productivity?
1 Simplicity is everything
To achieve productivity ensure you simplify all your tasks. A simple to-do list is all it takes to set up outcomes and have a focused plan at hand.
2. Set alerts
Smart apps with smart calendars and notes are absolutely essential. Constant notifications will also remind you of the small things that are needed to be done.
Integrate the same with tools like Slack to set up teams and channels.
This step is not complete if you don’t keep a deadline. Certain items and notifications will definitely help you complete at least one task if not all.
This is okay, one step forward is still something better than no step forward.
3. Review OKRs regularly
Are your goals aligned with your business strategy?
Perhaps yes.
Now review the same every month, quarterly and even yearly.
As long as the meaningfulness of these goals is aligned and constantly evolved to fit with the times, that is all it takes to set realistic expectations for boosting business productivity.
4. Minimise time put into non-productive activities
- Meetings: Some meetings are absolutely essential. Some others not so much. Either way all you will have to focus on would be the agenda for the day and solving the blockers at hand.
- Email Alerts: This is an important activity to expand your connections and check if there are potential leads. However, spending more than 30 minutes skimming through emails is not recommended.
- Social media: A huge no-no. Unless you are a digital media manager, social media do not work. It is a guilty pleasure at the most. And as the saying goes – never mix work with pleasure.
5. Utilise any productivity app
The following are some of the best tools in the market to avoid distraction and focus on your agendas.
- Evernote
- Dropbox
- Asana
- Slack
- Todoist
6. Build your team
Motivating your team is absolutely essential. A well-oiled business runs like a machine only if collaboration and cooperation are in place.
Do make note of the fact that intrinsic and extrinsic motivations are two very different aspects.
Self-reflective benefits make a person ambitious and they tend to work towards personal satisfaction.
On the other hand, extrinsic motivation showers reward for good work, non-utilisation of vacation days etc.
7. Avoid multitasking
Take things one thing at a time.
Multitasking is a skill for sure, but an unnecessary one if you think about it. Ultimately quality work can be produced only with 100% focus on one task.
At a bare minimum teams may juggle between many things, but understanding each task as a different workload can go a long way in not doing repeated iterations due to errors.
The best way to go about doing this is by automating vendor payments or B2B payments. Every transaction can be automatically tracked and you can focus on a single core activity,
8. Conduct Wellness Programs
Your company may not be as fancy and well-established as google which keeps sports avenues and PlayStations for workers to de-stress during break time.
But doing even a little along those lines can go a long way.
It is definitely important to focus on workers’ mental and physical health. Discounted gym passes from the company’s end can be one way of showing you care.
Workers with strong mental health are highly important to boost business productivity.
As per the recent Harvard Business Review, workers with strong mental health are about 25% more productive. Physically active workers tend to be 17% more productive when it comes to working.
Weight loss plans, on-site fitness gyms or health screenings are some ideas to improve productivity.
9. Focus Focus Focus
Employee burnout is an issue often ignored. Health really is fundamental. You may have the biggest business empire and you may be driven to go further but doing it the right way with a balance is what makes all the difference.
A recent survey by Psychology and Health also showed compulsory off-site vacations for employees can help improve relationships and improve social bonding and overall mental wellness.
Encouraging breaks, in between work with board games like chess, can help employees break the monotone and get back to work with a fresh perspective.
#10. Physical one-on-one meetings are everything
Communicating over a bad internet connection and background noise can be annoying for all participants in a meeting. It will not only be unproductive for the individual but will also be annoying for the rest of the team members.
Scheduling an in-person meeting helps to personalise the interaction and will make it less mechanical.
Bottom Line
Focus on the basics to ensure the entire business funnel works in a specific order.
That ought to help you boost your business productivity.
Focus on the above-mentioned ways for starters and you are good to go!
Punit