Maximizing Your Productivity

How to gain 10 hours in your week without working longer

It seems the topic of increasing productivity has been on many people’s minds lately. It might have something to do with being able to get the most from the new year or the growing frustration of having more work to do and not enough hours to do it.

In the January 30th TechTips I discussed one way to increase your productivity — not believing the myth of multitasking.

In this week’s TechTips I want to follow up with some other tips to help you gain more hours in your week without working longer.

At the end of January, I presented a free webinar — sponsored by Insurance Forms — with the same title as today’s post. You can listen to my full presentation on these tips and download the replay of the webinar. My presentation is about 30 minutes long and then there were about 15 minutes of questions.

Following are the eight points I discussed that will help you — when followed — gain at least 10 hours each week without working longer.

1. Plan Your Day in Advance

Creating effective goals — and reviewing them regularly — is essential to being productive.

2. The Myth of Multitasking

You can read my full TechTips post here.

3. Overcome Procrastination

Learning how to cope with the anxiety associated with starting or completing any task or decision will lead to greater productivity.

4. Limit Your Time Online

Social platforms can be a great tool to increase sales and client engagement. However, if you’re not careful it will lead to hours of wasted time.

5. Learn How to Say No

Create more time to do the tasks that are important by getting really good at saying no.

6. Tame Your Inbox

Email is likely one of your biggest productivity drains. Learning how to manage email will create huge dividends. I have created a whole online course to help you get back control over your inbox.

7. Master Shortcuts & Templates

Do everything possible to reduce keystrokes. The less you type, the more productive you become.

8. Use Tools Effectively

Constantly explore new tools as they become available. One of our favorite new tools is Dragon NaturallySpeaking voice recognition software.

As you begin to incorporate these concepts into your daily activities you will find that you really are able to get more done in less time.

What productivity hacks have you found to be helpful? Let me know in the comment section below.