I am a business productivity junky. I am always looking for a business edge. Whether it be in diet or technology or some sort of meditative therapy, I want to get an extra edge when it comes to being productive in business. I am a radical in a sense, a lame date, but I do get things accomplished. I have even found ways to increase the speed of service I get at my local restaurant. OK, kidding, I’m not this nuts! But I do have some great tips in this article on productivity.
Business productivity definition
Here are the five things I do to boost my business productivity.
Wake up early
This is pretty huge. I wake up around 6 am or earlier most mornings. I am able to immediately get a load of things accomplished before most people are even awake. The truth is, once the day starts, so do the distractions. Even at night distractions happen. But rest assured, unless you have young toddlers, you aren’t getting disturbed at 55:30 am. You are golden to get some things done.
Don’t be a slave to technology (but use it)
Constantly checking your text on your iPhone, or email can serve as a distraction for actually accomplishing things. Look, we all want to check our phones, both for business and personal, but there are better ways.
One thing I do is when I am decided on accomplishing a task, I turn my phone over and decide that I’m simply not going to look at the phone until I have completed that task. If the task is super long, then I break it up into productivity time limits. You’d be surprised at what this can do to your focus. Our check issuing services can certainly boost your productivity.
Use tools to help you stay organized
Google Keep just launched, which allows you to create notes and get reminders on both your desktop and your phone. There is Lastpass, which will allow you to organize your passwords for anything you need a user/password to access. How much time do you waste looking for a password? How often do you forget to do something you repeatedly told yourself to do? It is inexcusable with all the apps available to us. Check out the two I mentioned, or, search “productivity tools” on Google and stand to be amazed.
Don’t choose the wrong battles
Someone wants the website to be blue. Someone else doesn’t like the title you want her to have on her business card. He hates taking lunch at noon. Which battles actually matter to your day? Learning to filter battles down to what matters is one of the core components of productivity.
More water, less coffee, less booze
Booze and coffee contribute to poor sleep. A full night’s sleep is important. A well-rested body has a greater ability to focus on tasks than a body that slept on two glasses of wine. Seriously, do the research, it is astounding what limiting booze and coffee can do for you!
Check Issuing’s Tips For The Best Business Productivity
Don’t you feel like you are always on the go and the demands you are faced with can be overwhelming? Of course, you do! This is the life of a busy bee and the success story behind it. It’s like your brain is always buzzing with something that MUST get done, not to mention thoughts all over the place. How about when you finally rest your head on the pillow at night and boom! Ideas, ideas and more ideas. This is all fine and good, but how do we make sure that we are actually staying on schedule and using our time as productively as possible? Being busy does not always mean being productive. We want to share with you some steps to reach your best and to maximize your productivity.
Fresh AM Air
Get up and get out. We all love to sleep but by waking up an earlier and getting some exercise, you are preparing your brain for what’s ahead. Get intellectual and creative juices flowing by stretching those limbs out. There is absolutely no excuse here. Take a walk if you don’t like to workout. Trust us, this really helps to create a clear mind and produces more energy for you and your day.
Prep The Night Before
At the end of the day, before you head home, take a good look at the following day. You will be steps ahead in the morning if you have a solid plan for the day. Know your meetings in advance. Is there anything that can quickly be done beforehand so you can focus on the meeting itself? If so, get on it. You will only help yourself, and your business. You won’t feel so rushed.
Me Hour
It is very important to have at least one to two hours a day that you are not disturbed. This is the hour or two that you can mentally prepare to focus on any problems and/or big deals that need your attention. I do this every day and honestly, it is the only time of day that I can truly focus and complete certain tasks. With technology today, we are constantly interrupted by Skype, texts, emails, phone calls etc. Give yourself this one or two hours to really zone in on getting stuff done and without the distractions!
Don’t Forget To Fuel Your Body
Hey, your car would not drive anymore if you didn’t fill it with gas. Your body is just the same. Don’t forget to eat. Even if it is at your desk. It is so important to eat regular meals and snacks as well. Let’s not forget to pick healthy options too. It is not any harder to eat healthy. You don’t want to crash out at a time that you should be on top of things. When you starve your body, you starve your business and everyone involved.
Adding THESE Gmail Extensions Could Mean Higher Business Productivity
Gmail allows users to add in extensions, great business productivity tools, built for helping us all become more productive. Who doesn’t want to get work accomplished faster AND get reminders?
Here are a few of my favorite productivity apps ones.
Boomerang
Boomerang allows me to schedule emails to send, or remind me of emails for later. I actually have an extension in Chrome which allows me to “boomerang” a webpage. So let’s say you are surfing the web and find a great article and want to read it later. Well, you can click the browser’s boomerang icon and schedule a reminder in Gmail for the next morning (or whenever really). You can also schedule an email to be sent later. Imagine it 4:45 pm. You leave at 5 pm. But if you send the email at 4:46 pm, your boss might want to meet about it immediately and you won’t make your Yoga class. With Boomerang, you can send it “later.” Great business productivity ideas!
Unfoll.me
Hate a lot of the email offers you get? Want to quickly unsubscribe? Unroll.me allows you to quickly unsubscribe from email’s you don’t want, while also allowing you to bundle the ones you enjoy into one daily (beautiful) email. This allows you to save time due to no longer having to sift through the riff raft of your mailer. I love it.
AwayFind
Find yourself checking your email TOO MUCH? How about while you are on vacation or at dinner? Now you can get text messages for important emails so that you don’t have to keep checking your phone’s email app. It’s awesome. AwayFind can completely change your habits with that pesky iPhone technology.
FollowUpThen
Not following up with potential clients can be a huge detriment to your business. Never miss a follow-up again when you use FollowUpThen. This will allow you to be punctual with your follow-ups.
Hope that help keep your email clean!
How Check Issuing Helps Branding (Better Ways To Brand Your Product)
Your a company on the rise, you know you have a great product, you know clients / customers will love your product, but maybe not enough people know about your product. Or maybe you have some rather stiff competition from a company that’s a staple in your industry. No matter the scenario, branding is an almost always need but often times, a really confusing execution. Many people say things such as “all publicity is good publicity,” which really couldn’t be further from the truth. Just look at the long history of companies messing up on Twitter and other social media platforms. You need to reflect a voice, you need to find a way to not offend, you need to inspire, you need to get people to look at your brand. And, well, to remember your brand during a time they are looking for your product. Seems simple, right?
Well, the execution of such a strategy often results in companies feeling lost and almost estranged from typical marketing in-roads.
How can Check Issuing help you?
Well, how about that for me starting by branding our own product. Clever, huh? Well just hang here for a second because this is really good. When you use Check Issuing, you can place your logo on the checks you send out to clients and customers. You can also put a pamphlet or messaging inside the envelope. This is automatic eyeballs, why would you waste this space just so you can issue checks on your own? Let us handle your checks. A portion of your corporate branding gets taken care of. Life in the marketing department is a happier place to be.
Should you spend money on branding?
Well, what is “branding,” per se? Is it social media? Spending money to outsource something like marketing can be a good thing, but you really need to understand the exacts of what you are getting and if the results of the campaigns are measurable. For example, if you are marketing and branding a website, using a Google Analytics campaign codes is a great way to understand how many potential clients are visiting your links. Not just how many, but their gender and age and region (all info you should know). Before hiring outsourcing, it might not be a bad idea to look around the office and see if anyone potentially has experience in the area of social media.
Should you use print?
This is highly dependent on your trade. Some trades still very much use print, such as grocery stores and automobile, but obviously, print readership is largely down due to the rise of online media. Most likely the answer is a solid no here, but you can more than expect some online media companies to try and package you into deals which give you space in a magazine they are trying to keep life flowing to. You just have to be wise enough to look at the money you are spending. They will probably tell you its a free ad, but nothing is really free.
What about viral content?
Several recent studies have shown that viral ad campaigns are somewhat overrated based on unimpressive results in terms of online sales resulting from them. In addition, viral is tough and can be pretty expensive depending on what you want to do. If you have some super creatives around the office that can produce on a budget, it never hurts to give it a go. You certainly can launch a brand by doing so.
So branding, yeah, it is important and it can be complex. The best thing to do is an experiment and know your product (who buys it, who you are selling to). The more you know, the easier branding can be for all your check mailing and printing needs.
