4 Simple Ways to Drive Productivity as an IT Professional
By: Neil Nepomuceno
In today’s fast-paced world, maintaining focus has become more challenging, especially with the constant influx of pop-up notifications and the routine disruptions of phone calls, video chats, online meetings, and other distractions.
This challenge is inherent, especially for IT and Tech professionals whose work is screen dependent. Whether you’re an aspiring or seasoned IT professional, this lack of focus due to the same technologies you use for your tasks can affect your overall productivity.
To combat these distractions, here are four simple methods to enhance your productivity in the workplace.
AUTOMATE YOUR TASKS
Tasks such as scheduling meetings, app transfers, data collection and management, and proofing and updating your action items are some of the many tasks that you can automate to achieve more during a workday.
TIPS: While there are many automation platforms nowadays, you can narrow down your search by focusing on these categories:
1.) Identify your needs
In order to maximize the use of an automation platform or software, you need to have a clear idea of what needs to be automated first.
2.) Focus on the workflow
Automation isn’t just about the task that you are completing—it’s about improving your workflow to be automatic, easy, and operational so you can cut down on busy work.
3.) Use your free time wisely – Automation opens more time for other tasks or refining your work. You may use this time for process improvements, new methods for knowledge sharing among your team, and more.
USE A SEPARATE BROWSER FOR YOUR PERSONAL ACTIVITIES
To avoid distractions from the internet, smartphones, and social media, you may opt to use two separate browsers.
Doing this will limit your exposure to distractions while helping you develop a habit of staying focused on your objectives.
TIP:
Use a different account on your browser.
If using two different browsers seemed like a big jump from what you are used to, try creating a separate account for your browser.
You can focus on your tasks while limiting exposure to social media and other notifications as long as you don’t log in to those websites on your separate work account.
COMMUNICATE EFFECTIVELY THROUGH COLLABORATION APPS
Lengthy meetings and long email chains should be a thing of the past for IT professionals.
If you find yourself or your team stuck in this time-consuming cycle, try using free cloud-based collaboration apps that you can access from anywhere via internet.
TIPS:
If you are new to using collaboration tools, here’s a shortlist of the things that you should consider:
1.) What does this software do?
2.) Is it cloud-based or in-house?
3.) How safe is it?
4.) Can this collaboration tool solve existing problems in your team or business?
SET CLEAR GOALS AND KEEP IT SIMPLE
Nowadays, our technology offers many efficient tools that allow you to plan your calendars and to-do lists accurately.
These tools aid in the process of prioritizing tasks, tracking their progress, and ensuring timely delivery of intended outcomes.
TIPS:
PRIORITIZE: Arrange tasks, activities, or goals in order of importance or urgency. Prioritizing involves making informed decisions about which tasks should be tackled first to achieve optimal results within a given time frame.
TRACK: Tracking includes keeping a close watch on the status of your tasks, projects, and daily objectives to ensure that you are making progress. You can also monitor the development of each task in order to identify areas for improvement. (e.g., Product revisions, iteration of codes or loops, and more.)
DELIVER: To deliver means fulfilling commitments and meeting the clients’ expectations by completing their requests within the deadline.
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