We’re all about helping our clients. Including helping them save money! As you’ve seen in some of our previous posts, we also advocate for putting the phone down and getting away from the screens from time to time. Especially when you’re with your family or other loved ones.

So today we’re happy to provide some tips on being more productive. Without downloading another app or buying another gadget. We all want to work smarter, not harder!

1. Prioritize tasks – in writing

We’ve all got a lot of work to do, and sometimes it feels like the list is never-ending. What one thing must be accomplished today, or this week?  

When you’re working with a team, make sure they know what the must-do task is!

As Cristina Garmendia from Our City says, “If you can’t remember your priority tasks for the week, you have too many.”

Once you know your personal priorities are for the day, write them down. You can do this before you even open up your computer in the morning. 

Then you won’t get hijacked by emails and other people’s priorities that may not be yours. (Unless they’re your boss’s, of course!)

2. Use Post-it notes or index cards for your to-do list

Talk about old-school! But the best part about using analog for your to-do list is that you can put the notes wherever you’ll see them. On your laptop, on your lamp, in your (paper) planner, wherever. If you use the brightly-colored ones, they’ll stand out even more.

You can do one for the day, or one for the week, or one for each priority. No more than you can actually remember. 

Once you’ve decorated your laptop with a forest of Post-it notes, your priorities are no longer prioritized! Now you’ve just got a wall of tasks to complete, same as before.

The best part is, once you’ve completed the task(s), you can crumple the notes up and toss them. Now there’s a great shutdown routine for Friday afternoon!

3. Delegate

No one is great at everything. (Not even me, as much as I hate to admit it.) 

We’ve all got a limited number of hours to work with. What’s the best use of yours? 

Leave the other tasks to members of your team where you can. Especially the admin chores that don’t require your expertise and knowledge. 

If you’re not a big fan of dealing with your business finances, hire a bookkeeper. Know you need marketing? You can hire a freelancer or agency to help you. Do you hate paperwork just as I do? Let an assistant, virtual or otherwise, deal with it!

Whether you’re an employee or own your own business, the tasks you spend time on should be the ones that require your specific skills. Not things that just anyone can do.

4. Go for a walk

How can you be productive without working? Well, you need the “pause that refreshes”.  We’ve talked in blog posts about how it’s better for your back to get off your butt and move around.

But it also helps you think. For one thing, movement gets your heart beating faster. Your blood starts circulating more freely, bringing more oxygen to your brain. 

Walking allows your brain to make new connections too. Which may be part of the reason why you tend to be able to solve those annoying problems once you get back to your desk!

You don’t need to concentrate to walk. Being in that kind of mental state, where you’re awake but not focused or concentrating on a specific topic, is linked to increased creativity.

If you can walk in a green space, that’s even better! Nature is good for the brain. If you need to stay in or around your office, walking is still better than sitting down.  So take the occasional break and clear your mind with a walk.

Go out there and be productive! We’d love to hear some more non-tech ways that you use to get more work done faster.