Being More Productive
Working more effectively will greatly benefit our clients,the agency, and yourself.
1. Set a time each day to check your email
and check voice mail Studies show the average worker checks email 30 times per day. Our goal is to let the email “batch” or collect and check 3 – 4 times a day. Quit, close, or disable send/receive when working on important tasks. Read client/agency related emails only and delete non-business related emails. Unsubscribe from email lists that do not contribute to client work. 30 minutes should be sufficient to return all important emails and phone calls. The lunch break is a good time to conduct personal business and return non-business voice mails. Personal emails, browsing, and calls are not permitted during business hours unless there is an emergency.
2. Do not disturb
Now that we have a set time to check/return email and phones messages you’ll find you have a greater time period to focus on critical tasks. It’s important that you do not disturb others with random questions and social/personal issues. Save all your work-related questions and either detail in an email or request a few minutes to meet. Stick to the point of the meeting and get back to the important task at hand. We are all here to focus on doing great marketing and advertising. Our clients depend on us to provide focused-quality work.
3. Do not spam clients or co-workers
Email can save you time but not if you abuse it. Send and copy others only when it’s most important. Take the time to compose each email with professionalism and with clear direction. The reader will thank you for not wasting their precious time. Be considerate.
4. Important/critical tasks
Most people leave at the end of the day and wonder why they did not get much done. You can guarantee yourself hours or chunks of time that you can dedicate to important tasks. Some say 80% of a day is wasted on meaningless interruptions and tasks that are not client related. You can now spend most of your day on important client business and feel great about your accomplishment at the end of the day.
5. Do not agree to meetings or calls with no clear agenda or end time
If the desired outcome is defined clearly with a stated objective and agenda listing topics/questions to cover, no meeting or call should last more than 30 minutes. Request them in advance so you “can best prepare and make good use of the time together.”
6. Stay focused and on task
Write yourself a note and post somewhere on your desk. The note should read: WHAT ARE YOU DOING NOW? IS IT ON TASK? If the answer is not related to your critical work, stop what you are doing and get back to the scheduled task.
7. Let certain tasks “batch” and complete the work all at once
Good examples for batching tasks are: email, phone calls, invoicing, coding vendor invoices, timesheets, and work orders. You’ll quickly find which tasks make the most sense to batch.
8. Meet in a conference room
If you must have a short meeting please meet in the conference room. Cut down on distracting others and contain the meeting/information to select people. Remember others are trying to focus on their work and don’t need loud talking to pull them off task.
9. Do not have a browser landing page that distracts you from your work
Checking weather, news, shopping, and general browsing is not permitted unless you are researching on behalf of a client. Change your landing page to www.thinksandia.com or a client page. Better yet, quit your browser client and only use when needed for agency work. You are permitted to browse at your lunch break or after hours.
10. Do not answer calls from unrecognized phone numbers
Don’t take the chance and be surprised by an unwanted call. Let it go to voicemail and return the call at your scheduled time. If you are expecting calls try to memorize important numbers and answer the call. Use your best judgment.
11. Do not e-mail first thing in the morning or last thing at night
The former scrambles your priorities and plans for the day, and the latter does not allow you to rest during the evening. E-mail can wait until your scheduled time.
12. Do not leave without setting one or two critical items for the next business morning
This will keep you focused on a critical task(s) first thing in the morning.
13. Do not let people ramble
Control the conversation. Forget “how’s it going?” when someone calls you. Stick with “what’s up?” or “I’m in the middle of getting something out, but I have a quick minute to help you.” Get To the Point in a polite way.
14. Prioritize
If you don’t prioritize, everything seems urgent and important. If you define the single most important task(s) for each day, almost nothing seems urgent or important. Define the few important things that can really fundamentally help the agency and clients.
15. Do not carry a cellphone or Crackberry 24/7
Cell phones are a rude interruption in our work and personal lives. People think that no matter what they are doing or who they are talking to, they have to take a cell phone call. Silence your cell and let it go to v-mail. You can return a phone call an hour later or the next morning. Cell phone calls are not permitted when you are working on client or agency work. Again, get with your family and friends and notify them that you can take their calls at lunch or after hours unless it’s an emergency that can’t wait.
We are open to your ideas of how to further improve our work. Let us know.
Monitor/workstation cards on next figure.
Versão em Português em breve
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