Staying Productive

At MECC we’re always looking for ways to increase our productivity and efficiency, especially during the summertime. As we continue to navigate the balance between work and personal time, productivity is the secret ingredient. Our team tries to take time for the things we enjoy outside of working like spending time with our families, spending time outside, and traveling. To make time for all of the things we enjoy, we’re exploring how to work less while maintaining the same degree of accomplishment and effectiveness. Here are some lessons in productivity.

Say it in an email
Have you ever been in a meeting and have no idea why you’re there? We have. The key to staying productive is setting boundaries on your time. If you need to delegate tasks, collect feedback, or review items from last week’s meeting, save yourself the stress of wasting time and do it in an email. In our work with every organization the most common inefficiency we see is wasted time. Spending two hours in a meeting that doesn’t result in any decision-making or include any strategic discussion is, for lack of better words, time wasted. If you can get your message across using email or a brief phone call, you’re making time for discussions and decisions that need to be done face-to-face.

Create to-do lists
It probably sounds trite, but it works: make a to-do list. For delegating tasks or communicating what needs to be done and when, our team uses a number of online platforms. Asana is a great platform which teams can use to communicate and assign different tasks and communicate the needs for various projects or clients. Evernote gives you a space write meeting notes or reminders that are project-specific. Evernote’s chat feature makes it easy to share your to-do lists while collaborating with coworkers.

Focus
Eliminating distractions is the best gift you can give yourself. Try strengthening your ability to focus by silencing your phone, shutting down your email, and working with total concentration for 25-30 minutes. After you finish, take a short break and try it again. Making the most of your time in between meetings and phone calls is a great way to increase productivity and to train our brains to concentrate for long periods of time.

Productivity can be hard to maintain! Our team tries to stay focused and effective, and are always looking for some new strategies. What’s been working for you?