Working with remote teams is a challenge even for the most savvy team leader. Having people from around the world working together can be both a blessing and a challenge. On one hand, you have access to a global workforce, which allows you to enroll the most suitable candidates. But on the other hand, there are lots of obstacles to overcome. In this article we are going to discuss about virtual meetings, one of the hurdles of working remotely, and offer some advice to help you get past it.
Many companies nowadays emphasize the importance of talent. They are driving on the idea that a few top employees are responsible for most of the overall success. However, most recent productivity studies have shown that even those shining superstars need the help of a strong team in order to succeed. Therefore, the importance of teamwork is emphasized more and more, with companies spending millions on team building strategies.
For a second, I challenge you to leave aside everything you’ve learned or heard about productivity so far. Every advice that prompts you to wake up before sunrise and read your goals out loud every night. The purpose of this article is not to invalidate the oldest tricks in the book. However, we cannot ignore the fact that many recipes are either hard to follow, or simply won’t work for a lot of people. The good news is there are ways to boost productivity 🙂
We live in a culture that expects us to be as efficient and productive as possible. Since there are only so many hours in a day, and way too many things to accomplish, the most common solution used by professionals all over the world is cutting back on sleep. Indeed, giving up one third of our time to inactivity seems counterproductive. However, not doing that is what makes millions of people lose or weaken their ability to stay productive and eventually turns into sleep deprivation. This article is dedicated to exploring this correlation between sleep and productivity.
Prioritizing your work life might not seem very easy, when everything you have to do feels important. Taking things as they come, without having a strategy, usually throws you into chaos, where you running a race against time day after day. Eventually, this continuous fight is likely to lead to burnout and dramatically affect your life.
Here are 7 “safety measures” that will hopefully help you fight the chaos and reclaim your productivity.
Write down the most important things in your life – those that you wouldn’t give up for anything, no matter what.
A simple way to do that is by designing a chart of the most important areas of your life:
Next, you should write down your top three priorities for each area.
Once you do that, make sure to invest 80% of your time and most of your efforts into accomplishing the items on your chart. The rest of the time should be allocated to completing other tasks that need to be done.
Simple and intuitive, your schedule should be focused around your non-negotiable core values.
The amount of time you assign to each of your tasks reflects your true priorities. Very often people dedicate more time to less important tasks, losing sight of what truly matters. Avoid taking on menial tasks and learn to delegate those assignments that don’t necessarily require your expertise.
One of the easiest strategies for efficient scheduling is the 1-3-5 method. This means that your daily schedule will feature one very important task; three tasks of medium importance; and five little things.
I have two kinds of problems: the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent. – Eisenhower
Eisenhower inspired productivity experts to create what is called The Eisenhower Matrix for prioritizing tasks. The matrix uses the urgency and importance values to make your work life easier, as shown below.
The Eisenhower Matrix
Team collaboration goes big when your team goes small. Team size in itself affects productivity and team synergy. Smaller teams have higher engagement, less overhead, better flow, and improved decision making. Best of all, it is more cost-effective to reach goals with smaller teams.
Yet, many times organizations go with “bigger is better. This often comes at the cost of effectiveness and produces sub-par results. So much so that it may be better to simply create two smaller teams than using a large one.
Reward teams and you get to build motivation, boosts productivity and develops team trust. Indeed, offering people recognition boosts their self-esteem, confidence and happiness at work.
Some other advantages are increased employee engagement, less staff turnover, higher customer satisfaction ratings and the fact that organization grows in its sense of purpose. To be sure, there are plenty other good reasons to reward teams. But only a few great ways to do it.
Focus is a perpetual challenge. After all, adjusting and maintaining our focus is a daily battle. Hence, most of us take it personally. We seldom talk about our ability to focus. We are seldom forthwith about fatigue, distractions or procrastination. Conversely, we seldom talk about burnout or our inability to concentrate.
To connect with customers, particularly online, is a priority for many businesses. Yet, in this day and age, you need to cover all the bases. It’s no longer enough to create an amazing product and offer an impeccable service. In fact, despite smart promotion strategies and heavy-set marketing campaigns, it may still not be enough.
Be more productive to experience life to its fullest. It’s the chant of the decade. For many, however, it’s also an impossible dream. There are limits to what you can achieve. And there are limits to how well you can do it. It used to be that you could stay ahead. Now you need to do your best to keep up.
