Producing Productivity

can’t get the team to run and productivity has turned into a myth, you wonder why the Gods have all decided to punish you.

Dramatics aside, producing productive teams is often the key to every success and business metric you need to hit, so we compiled some years of experience from our fearless leaders as they told us the secrets to productive teams. (Which is basically the same as unlocking the secrets to the universe).

1.   CUT THE MEETINGS

No seriously, cut your meeting time in half, and then cut the number of meetings you’re having. The business world is seriously obsessed with getting everyone in a room and discussing things that probably don’t even need to be discussed. Meetings, of course, are necessary and one-on-ones are always fantastic. But if you’re having one-on-ones every single week, with every single team member, then half your week is already taken up with meetings, which means no one is doing any work. Do spit-fire speed rounds, catch up on messenger and find other ways of communicating things and remember, not everything needs a meeting. Sometimes, an email with a list of bullet points does the trick.

2.   RESCUE TIME

This is a tech product that sits in your web browser and monitors exactly what you spend your day on and where. It records all your activity so you can see how much time you spend on Facebook, in your inbox, and on other sites. Every day it will give you a visual breakdown of where you’ve spent your day, which is an incredible way of monitoring your activity. Once you know where your pitfalls are, you and your team can start alternating your behavior. The more you know guys!

3.   BREAK TIME

This may seem like the opposite of what you’re trying to achieve, but getting your team to take the right breaks on a regular basis can save your team and increase your productivity. If you’re noticing slumped shoulders and heavy sighs, get your troops up and take them out for a coffee, and ice cream or a walk around the block. It can make the world of difference. We all sit in offices every day for hours, it’s like we’ve forgotten about fresh air. Remember, it’s very good for you.

4.   MODEL BEHAVIOR

If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it a million times, but everything trickles down from the top, and that includes you and your team. If your workload is in a mess and you’re not managing your own deadlines, there’s no way you can manage a collective workload. Your team will also see your chaos, and let their own chaos creep in, and that’s exactly when productivity slips out the door. Get your own house in order and display to your team how you manage your time.

5.   GOALS, GOALS, GOALS!

We’re not talking about relationship goals, or life goals or any other kind of goals Instagram is currently promoting, but actual, real, tangible goals and targets. Because we all know that even the best intentioned of us can let things slip as the work piles up. For every single thing, have a target and a timeline to go with it. Use platforms like Trello to monitor those processes and always be working towards something. Talking about doing things is one thing, but getting that ball rolling is a totally different task. Having a team that always works towards timelines will also get everyone up and running faster as it becomes a natural part of your working processes.

It’s not easy, these things never are, and a lot of it is reinforcing habits over and over again until it becomes second nature to you and your team. In six months’ time, you’ll notice that your team has become a well-oiled machine working in harmony.]]>

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