productivity

Christmas is just around the corner. It’s an opportunity to spend time with the people you care about. It’s also a reminder that the end of year is coming and you need to step up your game at work to get everything done. We got you covered ? ?.

Do a quick review

Before you even start getting things done, it's really important to do a quick review of your to-do list.We have previously talked about the trick to cut off your to-do list. Remember at the end of the day you can do anything but you can’t do everything.Why? because you are not superman. You are a human being.

Host hackathons

Let's be realistic. At the time of writing these words we are less than 2 weeks away from Christmas.With that in mind you don't have much time to finish what’s on your plate assuming you're working 40 hours a week only. Organizing a hackathon has been proved to help companies kick off and finalize amazing projects.For example, you have like 48 hours to go through all the backlog of this sprint for the product or to nourish the content pipeline for the company blog.

Clean your inbox

There is nothing worse than opening your inbox to find hundreds of unread emails.

You can use different techniques to do the cleaning. To make it even more effective, you should incorporate that in your daily routine. Every single day before checking my agenda, I spend 15 mins digging in my inbox; answering colleagues, labeling etc.

Sync all your collaboration apps

Trello, Slack, Zendesk, Intercom, and the list goes on.Imagine how much time you would lose jumping back and forth between your collaboration apps; sometimes a colleague slacks you about a code review. But you were too swamped to notice it.Or you just received a feature request via intercom from one of your most loyal customer yet AGAIN you forget to inform the product team by creating a jira ticket. It's a total chaos!Making all your collaboration apps in sync will definitely solve the problem. Request your Veamly account and see for yourself.

Automate some of your tasks

Some tasks are repetitive and boring yet mandatory. But why spend 5 hours on a task if you can finish it in just 20 minutes or less?

For instance, if you have spreadsheets to go over you can rely on Macros instead of doing the same work over and over again. And if you have video, you can rely on transcription software. If you are slow on the keyboard for any reason, consider using speech recognition software.

Prepare your work calendar of the new year

It’s good to end the year right. It’s also good to start the new year right.

Every year, your company looks back at metrics, achievements and areas of improvement. This is important to draft the new strategy of the following year. When you prepare your work calendar in advance, you make sure that you are on the right track.

Set automated email responses

We're back again to another email trick.Cleaning your inbox indeed may not always be effective, especially if your line of work relies heavily on emails (sales, support etc). When you create automated responses based on a variety of criteria, you reduce the time you spend in your inbox to eventually focus on more important items in your to-do list.

Outsource your work if necessary

So far so good.If you have a small team and limited resources better ask for help with mundane tasks. There is no need to spend hours doing data entry on the spreadsheet if you can just hire a freelancer for few dollars.

You need to think carefully and make sure the ROI is worth it.

‍Of course, it won’t be all butterflies. Outsourcing is not for everybody. Sometimes, you don’t have the budget or it’s against the company policy.Always over communicate with your team so that you are all on the same page.

Write a self-reflection

At Veamly, we pride ourselves of being self-aware and owners of the work we do. Do you need help? Ask for it. Do you think your manager is giving you too much work that you can’t handle? Talk to them about it. Do you feel that you need to improve in a certain area? Sign up for an online course.Reflecting on your own experience and being fully honest with yourself won’t be easy especially that we are living in an era when entitlement and lack of patience are dominant. Showcasing your strengths will help you determine the best course of action to take in order to finish this year with a bang.

Merry Christmas everyone!