In this rapidly shifting world that we’re living in, technology has had to come to the rescue of most businesses and this is where Productivity and Technology come into there own. With the many available software, applications and programs, some business owners and employees have been able to work from home during this crisis.
The question is no longer, ‘can we work from home?’ Covid-19 has stripped most of us of our vote on the matter. The question is ‘can we be productive while working from home?’ And the answer is yes, but with a bit of help. Here are a few ways to use technology to improve the productivity of your business while working from home.
Team Meetings/Interviews
There’s no reason such an important part of business activities should be eliminated and Zoom has taken a giant lead in this department; offering features such as screen-sharing, video recording and host-controls. When used the right way, Zoom is an excellent tool to help you stay on top of important meetings and interviews.
Google Hangouts, Go To Meeting and Ring Central are also great for conducting business meetings with your entire team or potential partners; for consulting with experts and collaborating face-to-face.
Instant Communication/Project Management
As a business owner, you know that face-to-face meetings are not always necessary and they aren’t always convenient either. By using project management platforms you can take control of the structure of your workforce without worrying too much about things getting lost in the grapevine of delegated tasks.
As an employee, these productivity-enhancing software help you to keep track of assignments as well as monitor the general progress and footprint of all members of the team handling the same case. With the instant messaging feature, you’re able to communicate in real-time in a direct or group chat setting and reduce the number of communication channels that may lead to confusion.
Platforms like Asana, Monday.com and Bitrix24, have been proven to aid with workflow and maintain productivity while working from home.
Calendar Management
Whether you’re an employee or an employer, a missed deadline is still a big deal. To help you keep on track, there are calendar management software and apps available to increase your productivity and efficiency.
With Calendly, you’re able to customize your calendar to reflect the days and times that you can be available to meet as well as the intended duration of the meeting. As a bonus, any meeting scheduled is linked to your Google Calendar and automatically creates a special digital meeting room for each meeting. You can also adjust your Google Calendar to send you reminders, so that you never miss a meeting, even if you’re folding laundry or grabbing a bite to eat.
Block those distractions
Many have confessed that despite the many advantages to working from home, one of the biggest enemies to productivity is the barrage of distractions available and the general lack of supervision. There are ways to help keep employees on task, through remote monitoring software that randomly grabs screens and submits it to a central unit. In addition to monitoring the sites visited, this software effectively tracks the number of hours worked by each person.
If you want to keep yourself accountable, then there’s technology out there to help you stay productive too. Selfcontrol is an app that can be downloaded to your PC and can be used on Linux, Windows and Mac PCs. By adding the URL/name of the site that you want to keep yourself from visiting while you crunch down and get work done, and adding a time window within which you don’t want to be distracted, you eliminate the possibility of visiting the site. Once the data has been added, the “ban” cannot be lifted until the time expires (not even if you delete the app). Talk about accountability.
Signing Documents
There’s no reason that contracts and other important documents can’t be signed while working from home either. If a signature is the only thing hampering productivity, then you can turn to Docusign or Hellosign for legally binding digitally affixed signature options.
To resist the change that has been set before us will be painful. Adapting and gaining productivity with the use of technology is a much easier and more advantageous approach to take.
