How To: Be Most Efficient & Productive

1. Get a second monitor, which is proven to increase productivity by 20-30%.
2. Check out our own policy for remote employees workspaces’ and consider it for your own home office. We have implemented this policy after years of running into the same issues w/ remote employees. (Hint: It’s not effective to work from the couch.)
3. Eat the frog first. If you have to eat a frog, you eat it before your sandwich & apple. You don’t want to dread the frog while you’re having a good meal & you don’t want to taste the frog all day. Finish your hard tasks first.
4. Bad news doesn’t age well. When you have to deliver bad news, do it immediately. If there’s a solution you’re handling, then tell them it’s handled. People handle bad news similar to the grieving process. By allowing them to start that process early, they will have processed it by the time you’ve solved it, or they will have processed it sooner (if it’s unsolvable.)
5. Never send an email or text message when you’re angry. If an email or text needs a response sooner than you can calm down to send it, then send it to a friend/colleague to read first.
6. Are work calls and texts driving you nuts during personal time? Consider a 2nd number w/ https://www.sideline.com/ or Google Voice.
7. When pointing out a reasonable error, focus on the error and not the person: For example, someone sends you an email without the attachment they said they were going to send. Don’t say “You didn’t send the attachment”. This will spark a sense of blame and they may react defensively. Instead, say “That attachment didn’t come through”. Even if it was their fault ultimately, framing this in this more friendly and detached way will make things move more smoothly. That said, if it’s a consistent error that is being made over and over, then shift the focus to the person; at this point, it needs to be clear that the person is making a mistake, and that you should both point this out and provide friendly insight on how they can stop making the mistake.
8. White list important email addresses so that they never go to spam:
9. Change your ekey setting so that you only login once/day. Open the app > More (3 dots in the bottom right) > Settings > Require PIN Only Once Per Day.