Hasta La Ideas

Glen Stansberry, productivity blogger and the brains behind the LifeRemix network (a network Unclutterer proudly belongs to), authored “80 Ways to Steal Valuable Minutes for Your Work Day” Tuesday for American Express’ OPEN Forum website. The article gives tips and insights from 19 small business and productivity writers and consultants on how to get more done without having to clone yourself.

Some of my favorite tips from the article:

Jonathan Fields, JonathanFields.com
“Exercise – It sounds counter-intuitive. You have to spend time exercising. But, research has shown that exercise boosts cognitive function, creativity, problem solving and productivity. In fact a NASA study showed employees who exercised daily worked at 100% efficiency after 7 hours, while those who didn’t saw a 50% drop, meaning it took them twice as long to accomplish the same thing. So, exercise, in effect, creates time.”

Jonathan Salem Baskin, Dim Bulb
“Finally, a technique I learned in a high school mechanical drafting class was to group like-executed tasks together, so don’t just staple once but try to take care of any immediately obvious stapling needs. If you open your online calendar to add an appointment, check to see if there are others to add before you close it out. The time you don’t spend doing these repetitive tasks will be extra time to focus on the work that matters.”

Jeff Cornwall, The Entrepreneurial Mind
“Too often, entrepreneurs do not prepare their employees before delegating to them. This results in the classic case of ‘it is quicker to do it myself’. By investing the time in simple training, communicating a clear explanation of expectations, and documenting the basic process for them to follow, delegation will quickly become a way to free up time.”

Becky McCray, Small Biz Survival
“Use checklists. Make and use checklists of daily tasks. This saves you time in two ways: you will work more efficiently with a checklist in front of you, and you will spend less time trying to remember what still needs to be done. You can read more of my explanation of a social media marketing checklist here.”

I also enjoyed the obvious, but extremely important tip Glen shares at the end of the article:

Improve your typing speed. Think about how much time you spend in email and other forms of online communication. Improving how fast you type could potentially add bunches of minutes to your day.

You may not agree with all of the tips provided, but you’re sure to garner at least one or two gems from “80 Ways to Steal Valuable Minutes for Your Work Day.” Additionally, I liked the article because it introduced me to other articles, blogs, and writers on productivity.