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Tips for increasing productivity with effective work habits

Increase Your Productivity by Developing these Work Habits

AKA a Guide to Reaching a Calmer, Organized, and More Productive Day

A busy day at the work/home office is the norm for a hard working developer. However, busy doesn’t always equal productivity in the current day. Along with the actual skilled work you are hired to do come a plethora of mundane time consuming tasks which, if left unchecked, can destroy your work schedule and interfere with your production success goals.

How do we balance client communication, staff meetings, switching between projects, managing shifting priorities, and following up on work statuses? Every pro faces this question at some point. These are some of the guidelines I try to adhere to in order to finish my work and feel accomplished.

Task Management Applications

Task management apps help bring organizations into my work schedule. There are a number of these applications out there, and they’re only a search away. I can monitor my progress with a quick glance at my kanban board, or my priority sorted list, then determine what needs to happen first, and how my work week is shaping up. This in turn helps me manage client expectations, as well as afford me a quick way to communicate with my clients when questions arrive.

Personally, I love using Zendesk. It provides a clean, streamlined way for my clients to reach me by creating a ticket for me in our company support page. The client can manage the ticket priority and review all standing tickets. This helps them visualize and understand my work process, which eliminates unnecessary questions, like “Is it done yet? Is task A going to be done before task B?” In turn, I don’t have to constantly write work status reports, saving time that can be used for actual work! All I have to do is provide a “Work Effort,” “Status,” and an “ETA” for a task. The client can see that, and thus, their expectations are properly managed from the start.

Time Logging Applications

Part of the work process is the responsibility to log work hours on projects and tasks, keep within budget lines, writing estimates, and sending them to clients. This is a very important part of the work week and it’s how one gets paid! Never neglect or postpone logging your work time and creating estimates for new clients! Neglecting these issues means that not only do you lose money, but you can also lose prospective work.

Find a good app that fits your needs and all of the thinking for you. If you need an easy way to log your time, find an app with an integration for your time-schedule application. Logging time is literally just a button click away with a logging time app. The application auto-populates all the details for you. All you have to do is write the number of hours you need to log. I always keep my time logging open, to make my day go as smooth as possible. It takes just a couple of seconds to input my time. I do this about 3-4 times a day, with a total time loss of only 10 minutes! Every time I have to switch to another project or task I just log time spent on the previous one up to that point in the day, and then move forward.

Communication

Meetings! We all have them, whether it’s for a client, or with our coworkers. So, what happens when someone wants to talk to you today, and you already have scheduled team meetings? When do you find time to do your actual work? You have to make time!

Keep Calm and Work Well

Maintaining a well balanced work schedule, adhering to it, and having the right organizational tools is half of the formula to conquering your work day. The other half comes from you. I find that a well rested mind is more capable of concentration. Find ways to relax in your free time, and clear your mind of any stressors. Spending time to rest and rejuvenate is vital to your productivity, be it meditation, playing a sport, or practicing a hobby. I have a family and a small child, so as I write these last lines, I write them fully aware of how hectic and unpredictable your personal life can be. However, you owe it to yourself to find the little moments that make you happy and allow your mind to rest. Don’t skip on the personal moments. Those moments, or lack thereof, will shape your personal and professional interactions with the rest of the world.

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