OUTSOURCEDNEW ZEALAND

work the smarter way

In this issue:

2014 — the year of productivity

Time-blocking

Control your emails

Client focus — Rose Crawford

www.virtual-assistant.co.nz

Virtual @ssistant Christchurch Ltd

Issue 3 January 2014

Welcometo our ‘mini’ magazine New Zealand Outsourced

2014 — the year of Productivity

One of my business goals for 2014 is to increase my website content via the use of blogging, so my theme for 2014 will be ‘52 weeks of productivity’.

I’m embarking on what I imagine will be a fun but challenging journey, wading through the weird and wonderful ways to boost productivity.

This New Year’s issue of New Zealand Outsourced will focus on some of the more tried and tested ways to increase productivity; follow my blog on www.virtual-assistant.co.nz to read some of the more wacky ideas out there! My favourite is using the colour yellow to enhance the ‘flow’… but I haven’t tried that yet.

If you have any productivity tips and tools please email me with them and I’ll add them to my blog list.

Here’s to a productive, successful and fun year ahead!

Kiely Buttell

Produced by: Kiely Buttell Virtual Assistant Christchurch Ltd

0800 122 889 kiely@virtual-assistant.co.nz

Controlling your Emails

Email is without doubt a wonderful invention, but it’s also becoming the bane of our lives. Constantly connected, emails beep, buzz and ping their way into our consciousness, each one calling to be opened regardless of what we are in the middle of doing.

This constant distraction can ruin productivity. Have you missed actioning important emails, simply because they were submerged somewhere in the ocean of your Inbox? How does this make you feel? Slightly panicked and overwhelmed?

Just like an in-tray, your Inbox should simply act as a receiving point for new emails; every new arrival can be moved out of the Inbox, either filed or actioned in some way — straight away!

Most email programs (if not all) contain a variety of tools to help you control your Inbox. You can use folders to file emails, and flags to make sure you follow up or action the request. Emails are grouped together elsewhere in your email program (and still visible to you while your Inbox is open), and are held their until you are ready to action them.

Below is a snapshot in the life of a busy worker who is constantly connected to the office, thinking he is being uber productive:

7.00 am – checks emails on phone or tablet while having breakfast, on the loo (yes, it does happen on the pretence of multi-tasking!), at the gym, and the list goes on.

8.00 – ping goes the phone while he’s heading out the door to the office; a quick check before going to work.

8.30 – opens email software and starts wading through the unread items, generally ignoring or forgetting the ones he’s already read before work.

9.00 – starts on his first task.

9.05 – another ping alerts him to a new email; he stops what he’s doing, reads email, and either responds to it or leaves it for later (if he remembers).

9.10 – gets back to original task, trying to remember where he was up to.

9.30 – ping! another new email; he leaves what he’s doing, reads email, responds to email.

9.40 – back to original task …

I probably don’t need to go on much further — can you see how intrusive and distracting emails are becoming? Take back the control and make email work for you. You do not need to be connected 24 hours a day. People do not need a reply within ten minutes. Setting your own email boundaries will bring freedom to do well the things that really count, ie. the work that makes you money.

Compared to your usual routine, how does this day sound?

7.00 am – enjoy a leisurely breakfast with loved ones, read the paper, go to the gym, take the dog for a walk.

8.00 – start the journey to work, using this time to prepare for the day ahead. What goals are you working towards? What projects need to be prioritised? What worked well yesterday?

8.30 – get to work and open your email program. Now here’s where the fun starts!

As you start to work through the emails in your Inbox reply immediately to those that can be replied to in two minutes or less and file them away. TAKE THEM OUT OF YOUR INBOX.

The rest you will FLAG for follow-up and FILE in a relevant folder. Once you have flagged them, they will appear as a task on an electronic To Do list.

Once you are done, you will have a clear Inbox. Now that’s a great feeling! You’re in control of what just arrived in your Inbox.

Open your Tasks or To Do list and work out when you will respond to the flagged emails. I usually use a notepad to write down tasks for the day.

9.00 – turn off your email program and start your work.

1.00 pm – turn on your email program and follow the above steps. Then respond to those emails you have tasked for the morning and unflag them—they are now finished and already filed away.

Re-prioritise flagged emails and write down tasks for the afternoon.

4.30 – 5.00 – final email check, following the steps above.

After 5 pm – go home and enjoy your evening. Don’t get into the habit of checking your email at night — are any emails really so important that you need to disrupt your leisure and relaxation time?

If you are really worried that people will take offence to you taking a few hours to reply, you can always use an auto-responder to notify them that you will reply to their email within a set time — but do you really want to work with people who are that impatient?

For more information on clearing your Inbox visit www.inboxzero.com

Happy Inboxing!

Time-blocking

This is another favourite productivity booster of mine: scheduling blocks of time during the day to work on specific projects. Being an outsource provider means that no two days are ever the same and I’m usually juggling a number of very different tasks during the day. I need to be able to concentrate fully on the project I’m working on, and multi-tasking just does not provide a quality output for my clients.

A number of researchers have found that our bodies work rhythmically in 90 minute cycles, and after each cycle we need to have a rest. This research initially came from the study of sleep cycles but researcher Nathan Kleitman also discovered that this cycle continues during the day.

A growing number of people have embraced this way of working and are moving away from the ‘working long hours = high productivity’ mantra that we have all been indoctrinated with. I love this extract from an article written by Tony Schwartz, author of The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working.*

It is easy to start implementing time-blocking into your workday.

Firstly, work out when you are at your most productive. I love the productivity heat map developed by Productive Flourishing (http://www.productiveflourishing.com). On this printout you can record a typical day and work out when your energy levels are high and when they are lower.

“For the first several books I wrote, I often sat at my desk for up to 10 or even 12 hours at a time. I never finished one in less than a year.

For my new book, The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working, I wrote without interruptions for three 90-minute periods, and took a break between each one. I had breakfast after the first session, went for a run after the second, and had lunch after the third.

I wrote no more than four and a half hours a day, and finished the book in less than 6 months. By limiting each writing cycle to 90 minutes and building in periods of renewal, I was able to focus far more intensely and get more done in far less time.”

*Source:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tony-schwartz/work-life-balance-the-90_b_578671.html

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I personally have more energy between 10.30 am and 1.00 pm, and also in the evening, so I need to be creative with my workday to ensure I don’t end up working 15-16 hour days!

Once you have worked out when your productive zone is, then it’s time to plan your day or week. Which projects are going to require your concentration? It is generally those projects that you ought to block out time for.

When you are working in the zone or the 90-minute period, don’t allow yourself to be distracted. Turn off your emails, unplug your phone and put a Do Not Disturb note on the door if necessary! Use your low energy times to do the repetitive tasks that do not require much brain power ie. checking emails, opening post, organising tasks, making phone calls.

It is time for us all to get realistic. Even though we ‘work’ a minimum of eight hours a day we are certainly not being productive for eight hours. If we’re lucky, by the time emails have been checked, websites browsed, and projects procrastinated about, we may have achieved four hours of good quality, productive work in the day.

However, if we take control of our time, and work smarter, not harder, we are more likely to get a lot done in a shorter space of time — increasing our productivity and attaining the balance that many of us are missing in our lives.

www.productiveflourishing.com

www.buffer.com

www.lifehacker.com

Follow my 52 weeks of productivity blogwww.virtual-assistant.co.nz

Resources

Rose Crawford — Ray White Burnside Real Estate

Rose Crawford is one of a handful of premier Ray White Real Estate agents operating out of Ray White Burnside. Her friendly manner and exceptional sales record have resulted in hundreds of happy clients who have either sold or bought with the help of Rose’s expertise.

Rose’s career in real estate began in 2002 when she worked with First National, and three years later Rose joined Ray White. Relationships, trust and transparency are the key components to choosing an agent.

Over the years Rose has had many repeat and referred clients (both are huge compliments), resulting in her achieving Executive Member status in 2010, Business Growth recognition, and Premier Status in 2013/2014.

Rose is adept at outsourcing and utilising her time wisely. She uses our services for email newsletters and creating sale appraisals, a job that is great fun to do and so rewarding when the result is a successful listing.

So if you are looking for a great agent, give Rose Crawford a call:

Client Focus