A new wave of technology comes out every year, promising new and exciting methods of working. Although they’re not without merit, it’s important to remember that there could be a multitude of possibilities that aren’t explored in our current tech systems.
Our smartphones hold full of functions, features, and built-in apps haven’t been considered, let alone looked into, and laptops as well as desktops have productivity tools that assist us in reducing distractions.
In a 2018 HubSpot survey in pursuit of more profits and the rising concern that businesses aren’t functioning at peak performance 3 out of 4 global companies were expected to boost their use of productivity tools as well as processes.
But what if, as humans, our minds can only make use of just 10% of the potential of our devices and apps? It’s time to learn how to utilize them better?
Here are our top seven tips on technology to increase your productivity, without shaking up your entire work routine:
- Learn (keyboard) shortcuts
- A world of integrations, widgets, and more
- Make use of technology to beat tech
- Do you need to include more information in documents?
- Find another monitor
- Your calendar should be working more efficiently
- Use a password manager
1. Use (keyboard) shortcuts
The entrepreneur Andrew Cohen, founder & CEO of Brainscape has crunched the numbers and found out that the majority of people suffer a loss of around two seconds when using their mouse to perform small tasks whereas an easy keyboard shortcut could complete the job in seconds.
Although it doesn’t seem like a lot, these two seconds can quickly add into your workday. Cohen finally reached the conclusion that you could save up to eight working days every year that’s 3.3 percent of your total productivity by mastering all the keyboard shortcuts you need to know.
Here are a few of the simplest and efficient ways to expand your options beyond copy and paste.
For Windows
- Ctrl + Home shifts the cursor towards the beginning of the document.
- Ctrl + End brings the cursor to the conclusion of an article
- Ctrl + BSP will erase whole words at a time instead of letters
- Ctrl +L locks the page.
- CTRL + Shift + copies everything you copied, without formatting, as simple text
For Mac
- Control + Up Arrow to reach the beginning of a document or text, or Command + Down Arrow to get to the end of a text or text
- Command + W shuts down everything
- Use Alt+Command + M for minimizing everything, and Command + M in order to reduce the window in which you are currently working.
- Command + Space opens up Spotlight
- Command + Shift + (or Command + Shift + cycles between tabs
Universal
- Press Ctrl/Cmd/Shift before pressing the Period key. This will increase the font size by one point, or press the comma key to increase it by one size.
- Alt/Command +Tab to switch between open programs
2. A vast array of widgets and integrations
There are many simple applications and programs that effortlessly integrate with the software you use everyday for example, Google Workspace, that don’t disrupt your work and are offered for free or at a low cost. The most difficult part is working out how to distinguish the diamonds from the infinite quantities of rough.Here is a brief overview to help you identify your next device:
SwiftKeyboard Simple application by Microsoft that analyzes the way you type, as well as your most frequently used phrases and provides suggestions based upon your past experience. Free.
Todoist is a phone application that allows you to keep track of your to-do lists and plan your tasks weeks in advance, assign tasks and generally increase your organizational capabilities. There is a free version, but the premium version cost $3 per month.
Grammarly: A machine-learning spell and grammar add-on that can correct words and phrases with greater efficiency than standard tools. The free version is available, while the premium version cost $11 per month.
Serene is a Mac program that assists you to create a productive work environment with the help of asking you establish your goals for the day, plan your schedule and assist you eliminate distractions. A free trial is available, normally 4 dollars per month.
Docusign: Add your digital sign-in to documents. eliminate printing. Create reusable and standard documents. It informs users when documents have been signed or when something is in need of attention. Trial for free or $ 8 per month.
Pocket: lets you save items and articles to read later if you have time and all in one convenient location so that you don’t need to keep tabs or windows open. Free.
3. Utilize technology to beat tech
There are many ways to make your device to help you instead of hindering. Many people are aware of that features such as silence mode or the ability to pause all notifications on their smartphones, desktops and laptops. However, you can go higher with apps and add-ons like the website and app blocker Freedom or StrictWorkflow that enforces the 25:5-minute workflow that allows for 25 minutes of uninhibited work then five minutes of rest.
Utilize these to assign you rest times and disable your device’s access to other applications that are not related to work until your break time is over.
In the same way, Apple devices come with an Self Control app and a Screen Time add-on which tells you the amount of time you use your phone for various apps. You can also set limits when you believe your screen usage is escalating.
If you’re looking to speed things up, think about the possibility of combining a keyboard with a touchscreen device, such as tablets. Based on the speed of your typing and ability to use QWERTY it could boost your productivity significantly.
Additionally, a lot of Android applications support split-screen use and allow you to maintain a document on top of spreadsheets or a page. This means that you don’t need to constantly switch between different windows during the course of your workflow.
4. Do more in the documents
For those who are an Office 365 user, the built-in thesaurus can be extremely useful. To avoid repeating words when writing content (or just to make your writing sound more sophisticated) you can right-click any word, choose’synonyms to get many options. It is also possible to access the dictionary in the document as you write.
If you are using Google Workplace, a handy tool is the voice-to-text function that is built in Google Docs that many people aren’t aware of. Navigate to your ‘Tools’ and turn on voice typing, or press Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + S to use a shortcut. It is ideal for people who have trouble typing or are more in their speech than writers. It also works with audio recordings. You can quickly transcribe an interview or video with minimal effort.
In Google Workplace, check out the “explore” tool located on the right side of the page. It lets you perform an instant search of your Drive as well as the internet and images without leaving the document. This is a great way to avoid the timesinks.
For Sheets the most efficient way to increase productivity without learning a new programming language is to use “cleanup tips” and “trim whitespace’ under the tools tab to swiftly clean up your document.
It’s worth spending 10 minutes looking through Google’s suggested “Add-ons” in the tab that appears at the top of your document in order to find a relevant item for your task.
5. Make sure you have an additional monitor
If you work in front of a computer for the entire the time, you’ll find great benefit in having another (or even an additional) monitor that can help you perform your work more effectively. You’ll be capable of moving your mouse smoothly between monitors, as if there were no space between them.
The benefit of having dual monitors which is now a standard in many technical positions It allows users to effortlessly use several applications and keep multiple documents open simultaneously to ensure the best visibility. If you’re looking to compare different versions of identical document, it comes to its own.
It doesn’t require any tech wizard to set it up All you require is a cable and an additional screen.
A simple shift in how you work will give you an entire new degree of flexibility and make up for lost time.
6. Help your calendar to work more efficiently
It is built into every phone, but the basic calendar application is a hugely under-used app. However, if you use the app to make your list of tasks into focus, you will alter the way you think about time, by exposing us to the limitations of the work days in black and white.
Make your list more manageable by adding daily tasks on your calendar. It quickly becomes simpler to know quickly the things you could realistically accomplish in a single day. This can assist you in making an informed decision on which tasks to prioritize.
You can also communicate your schedule with your colleagues so they are aware of when you’re putting your head down and also when they need to think about your thoughts, which means there’s less chance that your flow could be disrupted due to external distractions.
Explore further using voice-activated assistants that add events and tasks to your calendar and invite others to your meetings.
It is, in fact, one of the most productive productivity tools you can need, and you already have it.
7. Make sure you have a password management system
How long do you waste trying to recall passwords that you’ve forgotten? Perhaps not the same amount as Stefan Thomas, a German programmers living in California who is unable to remember the password to access his bitcoins, believed to be worth about $220 million. Yet it’s a lot of time each month is devoted to recollecting our individual combinations, or pressing the ‘forgot password’ button to make new logins.
The average user has between 70 to 80 password protected accounts, according to the password manager NordPass however, most of us only remember a handful of combinations. NordPass also discovered that 12345 and 123456 and 123456789 were among the top three passwords for the year 2019 (facepalm).
What is a password manager? Download the manager to your PC and then on your phone by way of an application. You’ll have to remember one password to sign into the manager. The password manager will remember all logins you have made for you and every time you visit a password protected site, it logs you into.
Other features assist users in maintaining good hygiene with their passwords by alerting you if your passwords might be compromised due to cyber-attacks and need to be updated.
