All businesses want to make sure their employees are being productive, but for a small business, this can be a challenge as there is usually less staff and more work to do – it can get tricky!

In this week’s blog, we share a few tips on how to help you become a more productive and efficient business.

1. Time management – one skill that is sought after by most employers, and even employees, is good time management skills. Having good time management means tasks can be ticked off efficiently. A good thing to do is to set aside time every morning and plan the day ahead, giving each task a time to complete it. Completing one one task at a time is always good opposed to multi-tasking, as all your focus will be on one task, meaning you have more time to make that good rather than a lot of things turning out so-so.
2. Don’t obsess over emails – instead factor in time for them. Emails can be a problem when working, they can pop up and interrupt your work flow, but instead of dropping everything for one email, set aside time to go through a bunch. For example, you could check them first thing while you are going through your to-do list, again in the afternoon after lunch, and near close of play. By setting aside time you have more time to focus on the work you are doing and can also break up the day with email checking.
3. Use project management tools – with technology advancing day by day, it’s no surprise that there are many task management tools for businesses. Tools such Basecamp, Trello or Zoho are great as it has everything in one place (Basecamp is one that we love to use in the office!). These tools allow you to input tasks and set them against different people, record milestones and more. Most also have messaging as well, which means you can back date easier.
4. Other online tools – there are many other tools you can adopt that can help with becoming an efficient office:
   • Instant messaging – tools such as Slack and Skype are great for quick messages to other team member to check progress on work, instead of having long meetings or typing a long email. If you work with people across the globe as well, then the use of instant messaging means you can effectively communicate quickly.
   • File sharing tools – some businesses may not have an internal network set up - maybe the team are scattered or they use their own laptops and are in and out - so using file sharing tools such as DropBox means anyone, anywhere can have access.
   • Admin – one thing that is easily forgotten but completely necessary for every business is admin. Whether its invoicing, time recording, admin is vital to help keep a business on track. Tools such as Harvest or FunctionFox are great for this. You can keep timings and costs in one place, meaning you can manage your time better. An example would be if you work in an agency and have set time for each client, you can see how much time is left and make sure you utilise that time efficiently.
5. Music! – just a bonus tip, but playing a bit of music in the background can help with productivity – there has even been research to prove this! It does, of course, depend on the task as if you have an intensive project sometimes music can be distracting, but for the most part, a bit of music in the background can help lift people’s moods making them in a better state of mind to do work.

Hopefully a few of these tips can help you and your business become more productive and work more efficiently. Let us know if there are anything you do to help productivity!