Excelling in College

2 Steps to a More Productive Office

by Raul Davis

No matter what field you're in, productivity is a key factor for sustaining the agency. Sometimes becoming more productive means buying faster equipment or maybe even moving into a different office space completely. But there are also things that can be done by staff throughout an office to make it run more efficiently and therefore become more productive. Here are two simple behaviors that you and your staff can adopt on a daily basis to help streamline your work day. 

Make Email Responding a Prioritized Process

Some people encourage workers to put responding to emails at the beginning of the day. Unfortunately, this isn't always possible. In an office setting, while emails may be a large chunk of the work that needs to be completed, responding to emails isn't the only thing someone has to do. Even at the start of the day, there may be visitors to greet and meet with, phone calls to answer, voicemail messages to listen to, and so forth. 

To be more efficient, address emails based on a prioritized list. For example, clients who are ready to close a deal would be answered before clients with general inquiries. Then, as you get interrupted throughout the day, at least you're always getting the more important or urgent things done first.

Meet Virtually

One of the biggest time eaters at an office is in-person meetings. Before scheduling or attending a meeting, ask yourself (or the meeting organizer) whether the information meant to be provided could be distributed via email so that staff could respond with questions, concerns, or edits.

Because many people are adept at doing at least two things at once, even having a webinar-style video conference meeting would be helpful. Everyone can remain at their desks completing other routine tasks (such as completing forms or preparing reports) as they listen to the meeting and chime in with information or questions. This also cuts down on having to wait for people to arrive at the meeting and having people who aren't physically available miss out on the meeting. For instance, someone who is at a satellite office or who is contagious can connect to the meeting from where they are on their smartphone, tablet, or other device. 

By handling emails throughout the work day and in a prioritized manner as well as opting for virtual meetings instead of physical ones, you and your staff can increase the overall productivity and efficiency of the work flow in your office each day. 

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