How to Build Your Brand on Twitter in 10 Minutes a Day

How to Build Your Brand on Twitter in 10 Minutes a Day

Whether you’re a seasoned Twitter user or are still finding out how to use hashtags, chances are that you’re spending too much time on the social media platform. Like many other social media outlets, it’s easy to get sucked into Twitter, watching as new 140 character statuses pop up on Forbes, CNN, and your favorite guilty-pleasure celebrity.

Instead of sitting glued to your computer screen, think about how much more productive your day could be if you only spent 10 minutes a day building your brand on Twitter. You could use those minutes and hours caught in a never-ending vortex to reach out to new clients, read the latest content marketing articles, brush up on your SEO, or even construct a new blog post.

So, how is it possible to spend less time building your brand on Twitter than it takes you to cook a five-ingredient meal? It may seem impossible, but it’s not. Read on for tips and tools that will help you get your brand’s name out to the world in 10 minutes or less per day:

1. Stop watching your newsfeed

An average of 6,000 tweets are sent out around the world every second. If you’re following more than 100 people – which is very easy to do – chances are that you’re spending too much time trying to catch up with everyone’s tweets. Instead, glance through your notifications to see if anyone has directly tweeted or retweeted you. If there’s a particular subject you need to research, look up its hashtag. This is a much quicker way to find out what is going on that impacts you and your business.

2. Pre-schedule your tweets

Each time you open up the Twitter app on your phone or your computer, you’re wasting valuable time. It’s ridiculous to expect anyone to check all of their social media accounts several times a day. Instead of tweeting in real time, use a service like Hootsuite or Buffer to schedule your tweets for the entire week or the entire month. By doing so, the bulk of your work on Twitter will already be done ahead of time.

3. Have photos ready to post

When building your brand, it’s important to provide visuals that people can relate to. It’s been shown that tweets with pictures reach an average of 35% more people than solely word-based tweets. Therefore, you should have a batch of photos on hand that you can easily use. Organize them into different folders based on the subject so you don’t have to dig through thousands of files.
If you’re not a graphic designer – and most of us are not – use a tool like PicMonkey to put together professional, eye-catching photographs and collages to use with your tweets and improve your visibility on Twitter. You can also repurpose these photos for your other social media accounts, maximizing your time and effort.

4. Use your own hashtag

If you’re not already using your own hashtag, it’s time to create one. This will be your signature on Twitter, helping people to recognize your tweets, and also to find whenever people mention your brand. If you need inspiration for creating a hashtag, check out Ad Espresso’s article on the subject.

5. Stay focused

It’s all too easy to lose your concentration on social media when there is so much information floating around – especially when it’s filled with bunny videos and the last update on U.S. politics. Be sure to follow your editorial schedule and stick with your content marketing strategy. Remember the tactics you originally designed to build your brand, and stay on track. If you get distracted, just remember what you could be doing to improve your business with the time you will save.

6. Watch the clock

Many things are relative, including time. You may think that you’ve only been on Twitter – or any other social media channel, for that matter – for five minutes, when in actuality an hour has already passed. Just as you would do with a conference call or a meeting, schedule the time you will devote to Twitter and put it on your calendar. Set a timer for 10 minutes. After the time is up, take a look at what you’ve accomplished. If you’ve done nothing but browse Rihanna’s home page, you know you need to adjust your priorities.

7. Keep track of your followers

Chances are that you have followed dozens of people who are either inactive on Twitter or who have unfollowed you since the day you first signed up. While building your brand, you need to be aware of your appearance to potential clients, as well as competitors. This includes keeping tabs on your following ratio – how many people are you following in comparison to how many follow you?

When your followers get into the thousands, this is not always easy to do on your own. However, by using tools such as Crowdfire or ManageFlitter, you can quickly see who you are following unnecessarily. People who are sharing nothing but spam, who rarely post, or who don’t interact with you should be unfollowed. Similarly, others who are in your niche and provide useful information are potential allies or clients, and deserve to be followed. By utilizing the tools mentioned, it will take only a couple of minutes per day to keep your follower stats up to par.

Even though Twitter has a wealth of information flowing around at any given minute, you don’t need to absorb every character of every tweet in order to get ahead. By following the seven tips above, you can easily build your brand on Twitter in just 10 minutes a day.

How long do you usually spend on Twitter? Do you have any tips of your own that you use to minimize your time on social media? Please share in the comments below!

Why You Need to Become a Project Manager (Even if it’s not in your job description)

Why You Need to Become a Project Manager (Even if it's not in your job description)

Just because your title doesn’t include the words “project manager,” doesn’t mean you aren’t already one, or should become one.

Whether you’re a real estate developer, financial advisor, or restaurant manager, you must develop some basic project management skills in order to succeed. By mastering control of your projects, you build strong relationships and become a better leader.

Embrace

As a project manager, you own the big picture. You possess an end-to-end understanding of the job at hand. All the other members of your team have their specific area of focus, with expertise that runs deep. Conversely, your expertise runs wide: from soup to nuts, you’ve got your arms around each and every step of the project, giving you an enormous breadth of knowledge.

Your first task should be embracing and understanding the strategy behind your assignment: Why it’s being launched, the resources that will be required, and the timeline— from conception to completion.

Execute

As the project lead, you’ll be interacting with every key touch point to ensure success. You’ll be able to anticipate what problems will need solving, how to fix them, and how to prevent future problems from escalating.

What are the key functions of execution? As a project manager, you’ll be:

  • Overseeing a host of activities and responsibilities. Along the way, you’ll learn how to ruthlessly prioritize goals and individual tasks to efficiently bring an assignment to successful execution.
  • Determining the scope, costs and scheduling needs of your project From high level down to the very granular: setting a budget, scheduling meetings, and chasing action items with participants.
  • Making sure that everyone involved is always on the same page regarding the plan, responsibilities and success metrics.
  • Tracking the progress and budget of your project in terms of dollars spent and expected profits (ROI).

Navigate

Use the tools that work for you. There are a number of certification exams and programs out there such as PMP, Six Sigma, Agile Scrum, to name a few. But having a fancy credential is not going to replace hands-on experience. So before you commit to anything, take a hearty dive into a project. Get some real-world experience under your belt— teach yourself to connect all the dots, communicate and become compulsively organized. Once you’re familiar with the territory, explore what kind of tools and programs would best geared toward your specific pipeline of work, and the best way to navigate through it.

Take on the hard projects. When the going gets tough, don’t give up. Be bold. Show your team and senior management that you are the “go to” person for any assignment, no matter how hard.

If you see something that’s broken, take the initiative to fix it. This will help you gain visibility within your company and build your brand. Work with your team to find solutions and keep the project moving forward. Good project managers are problem solvers: They get the job done despite obstacles, while remaining calm and positive.

Communicate

You are the company spokesperson for every project you lead. As such, you’ll learn to become an effective communications manager— parsing out updates and directions to a variety of stakeholders, executives, departments and teams. You’ll refine your written and verbal skills, and adjust them to suit each particular audience.

Set clear expectations. Once you’ve kicked off your assignment, assemble your team and give clear direction, holding members accountable for their specific deliverables. Then, give them the freedom to make decisions in their area of expertise, and refrain from judging or intervening unless absolutely necessary. Tone is a critical part of communicating; pay attention to the sound of any hidden negative or demeaning messages hidden behind your words.

Also, tailor your approach to each team member to get the information you need and impart your concerns and instructions. As a manager, you know that each team member has a unique work style and reacts differently to different types of feedback. It’s your job to understand what communication tactics work best with each team member.

Here’s what you’ll gain.

As a project manager, you will get plenty of opportunities to pick up new skills, build solid relationships, and understand the functions and roles of all the teams involved in the business— that’s the “big picture” view that you wouldn’t get any other way.

What about you? What strategies do you employ to be a great project manager? We’d love to hear more about that. Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

 

11 Time Management Hacks to Skyrocket Productivity

11 Time Management Hacks to Skyrocket Productivity

Have you ever noticed how some people’s productivity levels are through the roof while other people need a good kick up the you know what to get anything done?

Worse still are those who profess their perennial business but who are in fact incredibly inefficient and achieve very little. Managing your time effectively is something that can be developed and honed to the point where you’ll be pumping out the work in no time.

Here are 11 tips to get you started.

1. Create a To-Do List

If you have an overwhelming number of tasks, a to-do list is a great way to organize your thoughts. Crossing off the completed tasks one by one is immensely satisfying and there are some excellent online versions if that’s more your style.

2. Re-evaluate & Prioritize

A to-do list will only work if you put tasks in order of priority of highest priority to lowest priority. It’s tempting to want to do the easiest tasks first but if this means not finishing something crucial, this can actually raise anxiety levels and reduce motivation.

3. Stop Procrastinating

Quit putting off that task you’ve been meaning to do for the past umpteen days and do it now! In the words of Brian Tracy, “Eat that frog!”. No, he doesn’t actually want you to eat an icky amphibian for breakfast, but you should tackle the most despised task (your frog) first to keep the positive momentum going for the rest of the day.

4. Plan Out Your Time

That old saying, “Fail to plan, plan to fail”? It’s so true when it comes to effective time management. It may seem counterintuitive to spend precious time planning out how to spend your time but it really does work.

5. Avoid Multitasking

You may think that attempting several things at once is a sure-fire way to blast through your task list. In fact, multitasking can pull you in different directions and stop you from maintaining focus. It’s quite likely you’ll end up starting lots of tasks but finishing very few if any.

6. Find Your Groove

We all have that time of day when we’re performing at our best. For you, this may be after your morning coffee, late afternoon, or even at 2 am. Whenever it is, get as much done as you can during your peak productivity times and stress less when you’re not feeling in the zone.

7. Do Away With Distractions

I know it’s hard, but switching off your cell phone, not responding to emails and avoiding social media for a block of time — even half an hour — will do wonders for your productivity. You’d be amazed how much can get done without checking out the latest cat meme you just HAVE to see.

8. Have a Dedicated Workspace

Whether you have a separate office or a study nook, a space that you can use solely for work can help get you in the right mindset. Make sure that wherever you choose is free from clutter and provides a positive working environment.

9. Stand Up

We spend more time than ever sitting down. At our desk, watching TV, driving the car. The solution? Standing. Using a stand-up desk or standing during meetings can eliminate time-wasting and force you to get down to business. If it’s too difficult to stand for a prolonged period, try alternating sitting with standing.

10. Get Some Rest

Adequate downtime is key to managing a heavy schedule. Not enough sleep can have a negative impact on your mood and ability to make proper decisions — bad news if the workload keeps growing. Many people also swear by regular meditation to clear the mind and recharge the batteries.

11. Trust in Others

Being able to “let go” and delegate tasks is something you need to embrace if you’re serious about project success. Click To Tweet

Harness the knowledge and abilities of people around you and you’ll raise team morale, improve accountability and start seeing results.

So, if you’re ready to take your productivity up a notch or two, you need to learn to work smarter and make use of resources available to you. What are you waiting for? Get going.

How to Discover Your Personal Productivity Style

How to Discover Your Personal Productivity Style

I bet by now, you’ve taken your fair share of personality and productivity tests.

There’s a lot to be learned from these self assessments, especially at the workplace. You work with a diverse group of people every day. Each with his or her own preferences for managing time, projects and tasks.

The popular personality test going around these days is based on a book, Work Simply, by author Carson Tate. Through years of research and testing, Carson developed an assessment tool identifying four unique personal productivity styles.

The “Planner”

The Planner is the team member who thrives on organized, sequential, planned, and detailed thinking. Planners immerse themselves in the details of a project and enjoy using calendar and project-planning tools.

Planners are not known for their spontaneity or flexibility. Thus, they risk missing out on certain opportunities and creative endeavors. They have been known to write something on their to-do list that has already been completed, just so they can cross it off. Planners thrive on schedules and action plans— they want you to get to the point; they’ll read the fine print later. Planners hate wasting time in meetings with no focus and no action plans. Their emails are detailed, often including bullet points and clearly stated next-action steps.

How Planners contribute to their team:

  • Action orientation and practicality
  • Finding overlooked flaws in plans or processes
  • Organizing and maintaining data and project plans

The “Prioritizer”

If you’re a Prioritizer, you gravitate to logical, analytical, fact-based, critical, and realistic thinking. You like to increase your efficiency by ascertaining how long it will take to complete certain tasks, and accurately plan their completion according to days and weeks.

As a Prioritizer, you’ve never met a goal you did not like or couldn’t apply laser-like focus to. You also hate idle chit-chat, or sharing too much personal information about yourself. And you like to keep your emails real brief— just a few sentences or words.

How Prioritizers contribute to their team:

  • Analyzing data
  • Critical analysis and logical problem solving
  • Goal orientation, consistency, and decisiveness

 The “Arranger”

As an Arranger, you prefer supportive, expressive, and emotional thinking. You are the ultimate team playera and excel at partnering with colleagues to get work done. You are a natural communicator and deftly facilitate project meetings. You hate when people lack that personal touch or rely too heavily on data or facts. Arrangers are talkers; they love stories, eye-to-eye contact, expressing concern for others, and asking questions about the way a project or task helps others. If you’re an Arranger, you have a predilection for chatting online and, when sending emails, a tendency to include lots of people on your cc: line.

How Arrangers contribute to their team:

  • Anticipating how others will feel and understanding their underlying emotions
  • Facilitating team interaction
  • Persuading and selling ideas

The “Visualizer”

If you’re a Visualizer, you prefer holistic, intuitive, integrated, and synthesized thinking. You thrive under pressure and are easily bored if you’re not juggling multiple, diverse projects. As a Visualizer, you focus on the big-picture and broad concepts. At times, you have a tendency to overlook details and tend to value the possibilities over process. Your excessive spontaneity and impulsiveness can lead to breakthrough ideas, but can also derail project plans at times. You have probably not seen the surface of your desk in years; emails tend to be long, filled with concepts and ideas.

How Visualizers contribute to their team:

  • Innovation; serving as a catalyst for change
  • Creative problem solving
  • Ability to envision the future, recognize new opportunities and integrate ideas and concepts

What’s your personal productivity profile?

Do you see yourself clearly in one of the profiles above? Or are you more like me, thinking: “Hey wait a minute, I see a little of me in all these profiles!”

The truth Is, you’re a unique individual.

You’re a snowflake, an original. And Tate agrees. In fact, she freely encourages you to use these profiles as “guideposts” to help you understand your unique blend of skills. Tate encourages you not to “worry if you find yourself spanning two or more styles.”

Mix it up.

With each of her four personality profiles, Ms. Tate recommends nifty resources, software programs and tools to accommodate each work style. Tate encourages readers not to limit themselves with tools from just one profile but to “Try tools from each, mix and match—it’s about what actually sticks with you in the end that is important.”

So go ahead, mix it up. The important thing is simply to recognize yourself and where your strengths are best put to work. 

Getting to know yourself & others— It’s a good thing.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to productivity. Instead, we need personalized approaches. This means employing work strategies that align with the cognitive styles of each member on your team —and guiding them in a way that suits their unique strengths and preferences.

What work style assessments have you taken lately? And what did you learn? Share with us below in the comments section

How to Infuse Balance into Your Work Week (And Still Boost Productivity)

How to Infuse Balance into Your Work Week (And Still Boost Productivity)

“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” is how the old proverb goes.

Not only does it make Jack dull, it makes him unhappy, more stressed and less productive. Injecting some work-life balance into your Monday to Friday routine is not just better for your own health and happiness — it’s better for your company as well, making it a more attractive place to work, both for existing and prospective employees.

But, the extent of the benefits runs far deeper than just making a company a more appealing place to work. Employees who enjoy a more balanced work week are generally happier, have higher morale, and feel more positively about their work and their employer. All of this leads to greater productivity through increased output and fewer sick days being taken.

It may seem counterintuitive, but the best way to increase productivity is not by spending more time at work and putting in longer hours. In fact, it’s the opposite. Structuring your work week to infuse balance is a self-perpetuating cycle of better health and better work. More balance leads to more effective and efficient work practices. Increased efficiency leads to more downtime. And the cycle goes on!

Here are some tips and tricks to infuse balance into your work week to reinvigorate yourself and boost productivity.

1. Schedule downtime

Make a list of all the non-work activities which you feel you should be spending more time focusing on. Common ones are spending time with family, attending health appointments (such as going to the doctor or getting a massage), or exercising. Once you’ve got your list, schedule time for these activities in your diary.

There’s a difference between knowing you need to do something and actually doing it. Purposefully setting aside time for these activities means you’re more likely to prioritize them and treat them as must-do’s instead of should-do’s.

2. Create analogue to-do lists

Keeping a hard-copy, analogue to-do list — even if it is printed from the computer — is a super simple and effective way of staying on track and not getting distracted. To-do lists that are kept on your phone or online planner can easily lead to distraction. You reach for your phone to check what you need to do, you see that a work email has come through, it reminds you that you need to call someone. Suddenly, you’ve spent 15 minutes of your Thursday evening doing work instead of the housework you’d written on your to-do list. Keeping a hardcopy to-do list at home stops work from creeping into your out-of-hours life.

3. Make the first hour of your day email-free

Make the first hour of your day email-free. Click To Tweet

You keep an alarm on your phone, your alarm goes off and you roll over to switch it off. Immediately, your attention is caught by Facebook notifications, a full email inbox, and lots of fresh news stories to check up on. You spend the first half an hour on your phone, trying to catch up on what you missed while you were asleep. Does this sound familiar?

Starting your day like this is not good for you or your relationships with your loved ones. The way social media operates and the 24/7 nature of technology creates a false sense of urgency and priority. You know what happens if you don’t check all of that online noise in the morning? Nothing! It sits there until you check it later. The first hour of your day should be “you” time or “family” time.

When you get to work, have another email-free hour. Starting your day by going through your emails puts you on the back foot and sets you in a reactive mode. Start your day proactively by getting things done which you’ve decided need to be done. The emails can wait and be actioned upon when you’re ready to give them a priority.

4. Work to your natural rhythm

Take note of your body, your mind and your attention span. You will begin to notice a pattern. For most people, there is roughly a 90-minute cycle, where they’ll go through a period of intense concentration followed by a period of lack of attention. This is normal, this is natural and — if you can tap into it and work with it — you’ll be far more productive.

Don’t force yourself to work through the periods of waning concentration. Instead, use them to enhance the time when you’re more focused. Use these moments to go outside and get some fresh air. Stand up, walk around the office, don’t think about work. Getting your body moving and your blood pumping is better for your body, better for balance, and will ultimately make you work more efficiently when you sit back down at your desk.

Infusing some balance into your work day isn’t a selfish thing to do. Balance leads to more efficient and effective work, increased output and boosted productivity. It’ll make you happier, healthier and less stressed, which not only benefits you and your family, but your employer and workplace too. Finding ways to inject some balance into your work week is simple to do and is beneficial to you and the people in your life.

9 Ways to Boost Productivity Without Increasing Stress

10 Ways to Boost Productivity Without Increasing Stress

The 1992 film Glengarry Glen Ross gave us an immortal phrase, “Always Be Closing,” or “ABC.” In today’s professional world of heavy workloads, multiple projects underway simultaneously, and overlapping deadlines, ABC might as well be “ABP” — “Always Be Producing.”

Because that is what is expected of the modern professional: high levels of productivity, from the mailroom to the courtroom, to the sales department to graphic design.

Unfortunately, this kind of culture breeds astronomical stress levels — a direct result of professionals overworking themselves in an attempt to meet unrealistic goals (often self-imposed) or neglecting to practice self-care on their path to success.

The good news is we don’t have to spend our lives taking blood pressure medicine or burning the midnight oil. Practicing several simple tricks will allow us to not only remain productive but also boost our productivity without increasing either our stress or our chances of winding up in a straight jacket.

Here are ten ways to boost productivity without increasing stress.

1. Keep It Simple

It is entirely too easy these days to overcomplicate even the simplest of tasks. But the bottom line is there’s just no need to attach a 2-page bibliography to that report on first quarter sales projections. Nor is it necessary to spend the night at Kinko’s creating large-format color graphs when all you were asked to do was write a simple report.

Employers do love employees who show incentive and go the extra mile, but sometimes taking inordinate amounts of time and brainpower to stand above the crowd only hurts you in the long run: you’ve now got to play catch-up on other projects and you’ve kind of come off across as the professional equivalent of a grade-grubber. Chances are most employers would rather have accurate, efficient work delivered as expected, and on time, than a showy display of “look how clever I am.”

2. Eliminate Distractions

While this should be a no-brainer, eliminating distractions can be trickier than it sounds. Distractions take many forms and can be as obvious as a radio station blaring in the background or as insidious as your cell phone “tinging” social media updates for 8 hours. If you work from home, a pleasant sunny day beckoning from beyond the front door can be an intense rival to the tasks you’ve assigned yourself, while a cuddly kitty certainly offers its own distracting appeal.

Whatever the distraction is, the key to fighting it will be discipline. Give yourself some help by offering yourself an incentive. For example, if you can stay off social media all work day — assuming it’s not part of your job — then reward yourself at night with a fancy pasta dinner or a much-needed run or hike. Maybe just knowing you’ll get home at a reasonable hour if you take fewer water cooler breaks is incentive enough to be as productive as possible. Because in the end, that’s what you’re doing: saving yourself unnecessary hours at the office by staying focused and buckling down. Just make sure you still take the occasional 10-minute break, which will allow to recharge your batteries and return to your work refreshed. Failing to do so will only lead to burnout.

3. Identify and Organize Tasks

There’s nothing worse than rolling over and over in bed at night stressing about a seemingly tangled mess of appointments, phone calls, meetings, emails, and reports — and then to show up at work the next morning not even knowing where to begin. Or worse, spending half your day on a task that was low on the priority scale. Avoid falling victim to this vicious cycle and productivity blocker by breaking down the day ahead of you task by task. Rate each task by order of importance and create an effective workflow. Call it a “To Do” list, if you will. Just get it out of your brain and on paper.

4. Just Dive In

We’ve all done it: put off until the last minute a major undertaking we’re dreading for some reason — maybe because it’s time-consuming, high-stress, or intimidating. But the longer we put off tasks, letting them become gremlins in the back of our minds, the more stressed we get, which begins to impact the other tasks we’re doing while we drag our feet. The simple fact is tackling those seemingly dreadful chores head-on brings both a sense of accomplishment and relief, and frees our minds to fully embrace the rest of the tasks facing us — increasing our productivity and reducing our stress, in other words.

5. Don’t Get Bogged Down

On the flip side of going full bore on a project is making sure we don’t get caught up in “red herring” details — minor issues that drain our attention and productivity. For example, rather than stressing for two days about which font to use on a report, stop trying to reinvent the wheel and select a font that’s commonly accepted in-house. Then move on with your life; you’re not a graphic designer. Obsessing over minor issues like this is just another form of procrastination. Learn to recognize it and you’ll learn to recognize what’s important and what’s not, resulting in a more streamlined workflow.

6. Ask For Help

In a competitive work environment, asking a colleague or supervisor for help with a task or project can seem like a death sentence, an announcement to the office that you are incapable and need someone else to do your job for you. On the contrary, in any work environment, if a project manager or boss values quality work, it should say that you are doing your due diligence — making every effort possible to get it right. And that should be the bottom line, right? A quality product? There should be no shame in admitting you don’t know how to access certain information, or that you can’t get a particular program to work. More practically, it will help remove whatever stumbling block was in your way, allowing you to be productive once more and a little less stressed out. Get the answers you need and move on. However, once someone shows you to solve a problem, remember the solution. One of the deadly sins in any workplace is having to repeatedly be shown how to do something.

7. Delegate/Swap Assignments When Possible

Sometimes, there’s just denying you’ve been assigned or have taken on a task for which you just are not suited. Trying to fit the square peg (you) in the round hole (the task) is ultimately just a waste of everyone’s time. Again, there should be no shame in admitting you’re working outside of your wheelhouse. In fact, it demonstrates you’re a team player — as long as you’re willing to take on an equal amount of work in a field with which you have more experience. You don’t want to appear lazy or as if you’re pawning work off on someone else. Rather, if you’ve run into a brick wall, find someone more suited to the task at hand and give them a chance to excel and shine instead of trying to clumsily do it yourself. This allows all involved to get back to being productive.

8. Take Care of Yourself

The link between personal health and productivity at the office is an important one. If you’re not sleeping at night you can’t very well be expected to churn out quality work the next day. Likewise, if your diet consists of energy drinks and fast food, chances are very good you’re not operating at optimal levels. Getting enough sleep, getting exercise, eating healthy — these are all essential to performing well on the job and keeping stress levels low.

9. Make Your Work Environment Pleasant

Happy workers are productive workers. If listening to your iPod makes you happy — and isn’t a distraction — then invest in some great earbuds and enjoy yourself as you crank out those reports. Maybe spruce up your office with some houseplants that you find calming, or attach photos of inspirational figures to your walls. Whatever keeps you calm, happy, and motivated will likely keep you productive and less stressed. Just make sure not to lose valuable work time staring dreamily at that autographed photo of Elon Musk.

Do you have any tips to boost productivity? Share them in the comments below!

Productivity vs Time: The Best Time Management Strategy

Productivity vs Time: The Best Time Management Strategy

Productivity is a measure of how much work is done in a given amount of time.

The more work a person gets done during this time, the more productive that person is. In order to get more done and be more productive, good time management skills are essential. We all have days that are less productive, but our overall productivity should be high from one day to the next. How do we ensure this is the case?

To come up with a strategy for time management, you need to know yourself. You need to understand your personality, how well you prioritize and organize, and how self-disciplined you are. You also need to have a good grasp on which methods of organization work best for you in terms of scheduling your time.

With this in mind, here are the best tips to make your time management strategy one that maximizes your potential.

Assess how you spend your time

When you’re ready to determine how to make the most of your time and increase your productivity, you need to first understand how you currently spend your time. A useful tool is to create a time journal or time log. You can spend a week or two writing down what you have done in each 15-minute interval during your work day. Once you have this written down, you can go back over it and work out whether you accomplished everything you needed to get done during those periods of time and over the entire day. You can also see a number of other valuable pieces of information, including:

Where distractions crept into your day

  • The time of the day during which you are the most productive
  • What tasks or activities take the most time to complete
  • What in your life takes up the most time in your life, whether that is work, family, recreation, or something else, and what takes up most of your
  • time during your work day (meetings, project management, etc.)
  • Whether you are using your time to complete the most important tasks/activities

Determine your priorities

You have recorded what you do each day and know what you are dealing with. Now you can choose the most important tasks and put them at the top of your list in terms of priority. Essentially, you need to go through everything you do on a regular basis and prioritize these things in terms of what is:

  • Urgent
  • Important
  • Not important

The best way to manage your time is to take time away from non-important tasks so you can focus on more important tasks, hopefully preventing them from becoming urgent. This will keep your urgent priorities to a minimum, reducing your stress.

Prep time is critical

Once you have the information on your current use of time, you can then make a plan. Preparing your schedule ahead of time each day will help you better manage your use of time. Some people do this at the end of the day, setting themselves up for the following day before they leave work. Other people choose to get up and have an early start to their day, using this time to plan ahead and set their schedule.

Scheduling is your friend

You need to schedule your time and record that schedule so you know what you are doing and when you are doing it. It’s like a place for everything and everything in its place. You should determine what time of day you are most productive and make that the time when you get the most important tasks done.

Use a planning tool that works best for you. There are plenty of scheduling apps that will remind you of when you have appointments coming up or something is due. But, some people still work better with paper planners. You need to decide what is best for you and stick with it. Here are some tips to follow when scheduling your time:

Don’t write notes you plan to transfer to your planner later on. This just increases the risk of disorganization and missed appointments or deadlines. Instead, record everything directly into your planner.

  • Ensure that if you use both a planning app or electronic planner and a paper planner that the two are always synced.
  • Make sure you look through your schedule/planner on a daily basis.
  • Keep your planner with you at all times.
  • Always have a list of your priorities in your planner.
  • Remember to have a backup of your schedule, especially if you have an electronic version.

Keep organized

Make sure your work environment is decluttered and that everything has a place. Getting rid of clutter is the first priority. Throw it away, give it away, or sell it if you don’t need it. Once you have decluttered, you can then set up an organizational system. When you are organized, you give yourself the best opportunity to increase productivity.

Banish distractions

Now that you have taken care of everything on your end, including assessing your use of time, preparing ahead of time, scheduling your time wisely, and getting organized, you will need to do something about the distractions that come from your surrounding environment. This includes electronic distractions and distractions that come from people in your life.

During your assessment of your time use, you listed all the distractions you found during your day. When it comes to the electronic distractions, you can uninstall or hide apps that are not necessary for you to do your job. When you are in heavy work mode, close your email and turn your phone to silent. Whenever possible, keep yourself apart from people who will be a distraction.

Proper management of time will increase your productivity. Following the above steps will help you focus on the most important aspects of your schedule and you will be better able to manage your time so that you will be more productive than ever.

Do you have any tips about your own time management strategy? Share them in the comments below!

35 Empowering Social Media Marketing Stats

35 Empowering Social Media Marketing Stats

The time to harness the power of social media in your marketing strategy is now.

In fact, it has never been more important. Social Media Marketing (SMM) has become the best way to get word of your business out there. SMM is inexpensive and allows you to target your audience and build a direct relationship with your followers and customers in a way that has not been possible until now. You can respond immediately to problems and questions that come up, and SMM will help you expand your customer base.

Not convinced?

Here are 35 empowering social media stats that will prove that you need to jump on the SMM bandwagon.

Social media consumer usage

1. Link Humans reports that 2.1 billion of the 7.2 billion people on earth have a minimum of one social media account.

2. According to SocialMediaToday, there was an increase of 176 million social media users in 2015.

3. SocialMediaToday also reports there are 12 new active mobile social media users every second.

4. Pew Research Center (PRC) reports that 76 percent of all online users used social media sites, compared to 65 percent of online adults.

5. PRC also reports that of the adult demographic, 90 percent of the 18-29 demographic use social media.

6. PRC reports that 35 percent of online adults aged 65 and older use social media.

7. PRC reports that 52 percent of online adults use at least two social media sites.

8. Statista estimates there will be 2.5 billion social media worldwide users by 2018.

9. Link Humans reports that 90 percent of Pinterest users are women.

10. According to Link Humans, the most active people on social media are mothers whose children are under the age of 5.

11. According to GlobalWebIndex, in 2014, people averaged just over 6 hours per day online and more than a quarter of that time was spent on social media.

12. GlobalWebIndex also reports that global internet users have an average of 5.54 social media accounts, with the 16-24 age group having an average of 6.55 social media accounts.

13. Hubspot reports that 78 percent of people watch online videos each week and 55 percent of people watch online videos each day.

14. Recode reports that Facebook users watch 100 million hours’ worth of video per day and that 500 million people watched videos every day.

15. Snapchat recently reported to Bloomberg that they hit 10 billion video views per day.

16. Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends reports that the most popular social media platform for teens and young adults is Instagram (32 percent), followed by Twitter (24 percent), Facebook (14 percent), Snapchat (13 percent), and Tumbler (4 percent). This makes Instagram an important target for SMM.

Social media business usage

17. Marketing Charts reports (based on research conducted by University of Massachusetts Dartmouth) that a whopping 93 percent of Fortune 500 companies have a primary LinkedIn profile. Of these Fortune 500 companies, 87 percent have an active profile on Glassdoor, 78 percent on Twitter, and 74 percent on Facebook.

18. Altimeter reports that 82 percent of the businesses they surveyed were already engaged in, currently adopting, or planning to adopt a social media marketing strategies in 2015.

19. Altimeter also reports that 38 percent of respondents spend more than 20 percent of their advertising budget on their social media presence.

20. According to TNW News, 61 percent of startups use social media as their primary marketing tool.

21. Social Media Examiner reports that 96 percent of small business owners make use of SMM. Of those surveyed, 58 percent “Strongly Agree” SMM is important for their business and 34 percent “Agree.”

22. Social Media Examiner also reports that Facebook is the most used social media platform for marketing as 93 percent of those surveyed indicated they use it.

23. According to Social Media Examiner, more B2B companies use LinkedIn for SMM (41 percent) and more B2C companies use Facebook (65 percent).

24. As reported by Social Media Examiner, 90 percent of small business owners agree increased exposure is the number one benefit of SMM.

25. MarketWatch reports that 54 percent of top 50 CEOs have appeared in a company video targeted to social media.

26. According to iMedia Connection, a mere 27 percent of C-level management get involved in social media in 2015, which is a drop of 20 percent since 2012.

27. Despite the above two stats, Lenati reports a whopping 84 percent of VPs and CEOs admit they use social media when making their own decisions regarding what to purchase.

28. SocialTimes reports that based on Yesmail’s research, 91 percent of all retail brands surveyed make use of at least two social media platforms.

Social media marketing

29. MarketingSherpa reports that 33 percent of adults between the ages of 18 and 34 prefer communicating with companies via social media.

30. Forbes reports that salespeople who are adept at social media use were more likely to exceed their sales quota. Of those surveyed, 74 percent of those who exceeded their quota were highly skilled or better than average, as were 56 percent who met their quota.

31. Forbes also reports that 64 percent of sales associates attribute the closing of at least one deal to social media use.

32. According to Direct Marketing, 57 percent of consumers say they would think more highly of a business if they saw positive comments or praise left for the business online.

33. Dazeinfo reveals that in the next five years 22.5 percent of the marketing budgets of companies will be devoted to social media.

34. According to Simply Measured, the top goal for SMM is brand awareness at 74 percent, followed by website traffic at 53 percent and lead generation at 41 percent.

35. TNW News reports that 43 percent of digital marketers agree that SMM is one of the most effective marketing methods.

It is clear from the array of statistics provided here that social media is a powerful platform from which to market your business. Despite what some naysayers once said about the internet — just check out the Newsweek article published in 1995 called Why The Web Won’t Be Nirvana — the internet flourished, as has social media.

So, make sure you don’t get left behind, and make the most of what social media marketing can do for you.

Have any social media marketing stats of your own to share? Leave them in the comments below!

10 Tips to Increase Productivity for Employees

10 Tips to Increase Productivity for Employees

Increasing productivity for employees is about creating incentives for employees to work harder, but also smarter.

Whether it’s through cultivating workplace happiness, loyalty, and sense of common goals, or simply introducing financial incentives, these 10 ideas will increase productivity and ultimately ensure the organization is getting the best out of its employees.

1. Share the big picture

The overarching principle for increasing employee productivity is keeping them happy and fostering the desire to work hard. The best foundation for this is to have every employee — at all levels of the company — understand the core values, mission, vision and current goals.

If an employee can appreciate where they fit in and how their role is vital to the company, they’re more likely to feel included and take on those goals as their own.

2. Lead by example

If you want your employees to ramp up their productivity, you need to show them how it’s done. Rolling up your sleeves and pitching in shows that the work that is being done is important. Just be careful not to micro-manage, nit-pick, or give the impression that you think your staff is incapable of doing the task without you. If you’re in a leadership role, give employees the opportunity to solve problems for themselves and take ownership for their work.

3. Have social outings

This can be as simple as a short lunch break away from the office with the whole team. Regular breaks are an important part of keeping brains fresh and working at their peak potential. These social breaks encourage team bonding. Feeling connected to colleagues and part of a team goes a long way to improve workplace happiness.

4. Allow non-traditional hours

Scheduling employees during the hours they work best = more productivity. Click To Tweet

Some people are early birds. Some people are night owls. Allowing employees to schedule their hours differently than the usual 9 to 5 means that they can work when they work best, and you can benefit from the resulting increase in productivity.

Many workplaces are now embracing remote work, allowing employees to work from home. Recent developments in technology have meant that — as long as someone has a phone and a computer — they can work from just about anywhere. The ability to work from home can mean that, instead of taking a sick day and doing no work at all, employees can stay away from the office and yet still get just as much done.

5. Give regular and consistent feedback

Employees need to feel confident that they’re on the right track and doing what they should be doing. Tracking progress and checking in with staff members at regular intervals not only allows you to keep an eye on whether they’re hitting their targets, it also allows them to ask questions and clarify anything.

Without this feedback and sense that someone is supporting them, employees can be listless or feel adrift. With consistent feedback, however, they can feel more confident in what they’re doing and can power through their workload, increasing productivity and motivation to work effectively and efficiently.

6. Introduce economic incentives at all levels

End of year bonuses and the like are often reserved for executive members of an organisation. A well-structured incentive program applied to all levels of the organisation is a simple way to boost productivity for lower level employees. After all, increasing productivity is all about providing an incentive to work hard, and sometimes there’s no better incentive than cold, hard cash!

7. Don’t underestimate the power of recognition

In saying that money is a major motivator, it’s important not to forget other factors. Recognising someone’s efforts and praising a job well done can have a powerful impact. This gesture shows that hard work is not going unnoticed and that the employee is a valued member of the team. It all feeds into the aim of fostering worker loyalty and making an employee feel included and valued.

8. Celebrate small victories

Going hand-in-hand with the power of recognition, it’s important to celebrate achievements of all levels. Don’t wait until the end of a project to congratulate someone for their contribution or to thank them for a job well done. Any time you see someone exemplifying the kind of work you are aiming for, give them a proverbial pat on the back and take into consideration how they prefer to be recognized.

9. Relax internet restrictions

This may seem counterintuitive, but allowing employees to check Facebook at work or watch YouTube videos can go a long way to increasing productivity. Short breaks are important to keep people working their best, and the ability to take a quick break from work to check social media can help people to refocus without even leaving their desk.

10. Sponsor further education

Sponsoring your employees to improve their skills or further their education shows that you’re investing in them. Not only will employees feel valued and enjoy their role, any additional training is also helping them to do their job better. It really is a win-win for the company!

At the end of the day, a business relies on its employees to produce results and make a profit. And whilst there’s a multitude of ways you can increase profits, the best method you’ve got is to boost employee productivity. But you can’t force employees to work harder, they have to want to work harder.

Putting these ten productivity tips into practice will have your employees firing on all cylinders, your workplace buzzing, and your bottom line growing.

Do you have your own tip about increasing productivity for employees? Share it in the comments below!