We all want to be more productive.  My team is located in different cities in the U.S.  We have a lot going on. Here’s what I do to maximize my productivity.  Maybe some of these ideas will help you as well.

Avoid conference calls

Recently, a large client insisted on a conference call. There were seven participants from the client and three members of our team.

It felt like a Seinfeld episode.  Most of the time was spent identifying who was talking and guessing about who said what.  It was a complete waste of time.

I avoid conference calls.  If our team must have a call, only one member participates.  We encourage our clients to designate one person from their side as well.

We take it a step further.  We try to avoid all calls. It’s an ineffective way to communicate.  It’s much more efficient to communicate via Slack (discussed below) or e-mail.

Use Slack

Slack has revolutionized the way our team communicates.

Basically, Slack is an instant messaging app, but it’s brilliantly conceived.  It permits us to communicate directly with one or more members of our team, and also to set up “channels” for each project.  Everyone working on that project is a member of that channel.

Using channels permits us to organize all communications relating to any project and to easily search and retrieve documents and messages from that channel.

We also use Slack to communicate with vendors and clients.  Clients love it because they can send input to us instantaneously and get a response in seconds.  

We have the app on our mobile devices so we can retrieve and send information wherever we are.

Since we adopted Slack, our e-mails have dropped by 90% and our productivity has markedly increased.

If you aren’t using Slack, you should consider it.

An added bonus:  It’s free.

Delegate

Just because you are capable of doing something doesn’t mean you should.

My core competence is writing, contributing to social media, and communicating with prospects and clients.  I can do lots of other activities, but it’s not the highest and best use of my time. I’ve worked hard on the art of delegation.

Delegating involves finding the right people, and trusting them to do their job right.  It isn’t easy for those of us who thrive on control to “let go.”

I’ve pushed the envelope.  I keep giving more and more responsibility to my team members.  It turns out that their capabilities far exceed what I had imagined.  All I had to do was empower and trust them.

Resource of the week:

You can read about Slack here.  It’s worth your time.