Learn to touch type to help improve productivity

Learn to touch type is just one way to improve your productivity, starting today!

Top tips to help make your life that little bit easier…

You jump from one task to the next without really achieving or finishing anything. It’s time to work out what you want, what your priorities are and make a plan to get there. This can be applied to any situation – work, college, tackling endless housework or juggling family or home life. So how do you get started?

Put your list into categories for example

Work – social media, marketing, finance
Home – shopping, food, finances, homework help
Housework – clean bathroom, wipe windows, hoover, dust, washing, ironing.

Prioritise your tasks – what is most important?

Is there a deadline?
Is someone waiting for you to do something before they can do their bit?
Is this really necessary for me to do?
Can I do this later?
What would make me feel better if it were done?

Learn skills to make work tasks a little bit easier. If you learn to touch type you can double your typing speed. That means if you type on average for 7 hours a week, you can get your work done in half the time and spend the 3 hours you have saved doing something else! Find out more.

Print off a calendar/planner (plenty of free templates online) or you can use a website such as Trello to make lists which you can tick off. Write down a few tasks each day, starting with the most urgent. Don’t write too many – you can always skip to the next day if you finish quickly!

Block out some time each day in your diary. Don’t jump from task to task, spend that time concentrating on your to-do list. It is much better to focus on one task at a time – jumping from one topic to another makes you lose your thread or have to find your place again.

Plus that feeling of achievement when you can tick something off your daily list! You could block out time for work, home, family/me/exercise time.

Plan in some rest breaks during your day so you can find time to refocus.

Try to combine errands so you waste less time between trips i.e. if you need to go to the petrol station, or chemist to pick up a prescription, could you combine this with another task such as shopping for groceries or picking up that pint of milk? Can you go to the supermarket or pick something up before the school run?

If there is something you need to do regularly i.e. send the same information out to customers/clients, try to simplify it. For example, I have particular information that I need to send out regularly.

I now keep a word document with that information so that I can copy and paste it into an email then personalise it. This could extend into daily life too e.g. create a mail merge document with all your Christmas card labels on it or get some Christmas labels printed off to stick on Christmas presents (with Love from the Smith Household).

Make sure you put in some time for you/your partner/your family life – all of which are important too.

Learn to say no and to delegate. This could be at work or at home, assigning a few household errands to the children each week.

Spend a bit of time prepping for the next day the night before so that you are ready to go. In our house, the morning is a mad rush so school uniforms/my clothes are laid out, lunch boxes are prepped as much as possible and even cereal bowls and cups are left out ready on the side.

In terms of work, if you have to go to a meeting somewhere new, check out the address in advance, have a look at a map or train route planner for the likely journey time, make sure you have your train route (if applicable) mapped out or potential places to park. Have your bag ready to go with the equipment you need.

If you are planning to go to the gym early in the morning, have your bag ready the night before. You are more likely to actually make it to the gym!

Maybe run an eye over your to-do list for the next day and check out if your priorities are the same. We all have to juggle. Hopefully, this list will give you a few tips to make your daily life a little easier.