How to Maximize Productivity in your Business through Automation

Every smart business owner always thinks productivity, efficiency and lowering costs. Automation helps to achieve these noble business tasks. If you incorporate automation in your business systems, you can systematically and seamlessly execute routine tasks, optimize processes and minimize direct human labor intervention. Doing this leads to significant savings in time, money, and other resources. It allows employees to better concentrate their efforts on more strategic tasks that are less repetitive. There are various types of automation technologies now in use by business owners. Whichever automation technologies you decide to use, the bottom line is optimization of business efficiency. That is what helps to save costs, increase productivity and profits.

 
How Automation Revolutionizes Business Efficiency

Business automation if well deployed helps to enhance business efficiency. With it, business owners are able to effectively streamline operations, mitigate bottlenecks, and minimize errors in repetitive tasks. This ultimately enables employees to focus more on high-value, specialized work. In addition, automation helps to facilitate better data management and utilization. This ultimately helps to empower businesses to make data-driven decisions more effectively. Optimization their overall performance becomes the direct consequence. Because of the diverse automation options now available to business owners, they can now strike the perfect balance between efficiency and effectiveness in their quest to optimize productivity.

Following are six of the most common automation technologies business owners routinely use. Each one has its own competitive edge when implemented optimally:

1. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML): AI and ML are quite handy for decision making. By applying their advanced algorithms and learning capabilities to business tasks that require decision-making or pattern recognition, these automation tools can greatly eliminate human intervention.

2. Cognitive Automation: Cognitive automation incorporates natural language processing (NLP) and computer vision to automate tasks that require human-like perception or understanding.

3. Robotic Process Automation (RPA): RPA is great for repetitive business tasks such as data entry or invoice processing.

4. Desktop Automation: This involves computer network business computing. It links tasks on individual computers such as file management or data processing and development.
 
5. Business Process Automation (BPA): BPA is quite useful for a bit complex business processes. It involves streamlining complex, multi-step workflows that involve multiple business systems and participants.

6. Internet of Things (IoT) Automation: IoT automation involves connecting and automating devices, sensors, and systems for data collection, monitoring, and control.

Final Thoughts

Significantly, and as outlined above, each type of automation is a unique tool that provides different benefits. If you understand your business needs well enough, you can decide on the best automation tool that can give you the best solution. This understanding will help you to make an informed choice about any automation solution that can help your business succeed as planned. Yes, automation really offers numerous benefits to your business but it is not without its own challenges. These challenges may stem from inadequate planning, poor alignment with business objectives and insufficient employee training which are all human related. The reason it also requires human efforts to overcome them.

3 Smart Ways Online Marketers Can Boost Their Personal Productivity

Most online marketers usually face huge challenges in their daily activities and it affects their productivity a great deal. These challenges range from SEO, website optimization, internet access device optimization, managing traffic and rankings, PPC campaigns, social media marketing, Search Engine marketing, Email marketing, online reputation management and so on. By taking on these many marketing activities, (even if necessary for your overall marketing success), productivity at times takes a dip. That is more so if you have no viable and workable plan in place to take on the numerous marketing tasks. Then what to do? Simple! Just put a little planning in place to help curb the challenges. That helps your online productivity a great deal. If you take my tips, follow the simple measures below and even make them routine practices, they can help boost your online marketing productivity a great deal.

  

1. Break Up Your Marketing Tasks Into Smaller Bits

Breaking your marketing tasks into smaller bits/milestones creates simplicity and easy achievability. That helps your online productivity. Just spare quality time to create, daily, weekly and monthly tasks you need to take on for your marketing. Follow this plan diligently by accomplishing one task before moving on to the next. That helps to provide direction and the impetus to accomplish more tasks. When tasks are in smaller bits, they become more realistic and easily achievable. By the time you chalk off one task after another on completion, it makes you feel good. That provides the right motivation to keep things going smoothly till you achieve your targets.  Once you achieve your targets as planned, your productivity goes up naturally.

2. Avoid Distractions with Good Planning

Online marketers can do well to always avoid distractions. With distractions, marketers tend to dissipate energy and resources unnecessarily. Inevitably, online marketers have to daily browse other websites and visit many social media platforms. That is where many of the distractions are unless you are strictly guided by what takes you to each site and to exit the site as soon as you are through with it. That requires prior planning. Good planning helps online marketers to manage their to-do lists effectively and efficiently. With it, they can check procrastination and missing out on tasks, spending too long a time a one site and getting attracted to other issues on these sites outside what they planned for. Good planning allows online marketers to focus on real work and steering clear of accessing websites that have nothing to do with the work at hand. If as a marketer you are unable to make conscious efforts to avoid these distractions, you can engage a time-tracking tool to help manage your time well online. Doing so can be great for productivity.

 

3. Always Optimize Your Internet Access Device

Clutter naturally slows down internet access devices particularly computers. Since online marketers usually have a resource-intensive job that requires that they access countless sites and toggle between multiple sites simultaneously on regular basis, picking up a lot of clutter is a given. Without removing this clutter regularly, you inadvertently slow down the performance and efficiency of such devices. Therefore, you must routinely take deliberate steps to optimize the device you are using to access the internet with a view to maintaining its high performance and on memory fronts. Fortunately, there are very handy remedies to turn to if you want to boost your productivity with a super fast computer. You can easily use the right software among the many available online to clean up your computer systems and get rid of the redundant files and apps slowing it down. It is that simple. 

How to Remain Productive While Working from Home

Now that Covid-19 pandemic has forced millions of people to work from home world-wide, many have lost their much cherished freedoms. We all love freedom. Everyone loves freedom. One of the perks of working from home is freedom to do as you please. Working from home gives you the flexibility to work with your own rules and your own time. It saves you the hassles of daily commute and its attendant costs. In addition, it allows you quality time for your family and loved ones. Inspite of all these perks, it is always a struggle to remain organized while working from home. You cannot be effectively productive if you are not sufficiently organized.

Here is what you can do to help you better organized while working from home.

Daily Work Plan

To avoid timing conflicts in your work at home, it is best to always have a daily work plan and to follow it strictly for the day. That is the best way to get more work done within a given time.

Designated Work Space

Your work space should be carefully chosen within your home. It must be a quiet place where you can find some comfort and a bit of privacy. It must be devoid of typical home distractions like noisy and playful kids, TV sounds, Kitchen sounds etc. What matters is to be able to work from the space with all amounts of concentration while at work. The space can be in the bedroom, balcony or near an open widow with a good panoramic view of vegetation or the countryside. That helps your productivity.


 
Designated Work Times

For personal discipline and productivity, it is good to designate specific times of the day or night solely for work and other times for rest and family. If it is time to work, you must stop everything else you are doing then proceed to your work station to work. For the sake of productivity, this should be non-negotiable.

Avoid Dehydration

To enhance good blood circulation and to avoid cramps, you can have a bottle of clean table-water on your work desk where you take regular sips to re-hydrate. As part of your regular breaks, you can also seize the opportunity to walk to the kitchen refrigerator to take some water.

Declutter Your Work Space
 
At times, physical clutter tends to translate to mental clutter in a work station. It is therefore important to declutter your work desk at least once a week. Ensure your work desk is always organized and conducive for productive work. So, you must avoid piling up files/papers and working tools in a disorganized manner. Work desk clutter can lead to confusion and other problems which distract you and slow down your work. If you are able to keep a neat desk in your work station, it somehow reflects some power and tranquillity. A neat and tranquil workspace helps the mind to focus better and that helps productivity.

Mind Your Mental Health

Confinement, isolation and privacy if excessive can affect our immune system and mental wellbeing. The reason you must always maintain your mental well-being and immune system. If you fail to do so, you may end up with mental challenges making you susceptible to covid-19 and various flu and even other inflammations. When your body’s immune system reacts abnormally, it somehow helps to diminish the capability of the body to function normally and that affects your productivity.

Take Regular Breaks

Everyone needs a very calm mind to be able to focus properly on any constructive engagement. While working at home, you can avoid being stressed up by regularly taking short hourly breaks. That helps productivity. You can use these beaks to just take a walk around and stretch your body a bit. You can use the breaks to take a cup of tea/coffee or even a sip of water from the kitchen fridge. You may even choose to meditate a bit during these breaks. Anything that helps your mental health, blood circulation and alleviates muscle aches is ok during these breaks. What matters is to do things that help your physical body get some much needed movement to improve blood circulation. You may even choose to step out in the balcony to get some fresh air, catch some sunlight and listen to birds/insects sing/chirp or by simply gazing far into the landscape horizon. These activities help your mental health and wellbeing, reduce stress and somehow improve productivity.

 

Downsides of Working from Home

We all love freedom. Everyone loves freedom. One of the perks of working from home is freedom to do as you please. Working from home gives you the flexibility to work with your own rules and your own time. It saves you the hassles of daily commute and its attendant costs. In addition, it allows you quality time for your family and loved ones. Inspite of all these perks, it is always a struggle to remain organized while working from home.

Here are some of the downsides.

Man by nature is a social animal. He thrives very well through social connectivity and emotional support from other persons. By working from home in social isolation, he is deprived of all these. This can at times affect productivity.
While in isolation and without other persons to interact with, the only way to be motivated to work is by way of self-motivation. If you are incapable of motivating yourself to work, you become less productive. 


 
Working in isolation can be easily stressful because of the social deprivation. "Stress is the experience that happens when the demands in front of us outweigh the resources.” This is easily aggravated in isolation because there are no ready resources outside yourself alone to draw from more so when you are unable to self-motivate. This is one dreadful downside of working in isolation.

The freedom and flexibility of working from home in isolation can be a cost. Excessive freedom is easily abused and it becomes a downside to working in isolation. Just imagine if there is no fixed time for you to report to work and there are no bosses to worry about being late to work. In this kind of scenario, there is a tendency to sleep more and to laze around more without worrying your head about consequences. This affects productivity.

By nature many human beings don’t get to do anything unless they have to. That chips off from self-discipline. Many of us don't do things until we have to. The absolute flexibility that comes with Work From Home culture could hit your discipline. You are more likely to procrastinate by leaving things you can do now for later and it affects your productivity.

You go around these downsides and still remain productive.
 
The first step is to practice self-discipline. You can make your own strict schedule then practice self-discipline by sticking with it till your work is done. That is one great way to be your own effective commander by strictly following your own rules. That is how to avoid unwarranted anxiety, work-related stress and undue self-criticism. You can take care of your stress-induced mental health better by practicing meditation and resilience in some quiet moments of your isolation. If not, negative stress can psychologically hamper your productivity.


 

Quick Mood Boosting Tips

As an entrepreneur, your mind must be alert at all times if you hope to make it in our highly competitive world. That’s why your mood swings count a lot. According to some experts, very simple things are always available to you to help give your mind a boost for utmost performance. Successful executives attest to this fact. Some of such executives are:

Jay Hoag, founding general partner of TCV
Jessica Bedard, shoe designer
Nitin Chhoda, CEO, Total Activation
Diego Rossetti, president, Fratelli Rossetti
Rachel Wenman, co-founder, vice president, Urban Seed Inc.
Maci Peterson, co-founder, CEO, On Second Thought



These executives live by example and they readily share their thoughts with others particularly on ways to boost your mood at work. Here are some of such ways which have turned out to be highly effective.

1. Cooking: If you like to cook and once in a while you get into the kitchen to cook something amazing, it helps your mood. Cooking is a very relaxing and creative thing to do. When you get compliments from people who love your cooking, it helps your mood.

2. Sitting out in the open air and garden: Views of nature, the free air and aromas of the field can be very relaxing and mood boosting. Sitting out quietly without distractions is very helpful here.

3. Listening to soothing music: Music has been known for ages as a real mood booster.  Depending on how you feel, the type of music which can help your mood also varies. If when you press the play button and you suddenly find yourself singing and dancing along, your mood benefits most. It helps to have a customized playlist of genres and decades of songs that bring back fond memories to your mind. That is some music that really makes you feel something. Music that is good for the mood. Good music is sure a good mood booster anytime any day.

4. Jogging and hiking: When you are down in the dump, it helps to get out of the home for a jog or a hike. The outdoor panorama, good fresh air and picturesque landscapes help the mood a great deal. These activities help to clear your mind for proper thinking while at the same time leaving you totally refreshed when you get back home.

5. Looking at family pictures albums: This habit also helps to bring back to your mind fond memories of your childhood, your family, your children, your adventures and your travels over the years. If you find yourself upset after encounters with some sour persons or you’ve just had a bad deal or some confrontational conversations, relaxing at home looking at fond pictures albums does help in some way to lift your spirits.

6. Watching favorite TV channels or Videos: Some people love cartoons, sports, travels, adventures or just plain musicals to help lift their spirits. Whichever of these you feel good about is a mood booster which helps your relaxation.

Top 5 Ways to Stay Calm under Pressure

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If you run a business, there is no doubt you must be running into pressure from time to time. Your ability to stay calm even while under pressure counts for much in your productivity index. What that means is that your ability to manage your emotions and remain calm under pressure has a direct link to your performance on the job. Therefore, if you want to stay calm under pressure, learn to do these here 5 things.

01. Staying positive. Staying positive is one great way to avoid being stressed up. Positive thoughts help make stress intermittent by focusing your brain’s attention onto something that is completely stress-free. When things are going well, and your mood is good, it is relatively easy to handle. But when things are going poorly, and your mind is flooded with negative thoughts, this can be a challenge. Your way around such challenges is to have something positive that you're ready to shift your attention to when your thoughts turn negative. That way, you can manage to remain calm even while facing real challenges.

02. More rest and sleep. Credible research has shown that that the stress hormone cortisol is greatly reduced with better rest and sleep. When you sleep well, your brain literally recharges and your body rejuvenates. That way, you can think better and more clear-headed in your thinking. But when you are deprived of sleep and rest, your stress hormone levels go up and that presents a real challenge to your productivity. Getting enough sleep and rest enables you to remain calm even under stressful conditions.

03. Limiting your caffeine intake. Caffeine is a well known stimulant present in common beverages like tea and coffee. Ingesting caffeine somehow helps to trigger the release of adrenaline which is a “fight-or-flight” hormone.  The more caffeine you take, the higher your “fight-or-flight” response, a survival mechanism which defies rational thinking. In such hyper-aroused state induced by caffeine, your emotions somehow manage to overrun your behavior. That is clearly a stressed-up scenario. Ingesting less caffeine therefore, is one sure way to stay calm even under pressure.

04. Engaging more support system. Taking on too many tasks at a time and heaping much more on yourself is stress-inducing. To be calm and productive, you need to recognize your weaknesses/limitations and ask for help when you need it. That is a very smart thing to do anytime you have too much on your plate. One great way out of stress is to tap into your support system when you find yourself in a situation challenging enough for you to feel overwhelmed. Getting a helping hand during such challenges is one way to stay calm and be productive.  Asking for help in times of need helps to mitigate your stress level and strengthens your relationships with the people you regularly rely upon to help out in such scenarios.

05. Routinely disconnecting. Every human being has his own limits of endurance and it varies from person to person. Disconnecting is a way of shifting attention away from the work at hand to focus on other mundane matters which may or may not be directly related to the work at hand. That way you can refocus and somehow get rejuvenated when you turn your attention back to your main work. For example, if you work online, sometimes, forcing yourself offline and taking a short walk, stretching out and grabbing a cup of tea or coffee can help you disconnect somewhat. This is one more very smart way to maintain some measure of calmness even while working under tremendous pressure.

 

5 Ways to Effectively Gauge Your Productivity

Do you run a small business? Are you as productive as you should be? Do you work very long and hard? I have good news for you my friend. Productivity is not all about working longer and harder. It is about working better and smarter. You must routinely do these 5 things if you want to be sufficiently productive.

01. Avoid Multitasking

Always eliminate any distractions in your work place. Avoid Multitasking because it is a myth even though a much-hyped one by projects managers. Juggling tasks clearly reduces efficiency and productivity. Switching from task to task requires refocusing, and it takes quite some time. What works is to focus on doing one thing at a time. It is always better to move to other things only when you are through with what you have at hand.

  

02. Improve on your Strengths

Yes indeed! Everyone has their area of strengths where they excel very well. That said, not everyone can do everything equally well. It pays therefore to know your strengths and your weaknesses. While working to improve on your strengths, you can as well get someone else to complement you on your weaknesses. That is one great way to be more productive.

03. Document things on Paper

No matter how good your memory is, it can’t be perfect because a perfect memory is only a myth. For that reason, trying to recall things from your memory is a much bigger and difficult task than just picking up a piece of paper and reading them up. Putting more things on paper for later recall and reference better enhances productivity because productive people don’t waste brainpower on remembering stuff.

04. Eliminate Bottlenecks

The bottom-line is to always explore any and every way to avoid frustration when working on your business. When you’re feeling frustrated by your difficulty in accomplishing as much as you’d like, sometimes it helps to take a step back to review your workflow. If there are bottlenecks slowing down your workflow, you must quickly eliminate them or smoothen them out. Once these bottlenecks are out of the way, your productivity will be enhanced. 

05. Don’t Get Bogged Down with Perfection

Attaining perfection is another myth in running a business. Granted, there are times when only flawless work will do, but in most cases, doing a really good job is sufficient. Clearly you will be wasting a lot of time and energy if you insist on polishing absolutely everything to perfection all the time. That time and effort you are wasting could be better spent elsewhere getting other good things done. What matters here is to know exactly when good enough is really good enough. That is what enhances productivity.

Why You Must Bank on Hope

“Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.” –Dale Carnegie

The surest way to despair is to lose hope. Hope is what keeps people working and striving harder to earn a living knowing that tough times could come around but they will always pass away as others before them. This is what keeps hope alive. The feeling that tomorrow will be better than today keeps the spirits high at all times. This is what spurs achievements and productivity. “Once there is life, there is hope.” You must bank on hope if you have the desire to succeed in business.

When you are hopeful about the outcome of any project, you are also prayerful too. That helps to increase your faith. When you lose hope, fear creeps into your mind and that stunts achievements. Fear normally creeps in when faith goes out the window.  Having faith that you can achieve an objective gives you the courage to go after that objective. “With faith, all things are possible.” “God never disappoints those who genuinely believe.” That is the power of faith. Dennis Kimbro in his brilliantly written book “Think and Grow Rich, a Black Choice” came to the following conclusion about faith. “The people who really succeed are those who dare to risk, who challenge the status quo and push themselves beyond their normal limits. No person ever fully discovers and develops all the potential within himself until he expresses his faith.”

  

Bad Choices That Can Leave You Poor

“If we are born poor, it is not our fault, but if we die poor, it is!”…… Bill Gates

Lack of a Definite Purpose, Goal or Chief Aim in life: No one can ever hope to succeed in any endeavor by drifting through life without any aim or purpose. That is, without the pursuit of a Definite Goal. You must assume the mentality of the Archer if you need to succeed in life. The Archer trains for years just to be able to hit the bull’s eye within an hour of competition. It is this singular purpose that propels him to train hard so as to succeed at competition proper. It is the same in life. “Drifting people are like rudderless ships and all the voyages of their lives are bound in shallows and miseries.” Anyone, who has nothing to aim at in life, is clearly courting poverty.

Lack of Ambition to move past Mediocrity: This is closely related to the first. People who lack a Definite Purpose hardly have any ambition to pursue. Ambition fuels the train of desire, increases drive and the will to achieve. Anyone who lacks this drive can hardly achieve anything worthwhile and may not be able to make money and live a good life.

Negative Mental Attitude: If you think you can, you can. If you think you can’t, you certainly can’t. The mind makes the man or woman. A Positive Mental Attitude energizes and increases drive for achievement. It increases productivity, improves quality of work and reduces stress. A Negative Mental Attitude which induces ill-health, envy, jealousy, bitterness, purposeless-ness and stressful life breeds poverty. A Negative Mental Attitude is avoidable by deliberate choice.