Keeping Up With Security

Time is valuable, but often we don’t treat it as preciously as we should, especially in our work lives. Therefore, we have decided to dedicate our 2021 New Year’s resolutions to valuing our time and the time of others. Here are 5 tips that might help you do the same.

1. Reduce the Number of Emails

It’s estimated that 306.4 billion emails are sent around the world every day. This number is projected to increase to 361.6 billion by 2024.

At the same time, more and more people realize that email is often not the appropriate means of communication for many tasks and discussions.

Why not talk one on one –either virtually or in person? As of March 2020, stirred by the COVID-19 pandemic, many companies were forced to increase digitization and provide virtual collaboration tools for their teams. Using these tools to communicate with coworkers is much more efficient than emailing back and forth. Instead of tedious typing the use of voice technology has also been on the rise; after all, we speak up to seven times faster than we type.

2. Stay Organized

Switching between remote work and the office has forced us to make sure we can access data easily and securely, no matter where we are. Otherwise we spend a lot of time looking for documents, or worst case, work gets lost. With more and more teamwork and collaboration taking place virtually, we have become reliant on seamless digital sharing technologies to be able to work together.

Your personal desktop is not a suitable storage space any longer. Without the ability to safely share documents and data, you as well as your colleagues will struggle to get work done effectively.

Cloud technologies have been on the forefront of adoption in digital transformation as they provide easy options for various sharing possibilities. They can assure that members of a virtual team always have the same level of data access and project knowledge. This facilitates collaboration and eliminates time-consuming coordination.

3. Break out of old routines

The way we work has undergone an enormous upheaval in 2020. We learned quickly that new challenges cannot be solved with old routines. On the contrary, methods and techniques of an “analog” work style become an enormous obstacle to productivity and time efficiency.

Reducing the amount of time spent on administrative and repetitive task as well as efficient documentation is crucial to keep up. It will free up time for projects that add the most value to the business as well as your personal time.

4. Follow up with meetings in a timely manner

We have all experienced this: You rush from meeting to meeting and there is simply no time to digest and grasp the full picture. In all the hustle and bustle, you don’t even get around to a follow-up until late in the evening or even the following day. You tediously back track through electronic or handwritten notes and are almost certain to have forgotten something important.

5. Ensure work-life balance

Along with challenges at work and pressure built up by a fast-paced and constantly changing economy, people also need to manage their personal time between household chores, childcare, caring for loved ones and much more. We all know how important it is for all our well-being to be able to keep work and personal time balanced.

Multitasking is overwhelming and in fact not truly doable. Trying to juggle too much can cause burnout. Dividing your daily work and personal time into dedicated time blocks can help to keep things organized, and finding efficiencies at work by using smart technologies can help you save time.