8 Tips For Staying Productive When You’re Never In The Office
For many of us, our “office job” doesn’t have us in the office very often. Salespeople, entrepreneurs, account reps, and countless other positions have you running around from place to place, only stopping into the office between offsite meetings or on the rare occasion that you don’t have something scheduled. Without that critical office time to sit down and focus on your work, how can you stay productive?
1. Schedule time to catch up
Most offices run through multiple lines of communication on a nearly constant basis. While you’re offsite, you’ll be getting emails, texts, and phone calls you can’t get to immediately. Schedule time throughout your day to stop what you’re doing and focus on catching up on those communication threads. Your team will thank you, and you won’t have to worry about interrupting any of your meetings.
2. Keep everything mobile
Your mobile device is going to be with you at all times, so try using it as your central hub for everything. Download whatever apps you need to keep yourself organised and connected with the office, and get used to using it as your mobile workstation. Thanks to HP mobile printing technology you can easily print just about anything from your smartphone or tablet. All you have to do is connect to the same network as your printer. This may also require using compatible apps throughout your office, like Slack, which has versions for practically any device you can think of. With everyone on the same app, regardless of device or location, you can communicate faster and more efficiently.
3. Print from your phone
With a system like HP PageWide, you can use your mobile device to print remotely, sending your pages to the office printer no matter where you are. So while you’re waiting for your offsite meeting to start, you can finalise your sales proposal for your next meeting, print it remotely, and have it ready and waiting for you when you swing by the office before your next stop. Alternatively, with the HP All-in-One Printer Remote app you can share documents and images through email, text messages, and popular cloud services directly from your phone.
4. Use a speak-to-type app
Between emails, instant messages, note taking, and dozens of other everyday functions, you’ll be required to type constantly—even when you’re on the go with nothing more than your mobile device. Using a speech-to-text app like Dragon can help you write messages up to five times faster, and you can even use it while driving or using your hands for other tasks. Most smartphones and consumer devices come standard with some form of speech-to-text, but look around for the app that suits your needs best.
5. Make your meetings count
When you go into the office for a meeting, the last thing you want is to be stuck for an hour or more talking about something that isn’t relevant to you. Make your office meetings count by keeping them short, carefully choosing your meeting participants, announcing the agenda before the meeting, and keeping everyone involved.
6. Keep your desk organised
There’s no right or wrong way to have your desk organised, but you should make an effort to keep it as organised as possible. For example, you could keep all your necessities in clearly labeled drawers, and have “in” and “out” boxes for any paperwork that might be circulating. These simple steps will help you seamlessly transition to office work when you come in from offsite meetings and other obligations.
7. Prioritise office-only tasks
You know you won’t be in the office much, so when you’re there, focus on doing as many office-only tasks as possible. In other words, use your office time to do things you can only do in the office, such as talk face-to-face with coworkers or make use of the equipment. Only then should you transition to tasks that you could do practically anywhere.
8. Use wait time appropriately
When you’re offsite, you’ll generally face a lot of wait time, whether you’re standing in line for a coffee or you’re stuck in a waiting room before a big meeting. No matter how long or how short you’re there, try to make use of this time. Even if you read and respond to only one email while waiting, you’ll still have made a dent in your workload.
With these eight strategies, you’ll be able to get more done when you’re on the go, your trips to the office will be smoother and better organised, and ultimately, you’ll be able to get more done by the end of the day. You’ll also feel less stressed, thanks to convenience that most of these tactics offer. Try them out, and see which ones work best for you and your schedule.
Source: mashable.com
