October 5, 2015
Time Management Tips for a Productive Week (Part 2)
*PLEASE NOTE – DropTask is now Ayoa – an all-in-one tool for idea generation and collaboration, that goes beyond traditional task management. Discover Ayoa and achieve your best work.*
On Friday, we looked at how you could get started with the free version of DropTask to get the most out of the working week. So today, we’re going to explore some practical tips for the advanced functionality that you can expect from DropTask PRO. If you missed last week’s post, click here to take a look.
Many of us procrastinate when faced with a large responsibilities as it can sometimes be a struggle to work out where to begin. When faced with a challenge such as this, it helps if we break tasks down into smaller, more manageable pieces.
Whitson Gordon, productivity and technology expert from LifeHacker claims : “Once you’ve got it down into quick, simple steps, you might find you just start doing the task right then and there. The hardest part is laying out what you actually have to do to get it done. By thinking about it, you’ve already accomplished half of the task.”
With DropTask PRO, you’re able to create ‘subtasks’ for each of your tasks. When subtasks are added, a segmented ring will appear around the outer edge, and this allows you to visually track the progress of your task as each section will light up when a subtask is ticked off. This feature can be very useful as you can see how far a task is from completion with just a single glance.
Steve Jobs famously created an efficient working environment at Apple. He introduced a methodology called the Directly Responsible Individual, where he would assign every task to a specific person, so that the team knew who had the lead on everything that was being done within the business. This meant that someone was always accountable and employees knew who to turn to for each and every task.
When solving a complex issue, individual task assignment helps team members to identify that someone is driving the task forward, and it can act as a really great motivator too. With DropTask PRO, simply drag and drop a co-worker’s profile picture onto a task and test out Jobs’ DRI system for yourself.
3. Improve teamwork
Whether you are working as part of a small team or remotely collaborating with colleagues from around the world, keeping everything together can be a chore. With an abundance of apps for collaboration, file sharing and notes, keeping track of your workload can be time-consuming.
With DropTask PRO, you can keep your files, conversations and tasks together in one place. Working with others in real-time enables the whole team to be aware of what is going on at any given time, and this not only saves time by reducing the number of status report meetings, but it also allows team members to identify how they could be collaborating more efficiently. For example, you might see that a colleague is working on something that you have done before, and perhaps you have expertise in that particular area that you could share.
Combining these steps with the tips discussed on Friday will get you well on your way to a more productive and time-efficient way of working. Take the challenge and try implementing these tips this week – let us know how you get on in the comments below.
Get started by signing up to DropTask for free today.
Grant, a well-written piece. Time management is the key to success, specially at work place. I couldn’t agree more on point number 2. Everyone in the team should be accountable as it’s all about teamwork.