So much to do and only so many hours in a day! If this is where you're at, you're not alone.
Scores of people from practically all walks of life, and not just techies or those engaged in online work, are routinely plagued by concerns and problems related to productivity and time management.
Fortunately, help is at hand. All you need to do in order to optimize your time management and get things done in a much more efficient manner is to think things through carefully and explore viable options from a menu of choices that I'm going to talk about in the following paragraphs of this article.
As a matter of fact, webmasters, developers and those who launch and manage online products or services already have the edge over the less tech-savvy people in terms of boosting their productivity.
For example, as most webmasters and developers would already know, the ubiquitous cron utility (available under most flavors of UNIX/Linux operating systems) can be your great buddy in terms of scheduling and automating a variety of tasks.
Most techies tend to use – and think of – cron only in terms of automating and scheduling technical tasks. However, it can be easily utilized for improving personal productivity as well. Can you think of what you can achieve with creative and imaginative use of cron? Need a reminder for some task daily or on fixed days in a week or month? Cron is your friend – you can easily set it to keep sending email reminders at fixed dates and times.
Of course, this is but one small, DIY solution that you – those who are involved in the technical aspects of web development, programming etc. - can use to bring some parts of your productivity and time management problems under control.
For the rest of the readers, or those who may not like the hands-on, DIY way, there are plenty of ready-to-use options too, as described below.
Ready-made productivity boosting tools
A plethora of such tools (and in some cases, services) are available out there (ranging in price from free all the way to hundreds of dollars per month) that help enhance your productivity in various ways.
Here are some tasks that you can – and should – automate, with links to websites offering tools to do it:
- Email Follow Ups – FollowUp.cc
- Email Notifications / Text Messages / Phone Reminders (based on triggers) - ifttt or Zapier
- Sending Thank You Notes – InkANote
- Car Service Ordering – GroundLink or Uber
And most of those websites provide APIs for developers, so you can go even further and build new tools based on them for your specific needs or for new project ideas.
Virtual Assistants
As a developer, webmaster or someone who launches and manages products, it is more likely than not that you know of
the availability of several online Virtual Assistant (or VA) services.
If not, you'd be in for a pleasant surprise.
Check out the links below for VA services, some of which I've been using myself, and explore their offerings to get ideas on what services you can use to boost your productivity and manage your time more efficiently, without getting overwhelmed with that ever growing To-Do list:
So pick one of these options, and start now!
As a busy worker of the knowledge industry or entrepreneur who is struggling to get things done on time, you'd do well to explore the options I've provided above. Many of those would help you improve your productivity and ultimately, keep yourself, your clients as well as your employers happy and smiling.
