Almost every professional adult today possesses a smartphone—and if you’re reading this article you almost certainly do. From keeping track of appointments to tracking industry information, smartphone apps can be quite useful. Commitments, contacts, and even things like meditation for stress are right at hand! A quick look through the Apple or Android app stores reveals just how much is available to us.
But could too many apps be making you less productive? Here are a few productivity tips to help you find out:
- Select your preferred apps. You probably deal with a variety of colleagues and employees, all of whom may use their own favorite productivity systems and apps. While taking advice from each is advisable, you ultimately need to determine which systems and apps work best for you.
- Prioritize between non-urgent and unimportant. Many times the biggest problem for prioritization comes from not entirely understanding the difference between urgent and important. The same is true for tasks that are not in either of these categories. Creating a four-tier matrix (with urgent and non-urgent on one axis and important and unimportant on the other) to determine which tasks are in your best interest to pursue can help with prioritization. Technology may be able to help you create the matrix, but its up to you to determine how to use it.
- Automate your systems. Apps become a problem when they manage you and take more of your time than they save. Instead, you need to harness their technology to better manage your time. The more you can automate, the better. Using one calendar system to keep track of all your tasks, and set alerts to remind you of deadlines is one way to save yourself time.
- Use what works best for you. Ultimately, the only system that will be successful is the one that works best for you. If you download dozens of apps but find that most of them don’t contribute to your productivity, ditch them and concentrate on those that assist you. Don’t use something just because “everyone” is using it.
