Productivity is one of the most constantly talked about topics in marketing and even life in general. You spend so much amount of time balancing between many tasks to produce groundbreaking results. Just because you are busy that doesn’t mean you are productive. So, if you set a goal without a deadline in sight that goal will just keep getting further away.
There is a saying we’re all familiar with, “Don’t confuse activity with productivity. Many people are busy being busy” – Robin Sharma.
They are wasting their time thinking about what to do next, leaving no time for the actual work they have in hand.
How do you know if you belong to that category?
Sign 1: You don’t set priorities to your work.
Sign 2: You never say “No” to anything.
Sign 3: You think you are a pro in multitasking.
Sign 4: You are trying to do it all on your own.
And many more.
In this post, I have compiled 10 best productivity tips for digital marketers.
If you are ready, lezz go.
1. Manage Distractions
As a digital marketer, distracted yourself readily is not that tough. Managing distractions and staying concentrated in a noisy digital world is so essential.
There are already so many things out there competing with each other for our attention. These days all the devices are continuously flashing, vibrating, ringing with alerts, reminders, pop-ups.
Throughout the day these texts, alerts, reminders subtly drive us away from one train of thoughts to another. 99% of the time they are unrelated to the task in your hand. Distractions always kill productivity.
Once you in the zone, try and stay in the zone till you finish your work. You can wait until lunch break and check all your notifications so that you don’t harm your productivity.
2. Reduce Meetings
Marketers and meetings go hand in hand, and when these meeting goes out of control productivity either slows down or stops.
Purposeful meetings achieve business objectives but valueless meetings waste time distracts from important tasks, and make employees work overtime to finish up the work.
There are many ways you can stop wasting your time in meetings. Here’s how you can do it.
a. Invest In collaboration software: there are many tools out there that can help project managers and teammates to interact with each other anytime anywhere. They can directly reach out to someone if they have questions instead of scheduling a meeting for the whole group.
b. Send an email with clear instructions: The biggest advantage of sending an email instead of a meeting is being able to use it as a reference in future (if you need). Employees that are on sick leave or on vacations will also be able to read it instead of updating them later.
3. Follow The Routine
The routine in work and ultimately in life is very important to achieve success. I have created my own routine and I try to follow it at least with a few alterations. A daily routine helps us a lot as,
- It saves a lot of time.
- Increases confidence in oneself.
- Increases accuracy
- It helps you being punctual
Routine is actually a discipline. And anything that doesn’t involve discipline usually invokes the expression “What am I exactly doing?”
It’s not necessary to be rigid on it. For example, I generally do Yoga every morning and if I can’t do it, I manage that by going for a walk in the evening. But I try to stick to it.
4. Break Up With Multitasking
Our brains can’t handle various duties at once. Ever been to a situation where you put a call on hold while vacuuming or vise-versa? or listening to music while working? or reading this blog while texting/ sipping a cup of coffee?
Well, these are all examples of multitasking. Ultimately, you may finish your work but the productivity will definitely be harmed.
Multitasking slows you down and significantly reduces your work’s quality. This because the mind operates better when you concentrate on one thing at a time.
5. Stretch Goals
Stretch goal is a goal beyond your current capabilities or sometimes your current perception of your capabilities.
For example, if you believe you can do 5 pull-ups and you have a coach telling you to do 10 pull-ups, he has set a fairly challenging stretch goal for you. But what’s going to happen is that you probably don’t get 10 pull-ups but you can get 7 at least.
Elon musk sets incredibly ambitious deadlines for his companies various projects and this can sometimes be unrealistic. If you remember Tesla had initially promised to ship the first Roadster back in 2006, a date was further pushed back and back and back until the Roadster finally released in late 2008. Although it was launched nearly two years late from the deadline, it was the first-ever cutting edge battery technology electric car.
Often nearly impossible stretch goals are exactly needed to push us beyond our limits.
6. Comfortable Working Environment
It is so much harder to produce excellent outcomes in a bad environment rather than a good one. A positive and comfortable working environment can really help to increase productivity. If the employees find it difficult to be productive at work, it might be a sign that something is wrong with the culture.
Even before the internet creativity was still a crucial part of marketing. Employees at workspace should feel comfortable enough to share and discuss their creative ideas openly.
To your surprise, encouraging individuals to dress as they wish not only improve productivity but also the enthusiasm that again impacts on productivity.
7. No Need To Do Everything By Yourself
Hey! You want to be productive and not busy.
Digital marketing patterns change all the time and as a digital marketer you should be aware of such developments. And while doing so, you probably want to take control of everything and that’s absolutely reasonable.
Attempting to do everything on your own will lead to nothing being done.
Rather than trying to get your hands on everything why not learn more about marketing agencies outsource some of your work?
8. Set Aside Some Time For Emails
Has this ever happened to you that you are all set with your tasks to do and the first thing you do is check emails? And bam, before you know it you are diverted.
As soon as you come to the office, work on a top priority task for at least 1-2 hour and then check your inbox. Because the problem of an email is, you work on someone else’s task than yours.
That’s why it’s so important to set aside some time to check emails. I usually check emails after lunch and before I leave. This way I can focus on my other work.
9. Pomodoro Technique
Pomodoro Technique is a time management structure that encourages you to split your work into small intervals of 25mins. That means you can divide your tasks in intervals where each task will have 25mins to complete it, separated by 5 mins of break. These intervals are called Pomodoro.
This will help you focus on only one task at a time and because of the timer you won’t mindlessly scroll through social media.
10. Give Yourself A Break
Productivity doesn’t mean doing work all the time. Be a little kind and give yourself a break. Taking a much-needed break is so important to give your best shot at what you do. Most people feel that they never have enough time to take a quick break or aren’t allowed to but break time will boost your productivity and overall happiness.
We need to pay attention to our own mind and body and recognize when we need a break. We can’t push ourselves to work long long hours, even though we think we should. Because our body has a natural rhythm of rest and energy.
My favourite break is a quick walk outside when the weather is nice, calling a friend, or a coffee/tea break. Which one is yours?
Wrap Up
Now it’s time to be your own boss. Give a few of these above suggestions a try, I promise you won’t be disappointed.
