Productivity software is a decades-old, major segment of the software market. The app stores have created a proliferation and fragmentation of productivity tools. Regardless of which productivity tools you select, here are three tips to get the most benefit from your productivity software.
Distractions are a major impediment to employee productivity. Studies suggests distractions cause employees to lose more than one-quarter of their workday.
Productivity software itself generates plenty of potential distractions. Emails, desktop alerts, instant messages, and even phone calls can be helpful reminders of meetings and to-do timing. When notifications do not help keep employees on track, however, they risk becoming time-wasting interruptions.
Boost employee productivity by managing notifications stemming from productivity software. First, use as few productivity applications as possible; fewer applications mean fewer notifications. Within your preferred applications, select only the notifications needed to maximize productivity. Lastly, encourage workers to temporarily disable all notifications before beginning a work block.
All software, no matter how well designed, has a learning curve. Unless a new productivity software tool offers magnitudes of better production, or collaboration, than your current applications, delay making changes. This includes upgrades to your existing software solutions.
Note-taking is one of the most common uses for productivity software. While it can be valuable to have everything related to a project in one place, there are also downsides. Academic research highlights that taking notes via computer creates “shallower processing” (worse conceptual understanding) versus when notes are taken by hand. Researchers believe this happens because notes taken by computer or mobile devices are often captured verbatim, while users have to interpret what is said to capture hand-written notes fast enough.
As we have all experienced, more technology in meetings means less focus. So while the primary purpose of a laptop or mobile device might be capturing notes, people are prone to checking other communications when notifications come or during a momentary silence. Overall, it may be best to encourage your team to bring their notebooks but leave technology at their desks.
Productivity software can be invaluable in boosting your team’s output. It can also be a source of great distraction. Maximize the benefit of productivity software by turning off unnecessary notifications, maintaining application consistency as long as possible, and encouraging your team to take notes by hand, not on their devices.