It has been said that technology is double edged sword. Technology like most things in life have their positive and negative effects. Recently, our founder introduced a concept that really got me thinking- earphone free afternoons in the office. The aim of this is to increase the inter-personal connection among us at the office. Seeing as most of us are millennial's, it was about time. In an era where friends meet up but they all end up being on their phones the entire time, the office space can have double of this effect seeing as we all have our laptops, earphones and phones.
However, technology can help you increase your productivity. Here are a few ways tech that can help you increase your productivity.
- Learning on your commute
Traffic especially in big cities tends to take a lot of your time on your commute. If you happen to live in Nairobi like me, then you ought to have experienced traffic on either Thika Superhighway, Mombasa Road, Ngong’ Road or on University Way. Whether you are using private of public means, there are several ways you can use this time to be productive. My personal favourite is listening to podcasts. Podcasts offer an awesome learning opportunities. My current favourites are Jesus and Jolloff, Girl Boss Radio , Digital Marketing Podcast, Power Hour and Chini ya maji podcast. Audio books and language learning apps are also great ways to learn on the go.
2. Using Ad Blockers
Sometimes you are going about your work then an ad pops up midway. Before you know it, you are shopping online or watching your 100th cat video on YouTube and guess what? You are a dog person. The best way for you to avoid these kinds of distractions is by using AdBlockers.
3. Timers
There are days I have found myself to spending more time than necessary on a task that required probably half the time. Different Apps have brought this to life. My personal favourite is Forest. You input your estimated time and while you do your task the app runs on your phone while trees grow depending on how long you have taken without using other apps on your phone.
4. Habit Tracking
Previously, it was believed that for you to form a habit, it takes 27 days or 30 days. However, that has come to change with recent research showing that it takes 66 days. Seeing as the time-frame has more than doubled, habit tracking apps have become a necessity. Whether you are trying to work out, journal, meditate or wake up at 6 am, these apps come in handy. My personal favourite is Journal it! It works for me as one of the key habits I have been trying to build is journaling. You can include other habits and it tracks them by colour coding them.
5. Collaboration at the work place
Team work makes the dream work! Working spaces have changed drastically where you do not have to be in the same space physically for you to work together. Even though you work in the same physical space, digital platforms have helped reduce the time for assigning tasks and checking progress. At Impact Africa Network, this model has worked really well for us thus far considering that at times we are in different physical locations .The most used platforms are Trello , Slack and G-suite apps.
“Productivity is never an accident. It is always a result of commitment to excellence, intelligent planning and focused effort” ~Paul J. Meyer
