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Business News/ News / Business Of Life/  Get your work up to speed
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Get your work up to speed

Just small changes to your working style, along with the right office hardware and software, can boost efficiency immediately

Getting a dual-screen set-up is just one of the many ways to improve productivity on the computer.Premium
Getting a dual-screen set-up is just one of the many ways to improve productivity on the computer.

OTHERS :

In a digitally-connected workplace, technology and the Internet are both a blessing and a curse. There’s the risk of getting set in routines that actually hinder your efficiency, and most employees find it difficult to resist the distractions of social media like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn. We aren’t trying to fix the world and human nature, however, merely attempting to suggest small changes that can make a big difference, and bring some freshness to your regular work routine. If you are the owner of a small business, these tips should help you get the most out of your office workforce, including yourself.

Dual monitors

This is one thing you need to get done soon. If you still work on a good ol’ CRT monitor from yesteryear, then you have to switch to a contemporary 22-inch, full-HD display at the minimum. While a 22-inch LCD monitor may offer a cool 1,920x1,080 pixels resolution, you can always decide to spend more and buy a 27-inch display screen with up to 2,540x1,440
pixels resolution.

Getting a second monitor will really help you deal with the clutter. Acres of pixels to play with on a computer display make organizing and getting through your work that much quicker. Imagine trying to work on different spreadsheets side by side instead of constantly minimizing-maximizing several program windows—while the former is possible on a large-screen monitor or dual-display set-up, the latter is an irritating, inefficient way to work. If you write a lot of original articles, having one monitor exclusively for research is just a lot more convenient than tiny, squeezed windows on your screen. Also, remember that buying two 22-inch HD monitors is cheaper than most 27-inch displays, and their combined screen area is easily greater.

Take control of the Web

We may sound too harsh when we say that Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and e-commerce websites are among the most visited during office hours and through work machines, but it’s true, and it affects productivity. To keep your office employees engaged in work and off time-wasting websites, it is necessary to consider the following plan of action.

At some level, concede that employees will waste some time online, so don’t be autocratic. Impress upon yourself and others the importance of taking “Facebook breaks", just like tea, coffee or smoking breaks, at a workplace.

If you think your employees aren’t tech-savvy enough, you can get away by adding something like StayFocusd, a popular browser extension for Google Chrome. It’s a simple yet highly configurable tool to help you allot “time-wasting windows" in a typical workday, picking on specific sites to block. After you or an employee uses up their non-work-related online breaks, they can’t access those websites (or any website that you have designated) for the rest of the day. Through StayFocusd, you can even ban the rest of the Web, except a few websites that are essential for work. The other option is to use a tool like OpenDNS that sits completely out of reach of the end user, giving you the ability to filter your network’s Web traffic. With OpenDNS, you can deploy whitelists and blacklists (basically, websites that are allowed and those that aren’t) for everything accessed through your office’s network router. It’s easy to set up, secure, and gives you full control over website access.

Start using online collaboration suites

The advent of the Internet has led to an explosion in cloud services which help you collaborate and work better with colleagues than ever before. Most of these services are either free or come at an affordable price. We all know Google Docs (part of Google Drive now), but Microsoft’s also renewing its assault on the cloud productivity suite, offering Office 365 and free Web apps. Instead of transferring documents or spreadsheets through email, wouldn’t it be easier to edit them simultaneously with your colleagues and discuss the changes? Work gets done faster that way.

You can also look at task-management suites like Producteev or Asana to allocate assignments and manage workflow within your team. Producteev lets you share documents, get email alerts, and syncs everything with Google Calendar, apart from other things. Asana lets you do pretty much the same things in a plain and simple Web dashboard.

It’s important to stick with these services and spend some time getting used to them. While
Asana is completely free to use between 30 users, Producteev is free for up to two users, after which it becomes a paid service. Equipped with a task management and real-time productivity suite, your office employees will slowly start functioning like an efficient team.

Spruce up office hardware

If your office is saddled with second-rate hardware, it can only go on for so long before showing signs of fatigue and eventual collapse. Enable your workforce with speedy, smooth machines and infrastructure, because slow, inefficient PCs and hardware are largely counterproductive.

If you haven’t done a system audit for over a year, do one now. Is it time to throw away that Pentium PC which you had converted into a makeshift server and finally invest in an always-on new network-attached storage (NAS) device? Check if hard drives are buckling under pressure and need replacing—contemplate solid-state drives (SSDs) even, what with their prices coming down. One can never have too much RAM, especially if it’s an old system—check for 64-bit compatibility before bumping up the system RAM over 3 GB. Also, regularly open up PC cabinets to blow out the dust that accumulates easily near electronic equipment.

These may appear to be small things, but they can help you be more efficient at work.

This content is brought to you by ThinkDigit.com.

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Published: 05 Mar 2013, 08:21 PM IST
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