As you promise yourself to plan better, implement better and achieve better in 2016, People Matters brings you a few simple pointers and techniques that will help you keep these promises. If you haven’t already read about the first two steps you need to undertake, make sure you do! Here are the last two, of a total of four, steps that will set the base for your working space to become more efficient and productive this year:

Renew Old Systems:

If things and systems that have been working till now gave you the best results, you probably wouldn’t feel the need to change them, and would continue to operate and work in your ways. However, that is seldom true. Every system, no matter how good, can get obsolete with time, and it becomes important to change and renovate. In order for that to happen, firstly, demarcate and assign areas. The desk is meant to work, the meeting room to present ideas and discuss, and the lunch room to eat food. That means eating at your desk should be avoided. You don’t want ketchup stains on your laptop or phone, or worse spill coffee on them. What’s more, this reduces distractions while you are doing work, discussing or eating! Once that is done, focus on how much area is occupied by physical paper.  The contact details of the thousand people that were collected six months back in an event can easily be saved in an excel, and doesn’t need to occupy space on your desk. Lastly, since emails are indispensible part of today’s working; make sure you have them under control. Anytime you hit over a hundred unread emails means you are in the danger zone. Micromanaging emails might sound trivial, but will be a life saver in the long run. This will also ensure that you are looped in, and promptly revert to all official communication.

Renovate Technology:

What good is technology, if it can’t help us simplify our work? Technology can greatly facilitate a better workspace, only if it is adopted unanimously and doesn’t become an alien chore to do. The age of emails might well be near its end, as several new apps, that are much more comprehensive and easier to use, have entered the fray. From instant messaging apps to project managers, you will find something for every need, and guess what, they actually work constructively. Using similar technological options, it becomes easier to hold work-based conversations, for ideas, discussions and feedbacks are not lost in email chains. Even at People Matters, the Editorial Team uses similar applications to simply work. The biggest advantage they bring in is accountability and tracking of tasks in a timely manner. Last but, not the least, minimise reasons to get up and shout out or move around to get small and trivial messages across. Several services (like Slack) provide this ease of communication with colleagues, or entire teams at once, without, as much as moving an inch. It saves the hassle of writing an entire email or actually moving across. Now, most of these will require your organisation to invest a little in such technology, but once the benefits start to become evident, you can present a stronger case.

There you go! We have given you the information, now what’s left is to implement it. Make sure this year is different than the ones it followed, and at its end, you can look back with pride. But every great journey begins with preparations, hence, when you visit your office for the first time this year; spend some time to prepare your work space for an efficient 2016. Wishing you a super productive and efficient 2016!

Read Starting 2016 Efficiently and Productively: In 4 Simple Steps- Part 1

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