Content Summaries Blog » 2009

Dealing with the ongoing economic crisis these days requires quite a bit of adjustment. But not a lot of it has to cost you an awful lot (wouldn’t that be counterproductive?). For instance, you might not actually need to shell out for that new laptop or smartphone or “productivity tool” if it isn’t going to manifestly add to your productivity.

Here, then, are a few tips designed to help you become more effective at work without necessarily having to spend too much (or anything at all):

- Get organized before you buy an organizer – or anything, for that matter, which could ostensibly add to your productivity. You might realize that you don’t need such a device or gadget after all or that it could potentially help you out very little, and if so it’ll only be an extra thing to carry (and an extra expense that doesn’t quite justify itself, if at all).

- Start work earlier than usual. You can save quite a bit of cash avoiding rush hour. Plus you’ll have more time to get your daily deliverables done and you’ll be less frazzled as a result.

- Take a good hard look at the way you work. How do you go about your business? If you don’t already do so, work like you eat, or are supposed to eat: in small digestible chunks. If you take in everything in all at once you’ll only kill yourself multitasking (which means you’ll have to spend more on doctor’s fees, vacations to get yourself to de-stress and relax, and so on and so forth). An ounce of prevention truly is worth a pound of cure.

- A related point: if you’re not adding value to whatever it is you’re doing – if you aren’t competent enough to do so, if you’re just too busy to be able to focus on it enough to do so, or if there’s someone else who can do it better than you can – delegate it to that person. It’s simply a waste of resources NOT to delegate if that’s the case.

- Only travel if you’ll be able to get something really good from traveling, namely, if you’ll return richer, wiser or healthier by doing so. Otherwise, stay home!