Suggestions our marketing and design team use to keep everyone updated, but also unrestrained enough to promote their productivity.
Productivity used to be so simple when we were only concerned about how many “widgets” to bust through each day and how to get better at it. Now with the amount of technology and larger audiences to communicate with, many of your team members are likely to work in creative positions. But how do we quantify productivity for creatives? And the even more important question – how do we promote it? Here are a few tips our marketing and design team use to keep everyone on track, but also unrestrained enough to produce their best work.
Don’t overdigitalize, just promote productivity!
For whatever reason, we all do this thing now where if there’s a cool tech product, we have to find a way to use it straight away. New feature on that project management system? Let’s implement it immediately! Right? Sometimes.
But remember, creatives are hired for their ability to think. Bogging down their creative process with a digital process like a robust project management system with guidelines may hinder more than you think. Sometimes it’s better to make time to go back to the drawing board, literally. If you’re a creative, make time to work offline on projects. Your cognitive ability will be freer to make connections, and you’ll come up with the ideas you were hired to think of.
Block schedule to facilitate deep work:
Another word on cognitive ability and overloading: in a creative role, you shouldn’t be multitasking. Anyone trying to get real, high quality work done, shouldn’t be multitasking. An abundance of digital distractions and the expectation to multitask has damaged our ability to engage in “deep work”: the ability to focus on a cognitively demanding task without distraction. One way to improve this is by blocking out your day with individual creative tasks, that require your undivided attention. Forget the generic ‘to-do’ list and instead, schedule your tasks. Give yourself adequate time to complete them, and avoid distractions. You’ll produce high quality work, and not just be rushing to get to the next thing on your list.
Promote productivity simply automating menial tasks:
The worst thing for creative workers is spending time on small tasks that contribute nothing to the creative process overall. This can be anything from checking emails to scheduling meetings. Luckily, we can save hours of this wasted time by either outsourcing or automating these menial tasks with the help of assistants – real or virtual. There are plenty of virtual AI assistants that can be downloaded for free. These tools help free up some time throughout the day, that can be better spent doing the important work than can’t be done by robots. At Hibox, we’re actually building AI assistants into our platform for this very reason.
Definitely meet – but not too much:
Face-to-face brainstorming is vital to the creative process, especially when there is a team of minds working together on one common goal. It often takes more than one perspective to get that vital breakthrough. But still, many employees complain that time spent in meetings is often pointless. Instead, it cuts into real work time, just like a social media distraction. Limit meeting time to just brainstorming and initial planning, or use quick video calls throughout the process for projects, like we do at Hibox. Give creative workers the space to really engage in their work, without interruption.
The more we automate other types of work, quality creative work is going to become more and more vital to the success of a company. The new notion of “productivity” will be centered around the quality and effectiveness of your creative team. It’s a science we’re all still figuring out, but we hope these tips help to spark some inspiration for you and your team!
If you’re looking for an all-inclusive digital workspace for better team productivity, try Hibox free today.
