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Easy Productivity Techniques to Focus on the Right Work

Our attention spans have taken a hit. If we can’t focus properly then we won’t be able to finish important tasks on time. This all eventually leads to a decrease in productivity.

In this article, we’re going to discuss some easy techniques that will keep you away from distractions and help focus on the right work.

Focus on the top 20% of your tasks

The Pareto Principle or 80/20-rule says that you should focus on the top 20% of your tasks. Why? Because in any situation, 20% of the inputs are responsible for 80% of the outcomes. To make good use of your to-do-list, give importance to those 20% tasks that greatly influence your top goals.

Schedule everything in your calendar

Just making a to-do-list is not enough. You need to mark the events on your calendar as well. This will serve as a constant reminder and let you estimate how much time it takes you to finish certain tasks.

Try to do your most important task in the morning

Top priority tasks will fill you with the most trepidation. Begin working on these activities first thing in the morning. Once you start and find a flow, these tasks will stop becoming a hindrance and your overall productivity will increase.

Take care of your body

You get only one body in this lifetime so take special care of it. If your body is always tired, pain-ridden, and sleep-deprived, your productivity will take a major hit. Why? Because it will impair memory, raise stress levels, and decrease your ability to focus.

Take care of your mind

Our brain is like a CPU. The better it performs, the faster we can get things done in a more productive way. A calm and focused mind will serve as a great foundation to increase your overall productivity.

Use time tracking apps

As the name suggests, a time tracking app helps users effectively track their time.

Effective time management apps, like Stafftimer, can help people make deadlines, avoid getting stressed, improve their productivity & efficiency, and above all else, make extra time for themselves. They will also be able to maintain a work-life balance by keeping track of their time.

Use the Pomodoro Technique

Recent research shows that taking a 5-minute break after every 25 to 30 minutes increases productivity. It allows you to recharge and refresh your mind.

Our attention span is decreasing and many find it hard to focus for a long time. Look into the Pomodoro Technique and see if it helps.

Batch similar tasks together

Take care of similar tasks in one go. For example, taking an hour each day to dust the furniture, appliances, cars, etc. This way, you can finish your work faster. Plus, by taking time out to get these batches done, you ensure that they don’t get left hanging.

Keep a time log for some time

If you know that you’re not being productive but are not sure where all that time is going to, try keeping a log for a few days.

Write down everything you do during these few days. You’ll soon find where your time is being spent and can start managing it more effectively.

Unsubscribe from all YouTube channels

Like social media, YouTube channels can waste a lot of your time as well. Unsubscribe from all the channels. You’ll soon find that most of them were not worth your time.

There are channels that you’ll intentionally visit to watch their latest video. These are the ones that actually hold your interest and you don’t need to subscribe to them.

The Latest Trend in Time Tracking Apps for Educational Institutes

All humans get the same amount of hours each day i.e 24 hours. Alexander the Great, Napoleon Bonaparte, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. – they also had 24 hours each day, just like all of us.

So what’s the difference between these extraordinary individuals and us? What separates them from the average man? Their secret is simple. They efficiently managed their time.

In this modern age, pens and sheets have been left behind. People are now starting to use time tracking apps to manage their daily routines, schedule, and tasks. Educational institutes are no different.

Time tracking apps keep evolving as preferences keep changing. In this article, we’re going to look at some of the latest trends in time tracking software for educational institutes.

Before we start discussing the latest trends, lets first establish what time tracking app actually does. After that, we’ll go over some of its common features.

What is a time tracking app?

As the name suggests, a time tracking app helps users effectively track their time.

Effective time management can help people make deadlines, avoid getting stressed, improve their productivity & efficiency, and above all else, make extra time for themselves. They will also be able to maintain a work-life balance by keeping track of their time.

To perfect time management in educational institutes, employers should be able to easily track an employee’s work hours. This will help them observe an employee’s daily progression and accurately judge their performance.

Time tracking apps can provide all of this. They allow users to create to-do lists and prioritize tasks, set alerts & reminders, organize the files & tasks, and even streamline communication between team members.

Common features found in time tracking apps

We know what time tracking apps can do. Now let’s look at some common features of time management apps.

Time tracking

This is a core functionality of time tracking apps. It captures worked hours and keeps a record of them on a timesheet.

Project management

Some time tracking apps have lightweight management tools while others focus entirely on project management. They allow you to group tasks or set deadlines and priorities. You can also track daily, weekly, and monthly work hours.

Alerts

Notifications can be used in different ways. You can set timers and get alerts when time is about to end. Alerts can also be used as reminders about urgent and pending tasks.

Reporting and analytics

Reports can be generated by analyzing a large amount of data relating to tasks. These reports can be used by employers to gauge their employees’ overall progress.

Latest trends in time tracking apps for educational institutes

Today’s employees are mostly Millenials and Generation Z, or Gen Z for short. The challenges and difficulties that they face are completely different from the previous generations. For example, Boomers didn’t have to worry about wasting their time on the internet.

This is why time tracking apps have evolved. The latest trends and features include:

Password manager

There are countless websites on the internet that require you to make an account. At one point, it becomes hard to keep track of all the usernames and passwords. Now apps featuring password managers are starting to pop up.

Meeting manager

Employees and staff members of educational institutes are notoriously busy. Their workload is huge and strenuous. Trying to arrange an important meeting can take a lot of effort as well. Now there are apps that can leverage the power of AI to give smart suggestions for when, where and how meetings can take place.

Note-taking manager

A vast amount of information is available on the internet, this is especially true regarding educational content. Note-taking managers can help teachers clip and save sections of websites, annotate them, and quickly access them via searches, notes, and tags.

Bookmarking manager. We can’t always be online. Bookmark managers let users save articles, videos and more from any website, app or publication. This way, they can access saved content offline and on any device.

These are just some of the latest trends in time tracking apps for educational institutes. As time goes on and priorities change, new trends will start emerging. However, don’t worry about missing out. We’ll keep you posted.

Monitor Productivity Record with Keystrokes and Mouse clicks

To run a business efficiently, sheer productivity is required and there are many ways to asses it. Calculating your company’s revenue would be the most basic indicator of productivity. But when it comes to measuring the productivity of a single employee, owners need to resort to some specific ways. Besides Stafftimer, there are few employee time tracking apps that provide keystroke counts.

But, if an employer wants to honestly judge how productive an employee is, only calculating keyboard and mouse activity will not give the whole picture. With Stafftimer, business owners get a statistical view of keystrokes combined with mouse activity, total progress, and idle time percentages. An employee engagement activity graph is also available.

Difference between keylogger and keystroke counter

Both keylogger and keystroke counter is based on the same working mechanism. But the main purpose of both tools is very different. The basic reason for developing these tools was to study human-computer interaction.

This software is legal but some people use it for malicious activities such as to steal passwords and confidential information.

For the sole purpose of employee engagement activities, this tool was tweaked and been made more secure. Now it only counts the number of keystrokes along with mouseclicks without recording any text or work information.

There exists another type of keylogger called hardware keylogger. It is a small device used as a connector between computer and keyboard. Its design resembles an ordinary PS/2 connector or USB adapter. Making it easier for someone to monitor activities and stay unseen at the same time.

How Stafftimer use keystroke counter

To best get an idea of employee engagement activities, Stafftimer integrates idle time, mouse clicks, and keystroke counts. It combines all peripheral uses and calculates an employee’s progress based on previous keystroke number over idle time. It does all this while still maintaining the transparent relation between an employer and an employee.

In addition, Stafftimer allows even an employee to see his or her own progress and keystroke counts so that they may increase their productivity in the future.

To have some statistical view, both employer and employee have a bar chart on their dashboard. This chart shows an employee’s history regarding active and inactive time, based on the use of keystrokes and mouse clicks. Employers can also view the progress of their employees on a daily and hourly bases.

Other obscure uses of keyloggers

Both small and large companies ethically use keyloggers. Most companies have a system that can detect some particular keywords.

Nowadays, there is a conspiracy floating around that suggests that Facebook is eavesdropping its users through their microphones. But that doesn’t seem likely. Facebook’s official statement reads, “Facebook does not use your phone’s microphones to inform ads or to change what you see in your newsfeed.”

But, why does it feel like Facebook and its advertisers are in the same room with you?

This is because they are so good at tracking you online and offline that it feels like they have access to your conversations. With a legal and ethical use of keystroke logging and AI algorithms, Facebook can track your interests and show you advertisements that might catch your attention. This article on the Wallstreet journal goes into the gritty details.

There is a term called Corporate keylogging. It refers to tracking and recording the computer activities of employees and contractors for three purposes.

Real-time monitoring and alerting

This is especially used for IT and security personal. Why? So that they can immediately notify any suspicious or dangerous behaviors and/or activity.

After fact investigation

To help administrators investigate system failures and data breaches. Also used to look into malicious activity during root cause analysis.

Compliance auditing

To help auditors determine how well the company is complying with laws and regulations. It also helps identify violators.

A corporate keylogger is not used manually. It is used to search for keywords and get real-time alerts.

Like any other tool, keyloggers can be used for legal and illegal purposes. Many parents use it on their children’s smartphones for surveillance. Stafftimer also provides daily work videos. When an employee’s keystroke counter combines with video recordings, video quality dramatically increases.

4 Strategies to Improve Your Productivity as a Freelancer

There is no denying that the freelance market is appealing to many professionals all over the world. According to a 2019 study on a US-based independent workforce, the freelance market generates nearly $1 trillion in income. That’s almost 5% of the US GDP.

A 2018 Entrepreneur article reports that there are over 57 million Americans working as freelance professionals as of 2017. Considering the numerous advantages freelance employment brings to the table. That number will definitely rise in the future.

However, even the most hardworking and diligent freelance workers are not immune to procrastination and distractions. Poor productivity is a constant issue for many business organizations that employ freelance workers, mostly remote teams from all over the world. Missed deadlines and late submissions from your freelance workforce can set you back and even cost your business its precious clients and projects.

The good news is that productivity issues are easy to fix. With the following productivity strategies, you can expect your freelance workforce to deliver high-quality output at a productive rate.

Use Time Trackers

Time Tracking Software and apps are not new. However, they are still highly effective tools to keep productivity up in the workplace. The same can be said for professional freelancers and remote teams.

Many companies require their independent workers to install a time tracker on their devices. Many solutions provide a customizable freelance time tracking template that managers can configure so it tracks or records specific information such as hours worked, time spent on breaks, and averages.

Workers log in before their designated work schedule or project-related tasks. They then log out after their shift or once their tasks are accomplished.

Many time trackers are built to document not just hours but record the time spent on work down to the last second or minute. This is an effective productivity strategy especially if your organization bill your workers by the hour.

Activate Random Screen Capture

You can’t monitor your freelance worker’s progress all the time. Yet you want to make sure he or she is spending working hours on actual work. That’s understandable. Your company doesn’t want to pay for unproductive hours.

One way of ensuring your freelance employees are indeed working during their supposed working hours is to capture images of their screens at random times. It helps identify who is working and who is spending their hours doing something else. Such a feature empowers your workers to devote all their billable time to work, driving productivity up.

You may settle for a free time tracking software for freelancers. However, if you want this feature, you may have to invest in premium productivity and time tracking suite.

Give Your Best Tasks and Projects to Top Performing Freelancers

You can create and cultivate a productive environment for your independent workers if you include a gamification element to your approach. Instead of just assigning tasks and projects to the next available worker, you can send your most critical and high-paying jobs to your best freelancers.

Publishing their names as well as their earnings on a leaderboard will definitely entice your freelance employees to perform better and turn in great results to rise up the ladder. Aside from boosting their performance and productivity, your freelance workers become more engaged and dynamic.

By adding an element of competition, you can empower your freelance workforce to prove their worth, which then translates to better results and improved productivity.

Limit or Block Access to Certain Sites and Social Media

There are numerous productivity apps for PC and mobile devices that can track time and capture screenshots at random moments. On top of that, you also want your productivity apps to limit or block your freelance workers’ access to specific websites and social media sites that cause distraction and fuel procrastination.

Such capability is quite useful, especially when social media sites have proven to take much from a worker’s productivity. That said, not all social media is bad for work. Some employees spend their break watching funny cat videos. Others use social media and other sites for research, communication, and collaboration purposes.

Companies should establish guidelines on social media usage by their freelance workers. Many of today’s work processes are built on online connectivity and access to the Internet. That means the complete banning of social media is not a viable option. While social media can be detrimental to a worker’s efficiency and productivity, it can also be a huge asset when utilized properly.

Automation, Collaboration, and Communication are Key

If you want to have a highly effective and productive team of freelancers, you need to put them in an environment that fosters effortless and painless automation, communication, and collaboration.

Your freelance employees don’t want to spend time typing their credentials whenever they open devices and log in to their respective accounts. Many productivity apps automate the logging in of multiple systems and different credentials.

Communication between and among your freelance employees should be instant and smooth. Instead of relying on lengthy email threads, replace them with real-time communication tools and task management platforms for faster and more effective communication, instruction, and deployment.

By centralizing tasks, information, contacts, and more, you can maximize your freelancers’ capabilities and talents, optimize processes, and deliver desired results.