The OpenWater Blog

How an Awards Program Can Stay Productive

Despite making clear schedules spelling out what needs to be done during a given day, many people have trouble trying to stay productive throughout the day. You get into the office in the morning, intent on completing a few tasks, when your phone goes off, distracting you from what needs to get done. Next, you see an email from one of your friends with a link to an article they think you’ll find interesting. This leads you down the dreaded maze of internet searching, browsing similar topics which in the end have nothing to do with the work you had intended to do. It can be easy to lose focus like this and can have serious consequences for your awards program. This list will try to show ways to avoid losing focus, and how to stay productive throughout the workday.

1) Work Out

Making time for exercise can be one of the most influential ways you can improve productivity throughout the day. Whether you choose to work out before the workday or at lunch, exercise clears your mind of any stress which may hold you back from work, while also leaving you refreshed when you return to your desk. Your mind will work much more efficiently after a quick workout, allowing you to more easily complete the tasks at hand.

2) Email

Over the past two decades, email has become one of the most effective ways to communicate and is essential for businesses. However, using email also can lead to distractions such as the example of a friend sending unrelated articles. A way to avoid this type of distraction is to close your email tab and only access your email every hour. Check to see if there is anything of importance, and if not close it and go back to it in another hour.

3) Streamlined Software

Doing things by hand takes much longer and is far more labor intensive than using software to complete a task. Awards management software, for example, is a great way for awards programs to spend less time organizing forms, and spend more time finding new people to make admissions. If the option is out there to streamline the way you do things, look into the cost and see if it is a fit for your awards program. More times than not, it is!

Photo: Tomás Fano via Flickr

Matt

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