We talk about productivity. A lot.
And not only in our blog – which we do, a lot and often on topics such as ‘productivity,’ ‘productive employees,’ ‘productivity apps,’ and ‘productivity books’ – but also as a core cultural component for us.
‘How is ‘productivity’ a part of your culture?’ you ask.
Easy.
Because we’re a virtual company, we’ve had to really strip down what’s mission-critical – and what’s not – in order to operate at our most efficient. We’re often asked, ‘How do you hold people accountable? How do you know they’re putting in their time and getting their job done? How do you keep them motivated?’
The answer is simple: Results. It’s not about hours or processes; it’s about results.
And for us at BELAY, we rely on three tenets to achieve those results.
- Clarity. You have to be very clear on what the job is, what the job entails, and what the expectations are for it.
- Metrics. You have to measure. You have to have some way of tracking the functions of that job and whether your expectations are being met – or not.
- Communication. You have to communicate if there are gaps in those expectations. Maybe the training wasn’t good enough in the beginning. Maybe the role was too big for what you hired the person to do. So you have to have accountability layered on top of the trust for someone to do that job.
Our Productivity ‘Secret Sauce’
To be your most productive, it's essential to have a project management system in place. We have a lot of people in a lot of places working on a lot of different-but-coordinated projects, initiatives and tasks.
And without a project management system in place, they’d all be working in parallel siloes, never to intersect.
We can’t have that. And neither can you.
So whether your project management system is a good old-fashioned to-do list or a fancy color-coded spreadsheet to track your progress, it’s important to make sure all roads lead to results.
Here at BELAY, we use Asana, a project management software, to develop and execute all of the fun – seriously fun – projects that we get to work on.
Watch this video to see our Marketing Operations Coordinator, Christi, break it down.
And how we approach our workload is much like how you’d eat an elephant: One bite at a time. You don’t want anyone to choke, right?
We didn’t think so.
So our marketing team has found our groove working in one-week chunks or ‘sprints.’ See? Even how we name our productivity tools is fun. Just smaller, bite-sized pieces that we can easily digest before moving onto the next bite.
These bites are broken out into what deliverables we have that week – THINK: That email that needs to be sent? It goes into Asana. Social media post? Asana again.
Then we make sure to start by working backward to answer when the project is due and what we need to accomplish to get it done.
And before you ask: No, we’re not sponsored by Asana or collect any shares of sales or other compensation from them. It's just a seriously great productivity tool that helps keep us organized and accountable.
Ready to get productive?
Ready to #goBIG in 2020 with us? Then check out this productivity guide which is a compilation of BELAY’s most tried-and-true resources for mastering the art of a productive work week.
This resource will equip you with time hacks, organization tips, delegation advice, and various reading and tech tool recommendations to boost productivity and stay focused all week long.