The Windows operating system has gradually improved since it was first released back in 1985, bringing us to Windows 11 and its productivity-boosting capabilities nearly four decades later. Let’s take a closer look at just a few of these features so you can make the most of your time using the OS.

The Windows Clipboard Offers Far More Utility

Historically, the Windows Clipboard had a one-and-done level of functionality. You could copy one clip into it and use it for the rest of the time you were on the computer… provided you never copied anything else. If you did, your original clip was lost.

Nowadays, the Clipboard is far more capable than just this. Today, multiple clips can be stored and selected from—and what’s more, these clips can be stored in your Clipboard permanently, potentially making it far more convenient for you to replicate content that you come back to on a regular basis, from multiple devices.

To view the complete Clipboard, press Windows Key + V. A window will open that displays all of the clips you’ve taken during your session. You can also identify anything you want to persist after your device restarts by selecting the three-dot icon on any copied content and selecting Pin. This is great if there’s any boilerplate you regularly need to paste into an email or document template, and it ensures that this content will be there until you actively delete it from your Clipboard.

Focus Sessions Allow You to Eliminate Distractions

For all the benefits that technology and its inherent connectivity bring, it does have one pretty significant drawback: it makes it far more difficult to focus on any one task, with all the reminders and notifications for other things that need to be done popping up and dinging, breaking your concentration. To address this, Windows 11 offers a feature called Focus sessions, which effectively puts the operating system into Do Not Disturb, muting notifications for a time that you determine.

To start a session, search for clock in the Search box and access the Clock app. There, you’ll see the Focus sessions option, where you can set a duration for your focus session. If the session is 30 minutes or less, no breaks will be factored in, but longer sessions will have breaks automatically incorporated into your session unless you check the Skip breaks option. Click Start focus session to get down to business.

You can even link your Spotify account to play music during your session, as well as set long-term goals for its use.

Microsoft Teams is Accessible Via the Taskbar

Many organizations have formalized the use of Teams as their internal communications platform of choice, which makes the decision to incorporate a quick-access tool for it into Windows 11 sound like a smart decision. The operating system now incorporates a simple version of Teams in the taskbar itself, allowing you to repeat your most recent activity on the platform—all you have to do is click the icon or press Windows Key + C. From there, you can start a video call via the Meet option or a text conversation via Chat. If these options aren’t enough, you can also Open Microsoft Teams properly via this easy-access menu.

We hope these capabilities help you throughout your workday, along with the other tools that Windows 11 makes available to you! For assistance in other ways that your technology can work harder for you, give us a call at (604) 513-9428 today.

#1: Interact with it less.

As we established from the very start, email can very rapidly shift from an asset to a considerable time commitment, often multiple times throughout the workday. If possible, avoid getting drawn in by reducing the total amount of time you spend in your mailbox. There are a few ways to accomplish this:

• Check your emails in batches, allowing them to accumulate throughout the day and attending to all of them at once. This will help you to remain focused on your actual responsibilities, rather than having your concentration broken each time a message comes in.
  
  
• Create a browser shortcut that takes you directly to your message composer and bypasses the inbox:
  
  
  
  • For Gmail, use: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?view=cm&fs=1&tf=1.
    
    
  • For Outlook, use: https://outlook.office365.com/mail/deeplink/compose?version=2020042702.13&popoutv2=1&leanbootstrap=1

#2: Organize yourself, by organizing it.

Without the proper maintenance, your inbox can quickly become bogged down with messages and make it impossible to find important messages later. Therefore, it is useful to add additional rules and features to your email client, such as:

• When you’re dealing with a ton of emails, it can be annoying to have to bounce back to your inbox each time you delete, move, or act on one of your incoming messages. Fortunately, there is a way to mitigate this issue through a simple change in your settings.
  
  
  
  • In Gmail, there is a feature called Auto Advance. With it activated, deleting, moving, or archiving a message will no longer send you back to your inbox, and will instead move you to your next message. You can also activate the Send & Archive button, which will give you the option to do both things in one click.
    
    
  • When using Outlook, you can change your settings to also advance you to your next message after acting upon its predecessor. Call up your Options (under the File menu option) and select Mail. On that page, you’ll find a section labelled Other, and the specification to complete an action “After moving or deleting an open item.” Select open the next item from the dropdown.
    
    
• Whether you’re dealing with communications referencing different projects or simply receive many kinds of correspondence, it can be difficult to keep them all straight. Sorting these messages out automatically can save quite a bit of time and frustration.
  
  
  
  • In Gmail, you can create Labels, which effectively help you manage different emails from different senders or that reference different topics. By creating Filters via the drop-down option in the Search bar, you can also set certain emails to have these labels applied based on preset criteria. These can even be used to sort through different email addresses you receive in the Gmail client.
    
    
  • Outlook also offers a similar function with its capability to create Folders and generate Rules to direct certain messages to them automatically, once again. When an existing inbox message is right-clicked, suggested rules will display, along with the opportunity to create one or to manage the ones you have already created.

#3: Prepare Ahead of Time

We all have those messages that we find ourselves sending time and time again, with minimal details changed between them. Shave the time you spend drafting these messages down by creating a template to start off with.

• In Gmail, as your message composer is open, click the triple-dot menu at the bottom and navigate to Templates. From there, you have the option to either insert a template you have already created or save what you have drafted as a new template to use later. If you no longer need a template, you can also delete it from this menu.
  
  
• In Outlook, you can create a new template from a message by navigating to File and Save As, then switching the file type to Outlook Template. To use them, select New Items as you are drafting your email and from there, More Items and then Choose Form. From there, select User Templates in File System in the Look In box. Find your template, and select Open.

What other ways do you know to speed up your use of your email? Share them in the comments! For more handy tips, make sure you subscribe to our blog.

Wish One: Security Awareness
Some IT professionals feel like their job never ends, particularly in the realm of cybersecurity. They might feel that training employees to be aware of their actions is an uphill battle that just never stops. Increasing awareness of security is one of the key roles that an IT department plays for your organization, and if you can make their lives easier by shifting any of this responsibility from them, they’ll greatly thank you for it.

Wish Two: More of the Cloud
The cloud is a great way for organizations to get more out of their technology as it allows them to access services that might be exceptionally time-consuming to manage in-house. Saving this time is something that your IT department would relish, as they likely have their hands full with their current responsibilities. The cloud alleviates many of these pains, as it improves operations by enabling your business’ employees to access solutions on any device they want. The cloud gives your organization the opportunity to eliminate waste and deliver assets in a much more convenient and accessible way.

Wish Three: Improved Working Relationships
IT often has to deal with much more than just keeping your business running; it also involves communicating with other workers in your office. To put it in simple terms, the IT department is going to be on the receiving end of all your employees’ frustrations. You can give your IT the gift of a policy in which they must hear IT out. This gives them the ability to learn a little bit about the process, and it could potentially save several contacts with the IT department, meaning more time for them to spend on other initiatives. An outside perspective is helpful for helping people understand each other.

Does your business need the gift of managed IT? Coleman Technologies can help. To learn more, reach out to us at (604) 513-9428.

Collaboration tools can be remarkably helpful for businesses, if not downright essential to their success. With the right tools that are, of course, configured the right way, you can see exponential returns on your investment as your staff enjoy the many benefits they provide. Today, we want to discuss four common pitfalls with your collaboration tool security that must be addressed.

Ensure Secure Data Sharing Protocols

It’s easy to assume that your collaboration platforms are properly securing your business’ files when you share them through the apps, but this is not necessarily the case. You want to do some research and make sure that any tools you use—particularly those that are a part of the public cloud—use encryption to keep your files and communications secure. Yes, this also means your email solution!

Do Research on Your Solutions and Providers

When you are working with providers during the initial setup of your collaboration tools, you’ll need to be extra careful to ensure that you are appropriately configuring your solutions for maximum security. It’s easy to make the assumption that what one business finds useful will work for another, but it’s simply not the case, and providers who aren’t going to help you ensure you get the most value and security out of your solution have no place being on your business’ payroll, so to speak. In other words, make sure you understand your business’ needs first, then clearly articulate those needs to your providers so they can be obligated to help you get what you need from the agreement.

Make Sure Collaboration Tools are Centrally Managed and Maintained

If you’re having your employees use collaboration apps and tools, then you should ensure that they are not finding alternative solutions that are outside of your company’s control. You can dissuade them from making use of external apps—a concept known as shadow IT—by providing them with the tools they need to effectively do their jobs. The reason for this is that you don’t want them sharing company data through third-party or external apps that you cannot control or gain access to if needed.

Make Sure Your Team is Secure, Too

How do your employees access the resources they need to do their jobs? You need to make sure that employees who work out of the office for any reason are using secure Internet connections, further reinforced through the use of a virtual private network to obfuscate your data from any onlookers.

Coleman Technologies can work with your business to secure its collaboration tools, from your productivity suite to your email communications solution to your networking solutions. To learn more, call us today at (604) 513-9428.

Understanding Smart Scheduling

These software solutions are commonly found in industries that are subject to a lot of outside influence and fluctuating demand due to a variety of factors, such as retail. Smart scheduling gives these businesses the capability to schedule their employees more effectively, using automation to simplify the process.

Having said that, the principles of smart scheduling can be applied to all industries if they are viewed as a process, rather than a technology. Not only can all industries apply these principles, they should, as all businesses must deal with numerous factors that impact their operations.

Looking at it in this light, smart scheduling effectively just boils down to consolidating your various circumstances and scheduling to accommodate them accordingly. It’s recognizing that certain times will have different demand levels, that some conditions will impact operations, and making the preparations to deal with them proactively.

Scheduling More Intelligently

Even if you don’t have a dedicated solution lined up for these purposes, there are some ways that you can embrace the concept of smart scheduling. Consider these strategies:

• Bring Your Information Together—You should consolidate any available information that you have regarding your schedule and your business’ operations to make it easier for you to predict patterns and prepare for them. Understanding what priorities you have, and how much your employees have been available to accomplish, will assist you in scheduling your team more effectively.
• Communicate—Communication is one of the most important factors when determining your success, and this goes for how much information your schedule provides. Give your employees context into their tasks to help empower their procedures and productivity.
• Use a Scheduling Platform—Businesses have many options to assist them with their scheduling available, and not all of them need to be inherently “smart.” Finding one that works for your needs will bring considerable benefits to your business and its processes. 

Regardless of the business solutions you need, Coleman Technologies is here to help you manage them. To learn more, reach out to our team by calling (604) 513-9428.

Data is at the heart of all successful modern businesses. The information you collect and store can help you make better decisions, plan better strategies, and gain a competitive advantage. Let’s look at how your raw data can be refined into more meaningful insights through the use of business analytics tools.

How Business Analytics Work

Business analytics help you turn your data into action. With the right tools, you can make sense of the elements that impact your business, like:

• Your business performance
• Current trends in your market
• Your customer behaviors

In essence, analytics takes the nitty-gritty behind your organization’s operations and helps you create real change. When used appropriately, analytics can guide your organization’s decision-making.

Why Use Business Analytics?

Larger businesses used to be the only ones capable of leveraging these tools, but SMBs now can do so as well. You can use it to perform the following tasks:

Use Data to Fuel Decision-Making

If you make decisions based on facts rather than assumptions, you can see real progress with better business choices. 

Identify Market Trends and Customer Preferences

Once you understand the market and your customers, you can better address the needs of the greater business niche you have adopted and your customers.

Improve Operational Efficiency and Cut Costs

Business is all about being efficient with what you have. There’s no need to work harder than you need to, and analytics can help you identify opportunities to do more of this.

Business Analytics Can Improve Your Organization

It can be challenging to make sense of this data, but SMBs have several options to make it more manageable. Here are the steps you can follow:

Compile Your Data

First, you have to collect and organize your data. This might include customer, financial, and sales data. To make the task easier, you can use various platforms, such as your customer relationship management software, for inventory management tools.

Once it’s all organized, you can analyze it for patterns and trends.

Implement the Right Tools

If you want to use your data properly, you’ll need the tools to do so. There are plenty of tools on the market, and we would be happy to recommend those we have used successfully.

How to Measure the Success of Business Analytics

You want to make sure the effort you expend to make good use of your data is worth it, which is where setting up key performance indicators comes in handy. KPIs help you determine your own metrics for success, like increased sales, reduced costs, and improved customer experiences. If you’re not improving your business with data analytics, then what good are they?

You Can Count On Us to Equip You with the Right Tools

We want our clients to have the best tools available, and you are no exception. Contact us at (604) 513-9428 today to learn more about using your data to its full potential.

“What does—and doesn’t—work?”

To motivate your team to take ownership over their responsibilities and invest in your successful operations, you need to communicate that what they say has credence. Your team can be a goldmine of insights if you hear what they have to say. Think about it, they’re the ones that have hands-on experience using the tools that you’ve put in place.

Asking this question also gives you the opportunity to hear any criticisms of the processes and procedures that your team is currently working through. Again, as the people actively following these processes, your staff will likely have the best impression of the most effective way to complete the task at hand. Listening to their feedback will tell you if a solution is proving ineffective or if the team needs more training and support to properly make use of it.

Regardless, your team members are likely to have information that you would find invaluable, so it pays to listen to what they have to say. Who knows, one of them may have a solution to a longstanding problem that just needs to be brought up.

“What can I do to help you succeed?”

This is an important question to ask, again and again, as time goes on. After all, as situations change, the answer to it will change as well. By asking this question, you can use the feedback you collect to improve your employees’ engagement levels that much better. Opening yourself to this kind of input enables your team to enjoy a greater level of access to you.

This question can also help you reinforce the data that you generate by asking the first question we discussed, furthering your efforts to improve your processes.

“What has your team done to further the organization’s goals?”

By asking this question of your team, you can help encourage them to collaborate more with each other and use the communication tools you’ve provided. Asking them what their coworkers have accomplished in tandem to them, helps you make sure that they remain aware of the company’s greater processes and how their efforts contribute to the organization’s success.

In asking it this way, you’re also encouraging this team-based focus to integrate into your company culture. As a result, your team members will begin to think more as a team and work together to accomplish everything on their shared agenda.

“How would you make what we offer our clientele better?”

This is a practical example of what we’ve already discussed—asking those with first-hand knowledge to draw upon their experience to help improve what it is you’re discussing with them. Seeking insights from those who are working directly with your clientele will help you to identify and resolve the biggest impacts influencing your company and services.

“If you were me, what would you do differently?”

This question can provide you with a variety of useful information, from the biggest pain points that your team is experiencing to all the small inconsistencies you may have missed. It also helps you encourage your team to see things from a perspective of leadership.

This is what you want, as it isn’t enough anymore to simply have drones pecking away at assigned tasks. You want to have people who are ready to embrace innovation and are engaged enough to work their way upwards in your organization. Handing the power over to your team, even in the hypothetical, helps to show the employee that their input is appreciated and valued.

Should this feedback ever reference any difficulties due to insufficient technology solutions and resources to complete a task, Coleman Technologies is here to help. Our services are designed to improve the efficacy and security of your workplace, boosting your productivity.

To learn more, reach out to us at (604) 513-9428.

Let’s go over a few solutions that can assist your business’ continuity in these testing times.

The Fear of Infection

The primary concern that comes from this specific variety of disaster is generally one of widespread infection, which makes it an uncomfortable prospect for people to congregate anywhere. This is especially true of the workplace, where papers and files were traditionally distributed (and redistributed) as work was done.

Naturally, this is the perfect storm for any illness to spread: materials being passed around, with many people together in a relatively enclosed space. With COVID-19, this is especially problematic, as the CDC believes that it is spread through respiratory droplets and close proximity to others. As a result, it is better to avoid this situation… but how could your business possibly cope with its entire staff being absent, due to either illness or preventative “social distancing?”

Fortunately, the technology exists today that allows you to see the best of both worlds.

Securely and Safely Working Remotely

Many common technologies today can be used to enable your employees to do the same tasks they would do in the office from the relative comfort and security of their own home. Let’s go through some of these technologies and applications and review why they are valuable to a remote work policy.

• Mobile devices - If your employees are going to work productively from home, they’re going to need access to the proper tools to do it. Supply your staff with laptops or thin clients that permit them to bring their tools out of the office if need be.
• VPN (Virtual Private Networking) - Of course, once your technology has been taken out of the security of the office, the data that it accesses can be put at risk. Utilizing a virtual private network can help decrease that risk greatly by shielding the data that is in transit.
• Cloud solutions - Of course, in order to effectively work remotely, your data and applications need to be accessible to your team as they need them. Hosting these resources in the cloud enables your team to access them from wherever an Internet connection can be established on many different types of devices.
• VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) - Communication is absolutely critical to business productivity, especially when it comes to remote resources. Without communication, you can’t expect to accomplish much at all. Certain solutions, like VoIP, allow you and your team, to maintain this communication--again, from wherever an Internet connection can be maintained.

While productivity is crucial to your business’ success, so is the well-being of your employees. Giving them the option to work remotely can help attend to both needs. For assistance with implementing the needed solutions, reach out to Coleman Technologies at (604) 513-9428.

The holidays and the new year are perfect times to reflect on how you can make your team’s jobs easier and more efficient. One way you can do so is by opening up the option for remote or hybrid work, provided their roles can be removed from the office, either part time or full time. Today, we want to highlight some of the tools that a remote workforce needs to be successful—as well as how you can get them.

Cloud-Based Services

The future of business is online, and companies that understand this are leveraging the cloud to great impact.

The standard way to acquire software for your business is by purchasing software licenses per user. More companies are moving toward cloud-based apps, which can be accessed through the Internet browser. Going the cloud route means you’re purchasing access to the latest versions of the apps rather than buying them outright, so you’re saving money while making them much more accessible.

Chances are that you can find a cloud-based version of most apps your organization uses that allow for remote access, making it easier and more affordable for your remote team to stay productive.

Remote Secure Access

Your team needs access to data, and more so than that, it needs secure access to data.

The issue with remote and hybrid work is that they increase the surface area of your network, meaning it’s more accessible and harder to stay in control of as your remote/hybrid workforce expands. It’s for this reason that you need policies in place regarding who can access what data. Access control and an encrypted virtual private network (VPN) solution are a must to ensure that no hackers have unauthorized access to your data.

Remember, remote and hybrid work open up more opportunities for hackers, so taking security seriously is a must.

Communication and Collaboration Tools

Of course, communication is another non-negotiable for your remote or hybrid workforce, as they will not be in the office as often as your in-house team.

Most cloud-based productivity suites have collaboration and communication tools built right into them, including voice and video chat, instant messaging, and task management. You should also have a project management solution of some sort to keep everyone collaborating on the same page. It’s a nice bonus if you can implement tools that integrate well with your other critical apps and tech infrastructure.

Some examples of tools you might consider include email and messaging, Voice over IP, and project management software.

Need a Hand with Transitioning to Remote or Hybrid?

We know considering all of your options for technology is challenging, and remote technology is no different.

That’s why we make it as easy as possible for you so you can focus on running your business. Instead of worrying about which vendors to go through or which solutions to buy, you can divert your attention to what you’ll have your team do with their newfound productivity. While remote and hybrid work isn’t a great solution for everyone, it can be when you implement it well.

To ensure this happens, give Coleman Technologies a call at (604) 513-9428.

To begin, let’s briefly review the basic principles of BYOD practices. In essence, rather than providing each employee with a company-supplied device, an employee is allowed to bring in a device that they own and leverage it for work purposes.

Why BYOD Has Become Popular in Workplaces

On the surface, BYOD seems to be the perfect solution - there are even statistics that help to support this position. For instance, companies who embrace BYOD practices save around $350 each year, per employee. Furthermore, using portable devices for work (much like what would be used as part of a Bring Your Own Device practice) has been shown to save employees approximately an hour each day, increasing their productivity by about a third.

This is just the tip of the BYOD-benefits iceberg. There are much more, including:

Access to Better Technology

If you were to list any business’ technology priorities, security and productivity should top the list… but oftentimes, frugality wins the day. Budgetary restrictions and a preference for tried-and-tested solutions frequently means that investments into more recent solutions are often pushed by the wayside. After all, what if the expensive new technology doesn’t work properly? This is frequently why businesses find themselves making due with solutions that really should be replaced. On the other hand, employees likely have no such qualms when they purchase their own devices.

BYOD policies allow a business’ employees to replace their outdated solutions with the reliability of newer, more up-to-date devices… leading to happier, more productive employees.

Reduced Financial Toll on the Business

Like we mentioned, it is fairly common for budgetary concerns to be the driving factor of many business decisions. It isn’t that the company doesn’t want to replace the aging workstations scattered around the office… it just isn’t in the budget. Before Bring Your Own Device emerged, businesses were stuck in a few different money pits. Between providing their employees with devices, maintaining and replacing these devices when they went faulty, and all the other expenses that come from keeping up an IT infrastructure, employers were stuck with a hefty bill.

Nowadays, with many people investing in their own devices and their accessibility, these expenses can largely evaporate. The employer’s investment can be effectively limited to securing access to these devices, allowing funds to be spent on other meaningful initiatives.

Employee Satisfaction

We’ve all experienced the struggle of trying to do work on equipment that just isn’t equipped for what we are trying to do. It can feel like trying to play Yahtzee with loaded dice - it just isn’t going to work, no matter how much effort is put forth. This is the other side of the example that preceded this one. If the aging workstations scattered around the office aren’t replaced due to budgetary concerns, some employees are going to be stuck using them… and they aren’t going to be happy.

As we alluded to as we described the effects that access to improved solutions can bring, an employee who isn’t being hamstrung by their technology is simply going to be more productive and happier with their working situation.

Clearly, BYOD isn’t something that should be dismissed without at least some consideration, but that isn’t to say that it is a perfect solution. There are also potential issues that need to be addressed as a BYOD policy is considered.

The Potential Issues of BYOD

Distractions

For every productivity application available on the Google Play Store, there is at least one application that is decidedly unproductive… at least, in terms of your business and its operations. While you could take steps to prevent these kinds of applications from appearing on devices that you provide, there isn’t much you can do about your employees downloading whatever they want onto their own.

Loss of Control

This is a big issue for businesses, as there are a multitude of ways that their losing control over the devices on their network could impact them. The policies that once prevented vulnerabilities from being leveraged can’t just be installed on an employee’s device without their consent, which many employees may be hesitant to give. This problem becomes even larger if an employee is fired or quits - what happens to the data on their device? How can a company be sure that a current employee isn’t putting sensitive company data at risk? What if the device is lost?

Compliance Shortcomings

Finally, you have to consider how your BYOD implementation will interact with any other compliances or requirements that your business is beholden to. In the past, a shockingly low number of IT leaders and professionals were confident that their BYOD policies met the standards placed by a variety of requirements, including HIPAA and Dodd-Frank.

How Can I Leverage BYOD Securely?

Fortunately, there are a few means of adopting a BYOD approach within your business while mitigating the concerns described above. The simplest way is to simply enforce a use policy, outlining the guidelines that your employees must follow if they wish to use their personal devices for work purposes.

Coleman Technologies can help you to create and enforce these guidelines, as well as optimize your use of your IT in many other ways. To learn more, reach out to our team by calling (604) 513-9428.

1. Prioritization

One of the keys to productive work is to work smarter, not harder. By identifying what is most pressing to accomplish or otherwise needs to happen first, you can inherently increase your productivity.

Ignore Inspiration

For instance, one of the biggest causes of procrastination is taking in a project in its entirety. Seeing the entire scope of an undertaking can be intimidating, which often makes people feel as though they need to be “inspired” before they will be able to accomplish anything.

This is untrue, but can be a difficult impulse to resist. If you catch yourself falling back on this excuse, try focusing specifically on a certain aspect or piece of your greater responsibility. Once this portion is completed, you’ll most likely be motivated to continue. In essence, don’t wait to be inspired… inspire yourself through what you accomplish.

Leverage Prioritization Strategies

Another common cause of procrastination is indecision as to what aspect of a project to tackle first. Again, identifying the most important or pressing activity makes it much easier to make this decision, and there are a few ways that you can do so.

One way is to leverage something called the Eisenhower Matrix. It can be used to sort tasks based on their urgency and importance, advising you on how a task should be approached - if it should be done now, planned for, delegated to someone else, or eliminated. This tool can help you avoid spending time on activities that ultimately don’t matter as much as others, optimizing how you spend the time you have. The Pareto Principle, or the 80/20 Rule, is another means of spending your time more intelligently. By identifying the most important 20 percent of their tasks and minimizing the remaining 80 percent, many people use this principle to spend the most time on their most impactful activities.

Save Distractions for Later

We’ve all experienced that moment where, in the middle of one task, we suddenly have an idea for another. While this new task may be valuable or important, it can also hurt your operations by interrupting the one you’re engaged in at the moment… but again, this thought also needs to be addressed. Many people resolve this dilemma by creating a distraction list. Rather than suspending what they are working on, these people simply take a moment to jot down this idea for further consideration after their task is done. This means that they aren’t jumping between unfinished tasks each time a new idea pops up.

2. Preparation

Once you have your tasks organized properly, you need to ensure that you have properly made preparations to attend to them. Some of these preparations may sound counter-intuitive, but are no less crucial to your efforts.

Make Sure You’re in Order

If you aren’t ready to be productive, you aren’t going to be no matter what you try. Therefore, you need to be taking care of yourself, as well as your technology. You need to be healthy and rested to reach your potential, which means that self-care is a must. This also means that you should be strategic in how you approach your responsibilities. If you know that you tend to have a period of low energy in the late morning, it’s probably beneficial to avoid scheduling intensive tasks for that time. In addition, you need to be sure that you’re up-to-date on how things are done. The more knowledgeable you are, the more efficiently you’ll be able to make decisions, and the faster processes will move along.

Expect to Be Interrupted

The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry, as they say. This means that you should anticipate other things to interfere with your established work schedule. What if another task pops up, or a task takes longer than anticipated? Taking these kinds of challenges into account will allow you to figure out a solution preemptively, or at least a plan that allows you to adjust and adapt.

Learn from Everything

We’ve all been taught the value of learning from our mistakes - examining situations in which things went wrong, identifying why, and avoiding those circumstances in the future. However, this is only half of what you should do to optimize your productivity. You also need to identify why your successes were successful.

Once you have completed a project or process, take some time to examine it. What about it worked well, and how could that be made better? Was every aspect necessary, or could some of it be eliminated or streamlined? Doing so will allow you to further optimize your procedure to be even more productive the next time.

3. Cheating!

In fairness, these strategies aren’t “cheating” so much as they are methods of working smarter. This way, you can make sure that your tasks are accomplished without expending more resources than they need - including your energy.

Subdivide Your Tasks

Remember the prioritization strategies we discussed above? This is a similar activity, in that you take a larger concept and divvy it up into each step that needs to be completed. Instead of putting them into a matrix or focusing on a specific set of them, the idea here is to simply make your tasks appear more achievable.

Let’s say you have to plan a work event. This alone is a significant responsibility, and can be overwhelming to approach as a whole - where to start? However, you can make your process much more comprehensible by going about it piece-by-piece, effectively expanding your task into a complete to-do list. While this does give you more tasks, they will be much easier to attain and progress with. So, instead of “Plan Party for Greg’s Retirement”, your list might include:

• Buy decorations
• Buy card
• Buy ice cream cake
• Hide cake in freezer
• Have team sign card
• Put up decorations
• Take out cake
• Send email to team to gather

More tasks, but much easier to follow nevertheless.

Leverage Shortcuts

There are a great many ways that your technology can offer an easier way of doing things. Naturally, keyboard shortcuts are one example of this, but so is automation. Let’s face it, any time you can save by having your technology handle something is time that you can then spend being productive elsewhere.

Eliminate Inefficiencies

How much time do you spend debating your options for truly inconsequential decisions during the day? Chances are, it’s more than you’d like to admit. The fact of the matter is that many of the choices that we are faced with aren’t all that impactful. Eliminating as many of these choices as possible will allow you to reserve your decision-making skills for the times that you really need them.

Email is another notorious source of lost productivity, simply because people don’t use it as efficiently as they could. It is too common for what should be a very brief and simple correspondence to take far longer than anticipated. Ironically, this is often because the people involved are trying to be brief.

Instead of cutting corners on your next email, invest a few minutes into including more specifics. Don’t just say you want to meet - identify the topics to be discussed. Don’t leave the time of the meeting open-ended, offer a few availabilities. While it takes longer to write, one email written this way will keep you from having to read, write, and send a few more.

Finding Your Groove

Clearly, there are many aspects to consider when you’re trying to be more productive, and some may be more effective for one person over another. A bit of experimentation will help you to land on the approach that works for you.

Coleman Technologies can help by providing the solutions that enable some of these methods. Reach out by calling (604) 513-9428 to learn more about these solutions.

For all the benefits that remote work offers, it does come with some challenges. Fortunately, there are different strategies that can be applied to help overcome them. Let’s break down something called structured problem solving, and how equipping your team members appropriately can help you with it.

What is Structured Problem-Solving?

Many business problems can seem large and unassailable—but I know I don’t need to tell you this. However, when something becomes so nebulous that it doesn’t seem to be approachable, it can be paralyzing. Again, you quite probably already know this.

Structured problem-solving is a technique that can help you address these issues. Basically, by dividing the massive problem into its core parts, it makes a complex conundrum far simpler to handle in a sustainable way.

One widely-implemented method to help improve existing processes is known as DMAIC—short for Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control. This is a solid approach to take when problems are, as we’ve said, complex.

How Does DMAIC Work?

• Define which process it is that you are experiencing issues with, where your opportunities for improvement lie, and what goals you want to reach.
• Measure how well your process is performing.
• Analyze the process to identify where the shortcomings are.
• Improve upon the shortcomings by resolving what causes them.
• Control the newly devised process to ensure performance is maintained.

That’s pretty much it—and by applying this process to each variable, structured problem-solving can more or less be used to optimize any business process that you carry out.

One of Remote Work’s Biggest Problems: Communication

It’s not a secret that there’s a divide, both literal and figurative, between your in-house employees and those that are working remotely. When in the office, communications are almost laughably easy. Businesses will have multiple communication tools available, sure, but there’s also the fact that if two people in the office really needed to communicate, they could also just step aside and have a conversation.

Your remote employees don’t have that luxury. This creates an issue. So, following DMARC in this case, we can define the problem as the lack of communication that is shared between your employees. Likewise, we can define our goal as improving communication practices between employees in different locations. From there, we can measure how frequently your employees are communicating amongst the office as compared to in-house and remote.

Next, we should analyze where exactly this process—in this case, workplace communication—is failing. Are your employees up to speed on the tools available to them? Have you expressed the importance of maintaining communication between all coworkers, not just the ones in the office?

Once we’ve compiled this information, we come up with how to solve our challenges and put efforts in place to do so. Let’s say that we elect to hold training sessions to better introduce the team to the tools at their disposal, so there’s no longer ignorance to blame for a lack of communication. Our job is not done, however, as we then need to maintain some control over this revised process. Perhaps we then implement regular refresher training sessions to reinforce these behaviors over time…and that may or may not be enough to solve the communication issues. If so, great, and if not, the process repeats.

We Can Help Solve Problems on Your Behalf

There are bound to be enough issues in your business—in any business—for you to solve that removing any from your purview is sure to be beneficial. Working with us will remove your IT from the list of things you need to worry about, whether or not your team is working in-house, remotely, or a blend of the two. Give us a call at (604) 513-9428 to learn more about what we can do to simplify your daily processes through improved IT.

What is Bandwidth?
In its most basic form, bandwidth is how quickly you can download content from the Internet. Bandwidth is measured in megabits per second, or Mbps. The more bandwidth you have, the faster downloads will run. Some high-speed connections can be measured in Gigabits per second.

How Exactly Does Bandwidth Translate to Download Speed?
If you’re trying to calculate your projected download speed, keep in mind that there are eight bits for every byte. This means that if you’re trying to download eight megabytes of data on a one Mbps connection, it will take about one minute. A 512 megabyte file, on the other hand, would take just over a hour to download on the same connection.

Estimating Your Business’ Needs
In order to reach an appropriate estimate for your business’ bandwidth, you’ll need to use a little math. Take the estimated traffic that you expect each of your processes to take up, as well as the number of users that are engaged in this process. You’ll want to assume that this is during peak operations; otherwise you might not have enough during an important operational period. You can generally rely on the following speeds for bandwidth estimation:

• 100Kbps and below: Low-end, single-line VoIP phones and e-fax machines. Some more basic computers have processes that use less than 100Kbps, but in the business world, you probably aren’t using them.
• 100-500Kbps: More computers and laptops fall into this range, as they are more likely to be the ones streaming, downloading, emailing, and browsing than other less intensive devices.
• 500Kbps-2.0Mbps: Cloud solutions and standard definition video conferencing take up about this much bandwidth. This is the general range for Enterprise Resource Planning solutions, Customer Relationship Management platforms, and Point of Sale devices.
• 2.0Mbps and more: High-definition conferencing solutions, remote access, heavy cloud access, and other resource-intensive tasks fall under this category.

If you keep peak activities at the top of your mind, use them to add up what your staff will need to stay on task and ahead of schedule. For example, let’s say you have ten users, including yourself. You might be using 450Kbps for correspondence, while six of your employees are using a CRM solution at 2.0Mbps each. The last three are using high-definition video conferencing software for 2.5Mbps each. Add all this up and you can expect to use about 20Mbps at heaviest use, but you want to go a little beyond this to 25Mbps, just to be safe.

What are other tips that you might want us to share? Leave us a comment and let us know.

The Ideal Task Formula

The consensus of many productivity experts and trusted names is that the equation to build out a task essentially looks like this:

Step + Detail + Deadline + Context = Task

This works well, as it can apply to either a complete project, or each piece of a larger project. Let’s take a closer look at each part.

Step

Every task is going to feature some action or another, whether something needs to be researched, written, completed, or reviewed, what have you. Essentially, this defines the what of the task at hand, the goal that the person assigned to it needs to accomplish.

Detail

This takes the step and builds it out with additional context and specificity. This might involve such details as:

• Who the task is assigned to
• Why they’re completing the task
• What contribution this task gives toward the final goal
• Where the assigned team member can find the resources needed to complete the task

Deadline

Of course, one of the most important details associated with any task is the date and time it needs to be completed. By specifying this, you prevent your projects from remaining in a holding pattern, moving them along.

Context

The final things you include in your task are the other important details surrounding it: how long is allotted to spend on it, any projects it is associated with, and where it should fall in the assigned team member’s priorities. This enables the person you’ve assigned to better organize their schedule to make the most effective use of their time.

Let’s say you wanted to assign one of your team members to write you a blog post about creating a task, so you needed to task it out. The final product might look something like this:

“Write blog post about creating tasks”

Creation of blog for website describing how to create a task for a business goal to be posted on Friday. Please compose blog on document found in content creation folder.

Assigned to SEAN – Priority 5

*If unable to complete, please inform HR and reschedule to next week*

Wednesday: 9:30—10:30

• Seek out sources for blog post about how to task out responsibilities
• Compose blog post
• Contact BRIAN to read blog over and proof

Friday: 1:30—2:00

• Post blog to website”

There you have it: how to task out your business’ processes for your team to reference as they follow your instructions. This process can apply to just about anything, if you are careful to follow the steps and provide a clear and comprehensive view of that which needs to be accomplished. The more information you provide, the better the outcome will likely be.

For more information to help you boost your productivity, and information about the tools that can help you to do so, subscribe to our blog today!

Whether it's a personal challenge or a necessity, keeping productivity high is good for an individual’s career growth and overall self-worth. Unfortunately, staying on top of your game can be difficult. We thought we would give you three things to consider that will work to keep your productivity levels high.

#1 - Planning

To prioritize productivity, interruptions need to be eliminated. One of the best ways to accomplish this is to set out everything you need to do and sort all of it by project priority, time to accomplish tasks, and how completed tasks should be disseminated. This will give you a natural list of what to do first, how much time you have to accomplish the tasks laid out to you, and who depends on the work you are about to accomplish.

#2 - Sprint, Not a Marathon

One thing that people don’t always understand is that trying to sustain long stretches of productivity inherently makes a person less productive. When the mind gets tired, mistakes are more common and then work has to be redone. The answer to this is to work in sprints. Basically, take a task and complete it, take a break, start and complete another task, etc. If a task is too big to complete in 20-to-30 minutes, break it into smaller pieces. Being able to focus on one thing at a time can really help you get more done in a day.

#3 - Eliminate Distractions

One of the biggest problems with workers in the information age is that they are tethered to their phones. Most people take part in social media and the more times that someone touches their device, the more distracted they become. That is not even considering the litany of other distractions that can stymie productivity. Limiting notifications on devices and setting no-screen zones can go a long way toward keeping you from being distracted and your eyes on the proverbial prize. 

At Coleman Technologies, we help British Columbia businesses get the most out of their technology. Give us a call today at (604) 513-9428 to learn how we can help you.

When Should You “Recharge?”
A good rule to follow for unplugging yourself from the daily grind is whenever you find yourself to be either overwhelmed or exhausted from working too much or too hard. After all, no business professional can work as hard as possible for an extended period of time without taking a break. If you ever find yourself struggling to answer the question, “What is it all for?”, perhaps it’s time to take a break and unplug from the workplace for a little bit.

Here are three ways you can recharge your mental battery during a busy workday.

Get Out of the Office
Sometimes a breath of fresh air can go a long way. Some employees might skip lunch because they feel they are too busy to get all of their work done otherwise, but this can be a mistake. If you’re not taking a break every now and then, your ability to focus can be impaired. We recommend taking your lunch and using it to grab something to eat or get out of the office, whether it’s taking a walk down the road or going for a short drive. Try to separate yourself from the office during your breaks, even if it’s a little.

Exercise a Bit
If you think you are working a bit too hard, you can use something as basic as even a minor amount of exercise to get your blood pumping. Exercising can help improve focus and improve your health, so if it’s done regularly, you will be more comfortable in the workplace. Furthermore, you may find that you achieve better rest at the end of the day, sleeping more soundly while feeling stronger and more energetic as a whole.

Read More
There’s something inherently relaxing about reading a good book. Even if you’re not into reading, you might find that taking some time out of your day to read a story or learn something new can refresh your outlook on a new project or idea you have. That being said, not everything has to be about work 24/7; that’s not how you “recharge the battery,” so to speak. Even if it’s just something you enjoy, try reading a little bit here and there. You might be surprised by the results.

Be sure to prioritize your mental and physical health to ensure that you are prepared to meet your workplace responsibilities.

Productivity is the lifeblood of any business, and understanding what it entails is paramount for every decision-maker in the corporate world. The concept of productivity is highly contextual, as no two businesses operate in the same way or are managed identically. Today, we present a set of key performance indicators (KPIs) that you need to consider. These twelve metrics will assist you in gauging whether your business is meeting productivity expectations or falling short.

Revenue and Sales

Keeping a close eye on your revenue and sales figures is a fundamental productivity gauge. Monitor trends, compare them with previous periods, and establish attainable sales targets.

Gross Profit Margin

This metric calculates the percentage of revenue that remains once you deduct the cost of goods sold (COGS). A higher gross profit margin signals superior productivity in generating profits from your core operations.

Net Profit Margin

Net profit margin measures the percentage of revenue remaining as profit after all expenses, including operating costs, taxes, and interest, have been subtracted. A higher net profit margin indicates a higher overall business efficiency.

Customer Acquisition Cost

Calculating the cost of acquiring a new customer is crucial. Divide your marketing and sales expenses by the number of new customers acquired. A lower CAC suggests improved productivity in gaining new customers.

Customer Lifetime Value

CLV determines the total revenue a customer is expected to generate during their tenure as a customer. It helps in evaluating the long-term productivity of your customer base.

Employee Productivity

Assess the productivity of your workforce by tracking metrics such as sales per employee, revenue per employee, or units produced per hour worked.

Inventory Turnover

The speed at which you sell your inventory is vital. Calculate this by dividing the cost of goods sold by the average inventory value. A higher turnover indicates efficient resource utilization and enhanced productivity.

Time Tracking

Monitor how employees allocate their time, and consider employing tools like time-tracking software to identify areas of inefficiency and optimize resource allocation.

Project and Task Completion Rates

Evaluating how well your team executes projects and meets deadlines is particularly critical for service-based businesses or those engaged in project-based work.

Cash Flow

Regularly monitor your cash flow to ensure you have sufficient liquidity to meet financial obligations. A positive cash flow is indicative of efficient financial management.

Employee Engagement and Satisfaction

Assess employee morale and satisfaction through surveys or feedback mechanisms. High employee engagement is often linked to increased productivity.

Customer Retention Rate

Calculate the percentage of customers who continue to do business with you over a specified period. A higher retention rate underscores the effectiveness of your customer relationship management.

By tailoring these metrics to align with your unique business objectives, you can gain a perspective that guides you in making necessary adjustments to meet your specific needs. Regularly reviewing these KPIs is essential for continuous improvement. By embracing data-driven decision making, you can empower your small business to enhance its overall performance. To discover more about how our services can assist you, don't hesitate to reach out to us at (604) 513-9428 today.