17 Productivity Hacks for Your Digital World

Someone commented the other day about how I was a "ninja" at using a certain software platform.

Admittedly I'm an organization and productivity nerd (at least at work), but?I was never formally trained in it.?I just wanted to learn how to use it, so I dug in and taught myself. I messed with it. I read articles. I pushed buttons to see what would happen. (I promise it probably won't blow up.)

I think it?started when I owned my own photography business and I had to figure out how to do everything myself.?

What would you call that??Scrappy. Resourceful. Self-starter.?

Whatever you call it, it's a characteristic that has really served me well throughout my career. If I don't know how to do something, I just dig in and figure it out.?

You can learn almost anything these days if you're willing to get curious and chase a few rabbits.?

I've also learned the value of sharpening the saw. Taking a little more time up front to get comfortable with a new tool, set up a process, get organized, so I can work smarter, not harder.?

Being organized is a daily habit that I practice. I started writing this with the intention of sharing some of my productivity tips/tricks/habits as a LinkedIn post and quickly ran out of characters. So I thought I'd write an article and share a list of some of my top "productivity hacks".?

Here we go...

1. I've created a bookmark folder structure in my browser, and every time I visit a page that I may need again later, I bookmark it before closing the tab.

2. EDIT: This browser extension is no longer available. Speaking of browser tabs, I often have a lot of tabs open as I jump between calls and working on multiple projects throughout the day. And that can take up a lot of your computer's brain power (technical term). So I use The Great Suspender to automatically suspend tabs I haven't used in the last 30 minutes. They're there when I'm ready to use them again, but not slowing down my browser.

3. For tabs I use a lot (like Gmail, my calendar, Asana, Google Drive), I pin them. That way they take up less visual space across my tabs and it prevents them from being suspended.

4. In my bookmarks bar, I delete the names of the software and just leave the icon so I can fit tons of links in my bookmark bar. I put everything else into a structure of about 12 folders with folders inside to prevent a never-ending list of bookmarks.

5. If I get an email with a link to something I know I'll need to reference later, I don't file the email until I open the link and save it into the correct bookmarks folder.?

6. For emails with attachments, I save the attachment into the shared online project folder before filing the email.

7. Number 6 is with the caveat that I really hate having versions of documents. So I always try my best to work with my teams and get them in the habit of creating live, shared docs and sharing the links instead of emailing versions around. (You can always view the version history if you need to see what has changed and who changed it!) This is available in both the Google and the Microsoft ecosystems. Seriously. Stop emailing documents.*

* This one is more of a team change management item (rather than a productivity habit or hack), but it will save so much time and frustration in the long run if you can get your team to shift to this new way of managing documents.

8. Instead of archiving all of my emails into the email archive void, I've created a folder structure in my inbox so I can quickly and easily find specific messages later. This is especially helpful when your inbox starts getting really packed because searching (especially in Outlook in my experience) can take a hot minute.

9. This one is BIG! I learn all the keyboard shortcuts. Typing is so much faster than using your mouse! Instead of dragging emails to file them, I type Ctrl+Q (mark as read), Ctrl+Shift+V (open the Move menu), type the letter of the folder, tab up or down to the right file, and hit Enter. It takes 2 seconds. In Asana, instead of moving + clicking + moving + scrolling + selecting, I hit Tab+M to assign a task to myself. When filling a form, the Tab key is your friend. Keyboard shortcuts are available in just about every software out there. If you take some time to learn them up front, it saves so much time.

10. If I find myself sending the same basic email over and over, I create a new email signature with the whole email body as a template. Then when I need to send that email, I simply insert that email signature into a new message, customize the variables, and send. (I even save the subject line at the top and just Cut+Paste it into the email subject).

11. Similarly, if there's a document I find myself copying and reusing a lot, I create a generic templated version of it with placeholders rather than copying a fully filled out version every time. This is also easy to share with my team as a link (see #7 above)... multiplying the time savings across people and teams. Bonus!

12. If I know I need to complete a task on a certain day, I don't just write it in my to do list. I create a calendar event for myself and schedule it with a notification. (If you don't want to block the space on your calendar in case someone needs to book a meeting, "show as" free).

13. I color code my meetings so I can easily see how I need to show up throughout my day. Default/light blue are meetings where I need to show up and be in the discussion. Red means I need to prep for and/or lead the meeting. Green means it's educational like a webinar. Blue means it's a task block. Yellow is for internal large group training sessions (where there will be a recording and I could watch it later if I need to). Black is for awareness - like a co-worker's vacation. Purple is personal - I often block out time for lunch, a walk, a shower for those days that start early, or a Friday boba run with my kid.

14. I think through naming conventions. If I'm organizing webinars or something chronological, I name them [year]-[month]-[date]-[topic]. If I don't have a lot of space or only a certain number of characters show, I come up with abbreviations so I can pack in as much helpful information as possible.

15. I use Evernote to take notes during meetings. This allows me to type notes and easily take screenshots (Windows+Shift+S) when needed. I also keep Asana open (the project management software we use) and immediately add action items to my task list (or to the project) as we discuss them.

16. When I was in the Google ecosystem at my last company, I created a Knowledge Base in Google Sites to help our team find everything they needed in an easy self-serve interface.

At my current company, we're in the Microsoft world, so now I create pages in SharePoint. SharePoint Pages had a steeper learning curve than Google (surprise), but now that I've got the hang of it, I love having one central place to share everything that has to do with a project or campaign. I'm not talking about just sharing document folders as I commonly see it used. I build entire project and campaign pages/mini-sites where I share a paragraph or two about the project, embed the Briefing Deck, show the project timeline, have a list of quick links pointing to everything related to the project (the link to our Teams space, the content folder, graphics folder, the Asana project, etc.), embed training session recordings. And then when my team is looking for information or docs about the project, all I have to do is send them the link. (And eventually everyone learns that I link everything from our main Marketing team SharePoint page menu and they're able to find what they're looking for without even needing to ask me.) It's a beautiful thing!

17. I keep a task list... and I look at it. The second half of that sentence is kinda the most important part. ?? I organize my tasks into these categories: 1) Top Focus, 2) To Do Today, 3) Big Rocks (from the jar of rocks, pebbles, sand, and water story - big projects I want to keep top of mind), 4) This Week - Most Important, 5) This Week, 6) Not Urgent, 7) Next Week, 8) Next Month, 9) Next Quarter, 10) Education/Learning (webinars, articles, books, etc. I want to watch/read), 11) No Timeline. This is all in Asana... which yes, I would marry if I could.

My task list is really my sanity saver. I spend time at the end of my week (or Monday morning) getting things organized and prioritized for the week, and I look at it throughout my day, shifting and reprioritizing where needed.

When I'm not intentional about my day, I end up feeling like that plate spinning guy... trying to keep everything from crashing and falling. Now that I have a great system in place, as long as I'm religious about adding things to it as they come up, I don't constantly wonder what I'm missing or forgetting. I can't always complete everything on my list, and that's ok. But by knowing what's on my list, I'm able to reprioritize, and most importantly communicate and negotiate where there are dependencies or where things need to shift.

Woosah.

Invest in Yourself

All of these things are habits that I practice every day. But I didn't start out doing all of them all at once. I picked them up one by one over time. So if you're interested in getting more organized and feeling more in control of your digital world, pick one or two and try them out for a couple of weeks.

They'll take some time on the front end, but like Stephen Covey shares about Habit #7 (based on the Abraham Lincoln quote), it really doesn't make sense to spend all your time sawing.

Suppose you were to come upon someone in the woods working feverishly to saw down a tree.

“What are you doing?” you ask.

“Can’t you see?” comes the impatient reply. “I’m sawing down this tree.”

“You look exhausted!” you exclaim. “How long have you been at it?”

“Over five hours,” he returns, “and I’m beat! This is hard work.”

“Well, why don’t you take a break for a few minutes and sharpen that saw?” you inquire. “I’m sure it would go a lot faster.”

“I don’t have time to sharpen the saw,” the man says emphatically. “I’m too busy sawing!”

Sharpening the saw takes a dedication to invest in yourself on the front end. But it's worth it when you're able to start chopping down trees like butter!

Have questions about any of the above? Feel free to ask and I'm happy to share more detail.

What did I miss? I always love learning new productivity hacks. What habits or tips or productivity software do you use and love? Please share in the comments!