You can't be one of the biggest companies on the planet without knowing a few productivity hacks. And that's not counting the many productivity tools created by Google How to use Google productivity tools to maximize your time How to use Google productivity tools to maximize your time Google Keep, Google Calendar and Gmail are productivity tools that can help you to manage your time. We demonstrate how you can use Google's free tools to optimize your workday. Read more.
Google has some of the best leaders on staff, like Eric Schmidt, Sergey Brin, and Larry Page. The company has been famous for practices like asking employees to spend 20 percent of their time on a personal project. And there's a lot more where that came from.
No, productivity gurus, this is not the Eisenhower Matrix for prioritizing your to-do list. The 3-Strike System:How to Prioritize Your To-Do List. The 3-Strike System:How to Prioritize Your To-Do List. get through your to-do list? The problem may not be your productivity, it may be your priorities. Let's learn how to prioritize to-do list and how to get things done. Read More Thomas Davies, the Director of Google for Work, has a new system for dividing up his job responsibilities and getting things done.
Start by creating four quadrants. Three of those quadrants will be roughly three of the most important parts of your job. The fourth quadrant will be “transactional tasks.”
Transactional tasks are anything you need to do once, and they're fast. It can be something as small as calling a customer or replying to an email. If you do it fast, the task goes here..
The process is not about having four quadrants that each spend 25 percent of their time on. This system, Davies says, is meant to make you aware of tasks in different aspects of your job, and doing them while keeping your balance.
This is an activity that would be perfect to organize in Trello, or one of the best Trello alternative kanban boards. Goodbye Trello! 5 Free Kanban Board Tools Goodbye, Trello! 5 Free Alternative Kanban Board Tools Trello is an amazing app for managing projects and organizing your tasks. But there are other kanban apps that could be ideal for your tasks. Let's talk about the best Trello alternatives. Read more.
As the CEO of Alphabet (the company that now owns Google) Google is now part of... Alphabet? What Google needs to know is now part of... Alphabet? What Google needs to know, the internet giant, is becoming Alphabet. what that means to you. Read More), Larry Page's perspective is broader than most people's. But you can still learn a lot from how he thinks..
In an interview with Fortune, Page talked at length about solving “Zero Million Dollar Research Problems.” The idea is to find an interesting problem that no one is working on and then solve it yourself.
There are thousands of little problems in any team or office, no matter the size. In general, you complain about them but ignore them. Have you ever tried to solve the problem?
One of Google's early practices has been extremely beneficial to other companies. It's called Snippets, and it asks employees to take a minute to review what they're doing.
Every week, every Google employee is asked to write a Snippet and email it to their manager. The Snippet has everything they accomplished in the previous week, and what they hope to accomplish in the week ahead. Next week's plan is posted for all to see. As we know, sometimes a public to-do list can work for you if nothing else can How a public to-do list can work for you if nothing else can How a public to-do list can work for you if nothing else can make you share Does your to-do list with other people give you the drive to really tackle all the items on it? Try to harness the power of the public to get things done. Read more.
The Snippets system was extremely popular and was adopted by other companies as well. While it's inconvenient to write and send, it's a practice that helps you be more responsible. Overall, you'll get a better understanding of what you're doing and where you're going.
Since 1999, Google has used a goal system called Objectives and Key Results (OKR) to drive teams forward. It will change the way you work.
In Google's OKR system, teams set ambitious goals within a time frame, it should seem almost impossible. Then identify the measurable and quantifiable key result areas that will lead the team to that goal. Ideally, you need three goals and about 3-5 key result areas per goal.
Once done, make the OKRs public for everyone to see. And then each team member updates the results as they are achieved. It's a science-backed strategy for successful goal achievement 3 Science-Backed Steps to Finally Achieving Your Goals 3 Science-Backed Steps to Finally Achieving Your Goals You've already started thinking about your New Year's resolutions. Perhaps, they did not achieve all of them this year. Here are three specific steps you need to take if you are serious about your goals. Read more.
For a personal project, you can still use OKRs. These are not meant to be to-do lists, after all, they are shared goals. For more information, Google has created a guide to setting goals with OKRs.
Few people know more about email and email etiquette than Eric Schmidt, the company's President and former CEO. Schmidt wrote nine rules to better manage your inbox.
Chade-Meng Tan, a Google motivator, has said that the company's success lies in how it builds a culture of compassion at work. Part of that, he adds, is building a new habit of mind for yourself..
“Imagine every time you meet another person, your first habitual and instinctive thought is:"I want him to be happy." Imagine you can do that,” Tan said in his TED talk. “Having this habit, this habit of mind, changes everything at work. Because this goodwill is picked up by other people, and it creates trust. And trust creates a lot of good working relationships.”
No matter what your job is, it will involve interacting with other people. If you were better at these interactions, the entire environment would be more useful and productive. That's why compassion is one of the happiness tactics to start learning today 5 Happiness Tactics You Can Start Learning Today 5 Happiness Tactics You Can Start Learning Today You can go from helplessness to happiness with small changes in Your habits. Meditation, mindfulness, trust, and compassion are some of the other happiness tools you can benefit from. Read more.
Long ago, Google segregated its workforce into "manufacturers" and "managers":managers run teams while creators create products. Since then, some of his employees have found their roles overlap. It's time for everyone to be a “maker” and protect their “do” time, says Jeremiah Dillon, Director of Product Marketing for Google Apps for Work. It is a philosophy that we can all apply..
No matter what role you play in your organization, creating new things is often the best use of your time. Dillon says that we should all be manufacturers so that we are all creating new things, instead of trying to manage only what already exists. While managing is important, it is not as satisfying as doing. And with that perspective, you need to change the way you manage time.
For manufacturers, time management is crucial, says Dillon. No matter what you do, you should schedule some "Do" time into your workday and don't compromise on it. This is what will lead to growth, either as a person or as an organization. Even the Internet can make you more creative. How the Internet can make you more creative than ever. How the Internet can make you more creative than ever. Many say that the Internet is killing our creativity. But creativity is not an option. Thanks to the variety of tools available to us, the options are limitless. Get creative with these ideas. Read more than ever.
A quick experiment inside Google found that a dedicated “Do” slot helped everyone involved. Once you do that, the next step is to protect your own “Do” Schedule, and not infringe on others.
Every office worker is used to meetings that go nowhere. In the end, he is left wondering why they are all gathered in that conference room. At Google, every meeting has a before and after goal.
Googler Lisa Conquergood told Fast Company that at Google, they knew the purpose of each meeting before they went and after the meeting what action they needed to take. Can you say that about your company?
The job is about compensation. If you are not being adequately rewarded for your efforts, you will lack motivation and will. How do you make sure you are receiving the correct payment? By framing its value correctly.
Google's Head of Human Resources Laslo Block says that on any resume (or assessment), you should stick to a simple formula. This will ensure that you are paid what you deserve. Block said The New York Times :
Your productivity is linked to your motivation. If you are motivated by payment, make sure you get proper compensation. Talk about what you did, compare others and show how you are better..
There must be thousands of other great productivity hacks from Google or its employees. Since it's the subject of so many books and documentaries, there's a lot to learn.
What productivity hack did you learn from Google?
