There’s an App for That!

by BlogEdmiston Group

Apps can serve a variety of purposes – entertainment, productivity and even find your phone when you lose it! It seems like you can get lost in the app store trying to find the best fit for your needs. From accounting software to video conferencing and marketing apps, there are tons of options available in your app store to help you with productivity, efficiency, and communication.

As business owners, we are always thinking about ways to streamline, process and track activities in everyday business. With tablets and cell phones, business is on the go now more than ever. The digital age has offered up a myriad of tools to enhance creativity and productivity. Technology continues to evolve at the speed of light and new apps are being developed every day. The flexibility and reliability of moving from desktop to your mobile devices allow business owners to manage tasks on the go.

Mobile apps are powerful and can help your business run more smoothly. They can help improve daily operations, organize ideas, manage travel expenses, automate tasks, to name a few. If you can think of ways to run your business more easily, there’s probably an app to help you do so.

In a recent blog on Productivity, Constant Contact shared the 17 Productivity apps that can make an impact in both business and your personal lives.

How many do you use?

Once you’ve established an app that you feel works, evaluate the product with staff and share with them the vision you have and how it will improve their jobs. Get feedback for their buy-in and/or allow them to offer up alternative apps they may know that you haven’t discovered.

Habits are hard to break, but many apps have trial periods or basic users in order for you to determine if the fit is right for you and your business. The key is once you land on an app, that you incorporate its usage into your everyday business for it to be effective and you to reap the benefit of efficiency. Create procedures and processes as necessary to implement the app and evaluate its effectiveness.

Don’t settle for “we’ve always done it this way” when there can be a better way through the use of technology. I challenge you to step outside your comfort zone and find an app that will streamline your business, improve productivity, and increase profits.

About the author: Autumn Edmiston is the CEO and owner of the Edmiston Group. The Edmiston Group is a multifaceted Pittsburgh based marketing consulting firm providing senior-level marketing management services to businesses and non-profit organizations on a short or long-term basis. Core areas of service are business development strategies, website creation and management, social media management, marketing, strategic planning, and public relations. The Edmiston Group has consistently delivered and implemented real-world, proven business marketing ideas and strategies for business.

Save time and energy with these productivity strategies

Business Productivity Hacks

by BlogCommunications

Save time and energy with these productivity hacks.

How productive and focused are you in your day-to-day activity – at work and at home? Are you a night owl whose energy kicks in after 9 pm or an early bird who rises at the crack of dawn? Regardless of how your internal clock functions, you can always be busy, but not necessarily productive.

Does being busy equate with being productive? If you ask anyone what is the biggest challenge they face in trying to be productive, a likely response will involve something about a “lack of willpower”, or perhaps a difficulty staying focused.

If you think about it there are so many shiny objects that pop up to distract you throughout the day. Social media, email, phone, and personal issues. Any of these distractions can lead to lost productivity.

Build up good work habits for saving time and effort and alleviate some stress. Here are some productivity hacks to help you understand how to work smarter, improve the quality of your work life, and build habits that will save you time, energy, and mental strain in the long-term.

Productivity Begins With Your Goals…Focus On What’s Important To You
Where do you want to be 3 months from now? What about 1 year, or 5 years out? Not just your business but your personal life too. Aligning your work goals with what’s important to you is crucial in creating the motivation required to stay focused. Writing down your goals on a vision board will keep them top of mind.
It’s not by chance that I’m starting with this one. Understanding what’s important to you, not only in terms of your immediate work goals but also looking at the bigger picture. This can help you to focus and set the stage for how you approach wor

Routines Count – Develop Them
Build out a routine, and stick with it. Get into the habit of working at specific times (this is especially true if you work remotely) and you’ll find yourself wasting less energy on figuring out what to do next. Making a To-Do List for the next day allows you to focus on specific tasks and prioritize your time. There are various apps and scheduling tools for you to utilize. Personally – I use Asana, but some of my colleagues like Monday.com.
Monthly routines and processes can be documented and put into these programs. By creating the process, as your business grows or staffing changes, you can easily transition the steps to another individual.

Engineer Fake Pressure
How often have you told someone they will have a report you haven’t yet started by the end of the day? For some people, pressure can help to kick-start them into work mode and perform to a higher level of productivity. If you’re one of those people who finds that the pressure of a deadline or review helps you get more work done, consider engineering some fake pressure into your routine.

Email Check
Just like notifications, sometimes you can’t just ignore your inbox. This is one I struggle with – especially if I’m waiting for proofs from my graphic design team or feedback from a client. The trick is to set a time every day, where you check-in and clean up to inbox zero. The more consistent you can be with this task, the weaker the urge will become to randomly check your emails, and by sticking to the same time each day, you’re building good habits around self-discipline.

Record Each And Every Task
Following on from the to-do list, you can optimize this kind of task-based productivity approach by making sure you clearly and attentively record each task that is important to you. By keeping an up-to-date list of tasks, you can be sure you’re not overlooking certain factors when deciding on priorities and planning your workload. You could use a good old pen and paper to record your tasks and to-do-lists; many people work like this, and it’s perfectly suitable for personal jotting and keeping track of small-scale projects and priorities. This also allows you to track the amount of time spent on a given task. Having this information helps you price services accordingly.

Set Deadlines
Deadlines help you to get work done. This allows you and your team to measure and stay abreast of milestones needing to be met in completing a complex project.

Eat Your Frogs
We all have unpleasant tasks to deal with daily. “If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it’s your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest one first.” – Mark Twain. By completing difficult tasks first thing in the morning, you will feel a sense of accomplishment and other things will feel easy in comparison.

Stop Wasting Time In Meetings
Do you start a meeting with a purpose, goals and an agenda? Often, meetings are scheduled according to some arbitrary value like 30 or 60 minutes, and the structure is an afterthought. Define the purpose and outcomes of the meeting before the meeting. Some managers have a stand-up meeting that doesn’t allow for meaningless time spent. Objectives, assigned tasks, and outcomes are to the point.

Time Blocking – Stop multitasking
Focus on one task at a time and set a block of time to complete the task. This goes back to scheduling, prioritizing your TO DO LIST. Instead of trying to split your brain between multiple tasks, rapidly switching between activities and working on each of them simultaneously, you’re better off committing your focus to a single task at hand. Work for 25 minutes and take a 5-minute break and get up and stretch and you may find your brain remains better focused.

Consider some of these tips as you form new work habits. You may find yourself being more focused, able to better prioritize and execute your tasks at hand. We’d love to hear your success. Share your most successful habit on our Facebook page.

About the author: Autumn Edmiston is the CEO and owner of the Edmiston Group. The Edmiston Group is a multifaceted Pittsburgh based marketing consulting firm providing senior-level marketing management services to businesses and non-profit organizations on a short or long-term basis. Core areas of service are business development strategies, website creation and management, social media management, marketing, strategic planning, and public relations. The Edmiston Group has consistently delivered and implemented real-world, proven business marketing ideas and strategies for business.

Increasing-your-productivity

Increasing Your Productivity

by ArticlesCommunications

Increasing-your-productivityDo you have a desk at work? To most of us the answer is yes. A question that is often sought after by those of us who do sit at a desk every day is, “How can I be more productive?” To answer this question, you need to get up and walk away.

Now obviously walking away from your desk isn’t going to make you more productive however it’s what you do away from your desk that can. Many people try caffeine, or other energy boosting supplements to increase productivity, however exercise may be your answer. Going to the gym isn’t all about getting a six pack abs or bulking up. Having an active lifestyle will also help to improve your brain power, which can result in you being more productive.

Anyone who works in the corporate world knows all too well of the stresses and anxiety that can come along with it. Those who don’t let stress get the best of them are usually the ones that perform the best in high stress corporate positions. Exercise is the one way that these types of people often overcome stress in the workplace.

Want to give your brain more cells? According the process of neurogenesis, the rate of which your brain cells grow will decrease as you get older. In 2008 a study showed as we age, brain cells of people who exercise on a regular basis have a higher brain growth rate. This means that those who choose to be more active throughout their lives are more productive in the workplace. In many cases brain cell growth for active individuals advances at a higher rate than those who don’t regularly exercise.

Exercising also leads to you having more energy. Most of your cells contain mitochondria, which are often referred to as the “powerhouse” of the cell. Mitochondria help to produce the energy that your body needs. As you exercise your body produces more mitochondria, which in turn leads to you having more energy. This additional energy will help you to be more focused, and therefore more productive.

So whether you are looking to have more energy or to be more productive, the answer is as simple as walking away from your desk. On your work breaks go for a short walk, do some steps or other simple exercises to help get your blood flowing. This will help to lead to a happier, healthier, more productive work day!

About the author: Autumn Edmiston is the CEO and owner of the Edmiston Group. The Edmiston Group is a multifaceted Pittsburgh based marketing consulting firm providing senior level marketing management services to businesses and non-profit organizations on a short or long term basis. Core areas of service are business development, marketing, strategic planning and public relations. The Edmiston Group has consistently delivered and implemented real-world, proven business marketing ideas and strategies for business growth.

Near Year Strategy, Edmiston Group

A New Year A New You!

by ArticlesCommunications

Resolutions and Vision, Near Year Strategy, Edmiston GroupAre you like the thousands of Americans who have made a New Year’s resolution?  Have you made them in the past and struggled or failed to be able to keep them?  In 2016, I made a commitment to take control of my health.  For me, a little extra motivation was the fact that my son was getting married and I wanted to look healthy and fit for his wedding.  It was a nine month journey, not without its sacrifice, setbacks, trials and times when I wanted to give up.  But with consistency, planning and focus on the goal I was able to achieve the end result.

How does that equate to being a business owner you may wonder?  For me, eating healthy, exercising and feeling better about myself was a great boost in productivity and self-confidence.  Business has grown, projects are larger and more complex.  But, I feel I can tackle them.

A New Year’s resolution can vary greatly from something personal such as being more active, getting in better shape or eating better, to performance goals at work.  Whether it is a personal goal or a business goal, you can take steps to help ensure that you are able to stick to your New Year’s resolution.

Resolutions and Vision, New Year Resolutions, Edmiston GroupWrite it down or create a vision board.  For me…I found my mother of the groom wedding dress that I fell in love with and bought.   It was a size I hadn’t seen in years.  I needed to say on track with diet and exercise to still fit into it for my son’s wedding.  I looked at it regularly, tried it on occasionally and knew I needed to stay with the program to have it zip!  Focus on the goal.

Studies have shown that when you put things in writing it is easier to stick to your goals.  Don’t just jot it down and throw it in the bottomless pile of papers on your desk.  Put it somewhere that you can see it and hold that dream, touch that piece of paper or whatever you need to do to fulfill that dream and not become complacent.

What do you want for your business?  How many new clients or projects do you want?  How much do you want to grow your retail business?  As an employee, what education or training don’t you have that you should obtain?  Is there a next level of position you seek?  If so…what qualifications are required and are you willing to educate yourself to ensure you have those skill sets?

Make your goals attainable.  Most people give up their weight loss resolution by February.  They look at the total number of pounds they want to lose instead of breaking that total number down into smaller goals with attainable numbers and dates.  As a business owner, it’s pretty unrealistic to think you will turn your start-up business into a million dollar company in 3 months.  Start out small and know that you can always give yourself new goals as the year progresses.  Shoot for goals such as to lose 10 lbs., walk 7,000 steps, then 10,000 steps and then compete in challenges with fit bits or friends.  Look to increase your business by 5-7%. Add one or two new services or products in the coming year. These are things that are attainable.

Create a plan. There is no better way to get to your destination or goal than to have a path laid out as to how you plan to get there.  It may be to cook your meals on Sunday and have healthy snacks ready.  Perhaps instead of browsing social media for the latest in what’s happening with friends, you take an online class or volunteer at a nonprofit organization.  You gain experience and expand your network.

For the business owner, simply saying you’re going to be more profitable with no plan as to how you are going to do it, will often leave you empty and discouraged.  Have dinner with trusted colleagues and discuss your plan.  Then put the plan to paper and execute.

The New Year is a great time to start a new steps in the right direction.  Be sure to set yourself up for success and create a path to follow.  Little reminders of what your goal is and being able to see the progress will help you continue down the path the success! Take time to celebrate the little victories.  I will tell you that it’s easy to slide back into old habits.  Commit to eating right, exercising and plan for your next position or business growth opportunity.  Be the best you can be in 2017!  Are you up to the challenge?

About the author: Autumn Edmiston is the CEO and owner of the Edmiston Group. The Edmiston Group is a multifaceted Pittsburgh based marketing consulting firm providing senior level marketing management services to businesses and non-profit organizations on a short or long term basis. Core areas of service are business development, marketing, strategic planning and public relations. The Edmiston Group has consistently delivered and implemented real-world, proven business marketing ideas and strategies for business growth.