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Efficient marketing and efficient time at home... It is possible!

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It never seems more important to find ways to increase productivity than in the summer months. After all, the sun is shining (usually), the grass is green (most of the time), and your friends and family are calling. So who wants to sit behind a computer and work the days (and often nights) away?

I recently ran across an article that showed how one woman was able to increase work productivity through 11 simple steps. I thought I would share some of the top steps with you that have worked for me in the past and provide our own insight into how you can use these to better manage your productivity in the coming months:

1. Respect your time: It is easy to plan your day with a certain "schedule" in mind. However we all know this schedule will most likely be pushed back for last minute projects, conference calls, and many, many, MANY other things. Try to respect your time. When someone asks you for something ask them "is it urgent." You'll find that most of the time, it can wait. This will help you respect your time and your schedule and get more done.
2. Schedule time for email: Email can easily turn into a full time job if you are not managing when/how to respond to emails appropriately. To avoid the need to constantly respond to incoming emails, try turning it off for a few hours a day and only responding to emails during designated hours. 
3. No calls/meetings without a purpose: We all do it. The need to schedule a meeting and leave that meeting with no end result. If you can't craft up an agenda and leave with action items, your meeting can probably wait. 
4. Forcing people (and yourself) to find the point: It's a fact, we all ramble from time to time. This makes meetings (see above) last longer than necessary and tends to leave many people confused at the end. When making a point, make it, and move on. Try to help your colleagues do this as well!
5. Leave that mobile device away while working: In this day and age it is easy to be working off of 2 if not 5 different pieces of technology. One that can be put aside is your cell. Your email is being checked and most likely that text message can wait. 
6. Cut off personal conversation during working hours: It is easy to get pulled into endless conversations that have nothing to do with what you are working on. While it is important to be able to talk with your colleagues and take time for a break during the day, one conversation can easily turn into 10. Try to avoid personal conversations when your schedule is slammed. 
7. Only do what's important: Even though that one project seems way more fun, it's not always what's important. Try to prioritize your projects by "need to do, "have to do" and "want to do." This will help you prioritize your schedule and get the most important things done on a daily basis. It's usually ok if your "want to do" projects take a few weeks.
8. Having an actual life: While we are all working towards this with all of the steps above, I can't emphasize how important it is to make sure you make time for you. Stress can be one of the biggest causes for loosing productivity and if you make time for you, your level of stress is likely to be much lower than if you work around the clock. 

So there you have it. These tips worked for people all over the globe, so why not you! You can read the original article with alternate feedback on how to use these tips by clicking here.