Create More Productive Teams

To increase productivity, many teams use centralized tools that bring their teams together -  like Slack, Asana, and Microsoft Teams. However, in some instances, these platforms can cause additional fatigue by creating more distractions.

On top of key internal platforms, your employees are likely receiving internal/external emails, text messages, and other notifications. This can be a lot for one person to manage everyday.

If you’re looking to increase productivity, the key is to help your team focus on common goals - while minimizing distraction.

Better inbox management

It’s important to assess the points of contact for your team. Some tools mentioned above are actually meant to replace email. Many teams have seen a reduction in internal email, but are still receiving a lot of inbound email from partners, agencies, and sellers. 

Additionally, some teams actually send internal messages on Slack or Teams, for example, and then still follow up with an email.  There’s a lot of redundancy and noise.

It’s a best practice to create a set of company guidelines for tool usage and clearly state the purpose of each platform.  What are some examples of each tool being used well?  (Focus on those!)

Defining how and when to use email, Slack, and other channels will hopefully prevent wasted time. Without guidelines, these tools can cause extra stress by becoming “one more thing” to engage with: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkiQYZu8E7o&list=PL43pxtZCrXHiO3YtlfAXGW3vZMNP6oUKr&index=28

Tool audit & open communication

If your setup isn’t quite working, it’s time to assess your tools in detail. Here are a few questions to work through: 

1. Which tools are we using today across the company?  (Don’t forget to include ones that individuals are using.)
2. Consider where there might be overlap in the tools/platforms being used.  Is there room for consolidation?
3. Who has access?  Make sure that only the individuals who need it have access to specific tools.
4. Which tools are valued highly by the team? Which ones are found to be more frustrating and difficult?   To be thorough, make sure to ask each of the the people using these tools - your team - how they are being used. Create a culture of open communication that allows for feedback and refinement. 

Make it clear that anyone has the ability to speak up when they’re feeling overwhelmed by the digital noise.  Also remember that every team is unique and doing an audit of this type will require qualitative insights, not just quantitative insights. 

When employees are able to focus and they feel that their needs are being met by the tools approved by the company, productivity increases. 

Improving external communication with Gated

If you and your team regularly communicate with external partners, email is likely an essential platform at your company. Since this form of communication is open to the world, it means anyone can get in touch. But that can sometimes mean a lot of noise in your inbox. 

With Gated, you finally have control to decide which messages are most important to you - and your work.  Our solution lets you assign a price that unknown senders will have to pay, to reach your inbox.  This reduces the amount of messages you receive.  Because the payment goes to a nonprofit you support,  it also creates a bit more good in the world.  

You’ll be increasing productivity, reducing email inbox noise, and making your team feel more connected to the causes they care about. 

Plus, Gated  is intuitive and easy to use. It blends right into whatever email provider you’re currently using. It’s completely free to use.  And it only takes 2 minutes to get up and running.    

If you’re a fan of the Getting Things Done (GTD) method, this is something hugely impactful you could do - in under two minutes - that will benefit your team for a long time to come.