There are thousands of books, videos and blog posts available everywhere to teach you how to get more productive. The problem is, those pieces of advice can get very cliche and most of the time, you will forget everything you’ve just read in just 10 minutes, let alone follow the tips to improve your productivity.

As a team who specializes in creating a tool to help everyone with workload efficiency, Quire team has put together a list of our favorites to keep a healthy work-life balance and help you improve your productivity in 2020!

Top Productivity Apps: Quire, Slack, Google Drive

A good to-do list is an essential tool for anyone who wants to improve productivity. By writing down all of the things you have to do in one day or one week, you have a big picture of your task list so that you can steer your mind to focus on what really matters instead of being all over the place.

Quire provides users an infinite nested task list so that you can write down whatever in your mind and organize those tasks into a hierarchical order. Unlike the common flat task list that other project management software offers, a nested to-do list provides the logical hierarchy to accommodate more complex tasks and make team collaboration easier.

As a remote team that works in different locations and sometimes different timezone, it’s critical for Quire to find the most effective way to communicate. We’ve been using Slack integration with Quire for years to message and collaborate with other members. Many international companies with remote working culture such as Google, Amazon, Apple, etc. also swear by a good communicating system to enhance the team collaboration.

If you ever work on a huge project that requires all hands on deck, up to a point you will get very frustrated with all of the scattered information and paperwork. Quire team isn’t an exception. However, thanks to the integration between Quire and Google Drive, we create a file cabinet to securely store everything, from the documents, presentations to photos on Google Drive and link them to the relevant tasks on Quire. This way, all of the information is centralized and can be accessed from anywhere at anytime.

Top Productivity Hacks: Create time block, Break the Myth of Multitasking, KonMari’d your task list

We are a dynamic team that often has to manage several on-going projects at the same time. You might guess all of us are multitaskers, however, on the contrary, we do not believe in multitasking.

Breaking the Myth of Multitasking

Studies from the University of Sussex and University of London found that multitasking can harm your performance, let your productivity take a hit, and even damage your brain. Multitasking only works if the tasks are second nature to you, which means you can complete the task without thinking too much about it. For instance, you can take a shower and listen to music at the same time, since those two tasks do not require “critical thinking” to complete. However, working on different tasks at the same time for a complex project that requires real thoughts will not be that easy.

Instead of trying to multitask our way, Quire team deployed the new method called “serial tasking” using a clean task list to constantly work on individual tasks and eventually complete the whole project. We also use Kanban board to track the project progress as well as other team members’ workload.

KonMari’d your projects

The KonMari method lets you declutter your house and even your workspace. We are often caught in the rush at work, drown in hundreds of emails everyday and overwhelmed with the never-ending task list.

When Quire team first deployed the KonMari method in our daily job, we started with the mailbox and the task list. Label every email and every task based on the priority, due dates, and team members. Now your task list and mailbox do not look like a digital apocalypse anymore and you can stay on top of what’s most important and respond to the essentials only.

Time block your schedule

9:30am - 11:30am should be reserved for critical tasks that require your full attention because your daily dose of caffeine just finds time to kick in and you’re energetic enough to deal with all of the hassles. You can plan ahead of your time by setting due dates for your tasks or sync your task list to Google Calendar so that you know when you need to finish your tasks. After adding your to-do list to calendar, select a specific time slots and reserve them for the tasks.

Aim to limit your schedule to 4-5 priority tasks per day instead of trying to overachieve and eventually let yourself burn out with your own list. Stay focused and committed to your task list and the time block. If you have set 9:30am - 10:30am for tracking the data analysis, you should stick with the schedule no matter what.

Start a new year with a clean slate!

Brace yourself, New Year is coming! You are going to spend the next 365 days with your work being the central of your life, so start your new year right. Hopefully you’re going to have the best year of your life (and more to come!). We couldn’t be more excited to be a part of your journey! Share with Quire community about your stories here or on Twitter!