Are you so busy that you don’t have time to do anything else or attract new opportunities that might help you grow your business? This is what we felt a few months back when we caught ourselves getting extremely busy and deep into the day to day nitty-gritty. We were almost turning mechanical - working on new features, releasing them, answering support queries, helping customers etc. We knew that we needed to free up time to think about where we are headed, what are “really” the features that customers want and how are we going to deliver it to them by still being highly competitive. We had to make room for our team to think about new opportunities and ideas. Isn’t this what business is about? More than fire-fighting and details, isn’t it about dreaming, thinking and envisioning where you want to be say a year or five years from now?

You need to be a sponge that absorbs new things, a glass that is not filled right to the top and you need to create that little bit of spare time in the day where you probably are not caught up in the details. This is where we think creativity is born. New ideas takes place. Innovation happens. Ultimately, you make yourself more relevant!

DeskAway just got featured on Technofirst Online, the online counterpart of the Technofirst Magazine, which is available across 4 locations in India.

Currently one of the best positioned (price, support, features) in the small business online project collaboration market worldwide. DeskAway combines a mix of simplicity, feature-richness and affordability into its project collaboration service with a focus on key social features in the SMB project 2.0 space

They have also interviewed Sahil, DeskAway’s founder and CEO. Read More.

Thanks Shibi and Technofirst team!

One of the advantages of social media outreach is to increase the search engine love to your website/blog. Recently while analyzing DeskAway’s footprint on Google, I came across an interesting result.

For the search term ‘Team software adoption‘ our blog post 4 tips on team software adoption is the first result while the same blog post update on Facebook is the 3rd result.

For the search term ‘software adoption team‘ our blog does not find a place at all (checked the first few pages) but our Facebook entry is on the 4th place of the first page!

IMO, channeling information via social channels gets a lot of traction from Google since Google considers these channels an important medium to drive traffic and results.

Small tasks often come scattered throughout the day and possibly becomes the single most important enemy of productivity. Since these are work related we can’ t even ignore them. First instinct is to get everything done as soon as possible. Next comes the stress of how to get them done and there is not enough time.

Trying to do everything is like going to a buffet where your senses go ballistic and you start eating everything. In the end you not only feel like a big potato but feel a sense of dissatisfaction and wish you had tried some of that dessert or had eaten this instead of that.  Compare this to ordering a la carte where you know how much you can eat and you order just about enough to leave the restaurant feeling satisfied.

Managing and completing small tasks is much like ordering from an a la carte menu. Know what you want to eat, order and feel satisfied.

Know What You Want to Eat

Every morning make a list of the things you want to get done by the end of the day. You might list around 8-12 items .  Write these down anywhere. I normally use the Stickies on my mac.

Order

Go over the items and ask yourself - What is the minimum I need to accomplish so that I  will be satisfied and happy at the end of the day? Do I have time to get these done? On days that you have meetings or are out for some reason plan less.

Over-ordering (even by looking at so much food on the table) can kill your appetite or leave you feeling sick.

Satisfaction

Enjoy the process of getting tasks completed and delegate when necessary. I like checking-off tasks that I complete to give me some pleasure of achievement and help me to move forward.

It’s important to feel satisfied, happy and positive when leaving work in the evening and keeping the above points in mind might just achieve that.

Bon Appetite!

A few praises and recommendations from users in the last few days,

and a couple of heads up from friends when we were migrating our servers,

Thank you for your support and love!