With a new year almost upon us and resolutions soon to be made, it’s a good time to take steps to become better organized and make better use of your time. While there are a lot of ways to approach doing so, some have quicker, more dependable payoffs than others. In this post, I’ll round up several ways you can win back some time each day without going out on a limb.

Become more efficient at e-mail. The ePolicy Institute has found that the average worker spends one hour and forty-seven minutes on e-mail every day. It’s a huge time sink, and many web workers probably spend more time than that in their mail clients. By getting more proficient with e-mail and picking up tips, you can save lots of time. Let’s look at some easy ways to do this.
If you use Outlook all day, as I do, this blog has done quite a bit of coverage on how to get more out of it and work faster. There are also many useful add-ons for Outlook and extensions for all kinds of e-mail clients.
If you use Gmail and Google Calendar all day, make intelligent use of filters, pick up some essential tips, and remember to follow sound e-mail practices. Also, if you’re not using the GMail Mobile Client which puts your mail and more right on your cell phone, do so.
Use To-Do List Managers. Zoho Planner, Ta-Da Lists and RememberTheMilk are all good, free online applications that can keep you much more organized. With these applications, the key is to get used to the algorithm of using them all the time. Once you do so, they will help you avoid letting things fall through the cracks.
Schedule More Meetings Online. Many of the free online meeting applications are now very good, and save you from the time sink of schlepping around to physical meetings. In many cases, they are also useful for sharing your desktop with colleagues online, and even for remote control of your system if you’re, say, traveling. Check out our recent roundup of choices.
Remember, the key to getting big benefits from these efficiency-boosting tools is to spend a little time with them, in the interest of following best practices. If you have any free time over the holidays, perhaps schedule a little time for learning in. It’s a good investment.
Do you have any good tips on how to work more efficiently?
{"source":"https:\/\/gigaom.com\/2007\/12\/03\/quick-steps-toward-working-more-efficiently-in-2008\/wijax\/49e8740702c6da9341d50357217fb629","varname":"wijax_2fc05aeb9460e065ca02389d1f185032","title_element":"header","title_class":"widget-title","title_before":"%3Cheader%20class%3D%22widget-title%22%3E","title_after":"%3C%2Fheader%3E"}