5 Ways to Maximize Your Productivity on a PC

calendar apps, Clipboard, keyboard shortcuts, monitor, Ophtek, pin apps, Productivity, , , , , ,
26
Oct 2021

There never seems to be enough hours in the working day, so maximizing productivity is crucial. But how exactly do you go about doing this on a PC?

Using a PC in the workplace has revolutionized the way in which we work. However, the sheer range of possibilities contained within a PC mean that it’s difficult to understand each one. It’s important, therefore, to get to grips with the techniques that will save you time and make life easier. Implementing these into your daily routines is hassle free and will make a difference almost instantly. Not only will this help you as an individual, but it will also benefit your organization. The question is, though, where do you start?

Maximizing Your Productivity

The 5 best ways to give your PC productivity a boost is by carrying out the following:

  1. Use a Calendar App: A lack of focus and planning is the biggest obstacle that productivity can face. But the modern business world is packed full of distractions. Accordingly, navigating your way through the day can feel like an uphill struggle. Thankfully, help is at hand from calendar apps such as those contained with Microsoft Teams and Outlook. These calendars allow you to plan your day and set reminders for crucial tasks e.g. attending meetings, completing reports and chasing suppliers.
  • Embrace Keyboard Shortcuts: Every second counts in the workplace and you can make significant time savings with keyboard shortcuts. These commands use a series of keyboard strokes to activate pre-programmed commands. Say, for example, you wanted to highlight an entire paragraph of text. You could do this manually by clicking your mouse and dragging the cursor down the page. Or, more quickly, you could place your cursor at the start of a paragraph and hold down Ctrl + Shift + down arrow for instant selection. There are thousands of shortcuts available, so investigate which ones are best for your daily needs.
  • Pin Apps to Your Taskbar: You will use certain apps more than others, so it’s important you have quick access to them. Unfortunately, searching through a crowded desktop or through the start menu can be frustratingly slow. However, by pinning your most popular apps to your taskbar, you can find and open them within seconds.
  • Use Clipboard History: The Clipboard feature – which allows you to save a section of text or an image to a PCs memory for later use – has been in place for decades. But it’s now more powerful than ever before. By turning on the Clipboard history feature, you can save multiple items. This means, for example, you can save a selection of images and texts from a website before moving into a Word document to paste them all, as opposed to moving backwards and forwards.
  • Install a Second Monitor: There may be a cost involved with installing a second monitor, but the benefits easily outweigh this small investment. With a second monitor you are effectively expanding your desktop. This means that you can view two important apps at once to allow seamless interactions e.g. copying details from an email on one screen into a database displayed on the other screen. It’s a strategy which will make working more comfortable and allow you to become more productive.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

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5 Best Tips to Make Remote Working on a PC a Success

calendar apps, collaboration, comfort, equipment, Ophtek, remote work, remote workers, simplicity, technical issues, working remotely, , , , , , , ,
03
Aug 2021

Remote working is becoming an increasingly popular way for organizations and their staff to operate. But it’s crucial that you know how to do it properly.

The popularity of remote working has been growing for several years, but this growth has been accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic. Working from remote locations, however, doesn’t come without challenges. A home, for example, wasn’t built to be used as a workplace. And it’s unlikely that a home will come pre-loaded with powerful communication options. But challenges such as these can easily be tackled.

All you have to do is take a look at our 5 best tips to make remote working on a PC a success.

Enhancing the Remote Working Experience

Simplicity is an essential part of any infrastructure and remote working is no different. Therefore, make sure you integrate these simple tips into your remote working setup:

  1. Comfort is Key: It’s important that you create a suitable working space for setting up your PC. A quiet location with minimal distractions is vital, so it’s a good idea to set up in a location away from TVs and any other noise sources. The most pressing element, however, is a good chair. You’re going to be sitting in the same seat for several hours a day, so you need to get one which is both comfortable and suitable.
  2. Collaboration Tools: Communicating while remote working is very different to communicating when all employees are based in a central location. Naturally, this can lead to an increase in the time taken to answer queries, but it’s easy to work around this. Software such as Microsoft Teams, Discord and Slack allows employees to communicate and collaborate with ease.
  3. Invest in Your Equipment: Whether you’re using your own PC or a work issued one, it pays to invest in your technology. It may be as simple as upgrading your internet connection to increase connection speeds and reliability. Alternatively, you may wish to invest in replacement peripherals which are more ergonomic such as mice, keyboards and headphones.
  4. Use Calendar Apps: Without a team around you, it’s difficult for you to keep on top of things. After all, an office full of employees can quickly remind you that you have a meeting coming up. But a remote worker doesn’t have this luxury. Therefore, using calendar apps such as Google Calendar and Microsoft Calendar can prove invaluable. Take time each week to set up important reminders in these to ensure you remain on top of your schedule.
  5. Don’t Ignore Technical Issues: One of the drawbacks of remote working is that a technical issue can quickly disrupt your day. The luxury of jumping on a spare workstation isn’t an issue when you’re away from the office. And this is why it’s crucial that you report all technical issues to your IT team as soon as possible. An early investigation could easily prevent a major technical fault and allow you to stay productive.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

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