As a marketer, how do you lead successful campaigns with minimum stress while staying within the budget and timeline? It is a fact that up to 80 percent of the average workday is spent on activities that yield little or no value. Today, we present you with useful tips to optimize your workflow and focus on tasks where you make the most impact. You can get more done and save precious time while at it. That sounds like a good deal.
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Have a Project Completion Time Estimate
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When you take on a new project for your marketing campaign, having an idea of how long it will take to complete will help you predict potential challenges that could cause delays. It makes it easier to identify time-sensitive tasks and know what to delegate. You realize when a project is taking too much time without achieving expected results.
Prioritize Tasks
To use your time wisely, you need to recognize the tasks that correlate more strongly to the success of your marketing campaign. Some tasks, when completed, generate immediate results. Therefore, write down all the components of your campaign goals and break them down into manageable items. You can then identify the most important ones and budget your time accordingly.
Outsource to Experts
When faced with a responsibility for which you lack the skills, it’s not always a good idea to consider it a learning opportunity. Focus on your strengths and outsource tasks that are outside your expertise. Get things right the first time and avoid mismanaging your time or getting overwhelmed. In the long run, you will notice that outsourcing can be more cost-effective than you suspected.
Make Room for Face-to-Face Meetings
You achieve more by catching up with people face-to-face. Staying in touch with emails work, but sometimes it might take hours, days, or even weeks to get a meaningful response. You can strike a good bargain within lesser time by scheduling an in-person meeting with your team or clients.
Have a plan for your meetings and set timers. Always go in with a goal or agenda and avoid getting sucked into counterproductive, time-wasting tangents. Standing or walking meetings often help to improve concentration and encourage brevity. You focus on the important stuff and reach decisions faster.
Avoid Multitasking
It may seem like you are getting more off your plate by multitasking. However, research has shown that multitasking actually causes a 40% drop in productivity. Try to set a limit on your workload and tackle things one at a time. You’ll feel less stressed and more fulfilled this way. Try using checklists that will help you stay on track.
Know What and When to Delegate
You may believe that it’s better to do things yourself to ensure the work quality. However, it’s not a good idea to micromanage everything, making sure that they are done to the proper standard. That could be a straight road to burnout. Delegating tasks not only prevents work from piling up. It frees up your time, allowing you to tackle more important things. It also fosters trust and confidence in both yourself and your team, making everyone feel engaged and valuable. Productivity is enhanced when people see that their activities directly contribute to the success of the team.
Employ the Right Tools
Use the right combination of productivity tools for work from home marketers. They help ensure that responsibilities are carried out with due diligence. However, don’t hesitate to get rid of those that do not deliver considerable benefits. They cost more time and money than they are worth. Keep only the essential tools for completing tasks and managing daily activities.
Prioritize High-Impact Social Media Channels
It’s often tempting to maintain accounts on all the major social media networks, with the intention of attracting more followers. Doing so can be counterproductive for your marketing campaign. To achieve the best results, focus on one or two channels that are relevant to your target audience. Not only will you save time on providing content and creating updates, but you will also be better able to monitor your mentions and give a timely response to people that reach out to you.
Track Your Time
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You might have noticed that time tracking is one of the most recommended time management tips for remote work. You can also apply it even if you have the privilege of working amidst your team and adhering to a strict schedule. Being mindful of how you use your workday will enable you to be more productive.
Do you know how long you spend on each task during the course of your day? You only have so much time on your hands, and it can be easy to get sidetracked on things that suck up your precious hours. Using a time management tool, such as Traqq, will help you monitor how productive you are being. You can identify any less-than-ideal use of your time and easily make adjustments.
Take Regular Breaks
You may be pressured by the amount of work you have on your hands that you forget to rest. Taking regular breaks keeps you on top of your game, ensuring that you make the best use of your day. Various scientific studies suggest different work-to-rest ratios. Adopt the one that agrees with your unique situation:
- Take 20 minutes off after every 90 minutes of work.
- Rest for 17 minutes after 52 minutes of work.
- Take a 15 – 20 minutes power nap after lunch. It recharges your body, renews your concentration, and increases motor performance.
If you are finding a task difficult, it can help to step away from it for some time; it could even be overnight. Your mind keeps working on the problem even though you are not actively thinking about it. It’s during such times that you come upon your moment of eureka! When you return to the task, you do so with renewed vigor and a clearer perspective.
Conclusion
We hope you found the above tips useful. As a marketer, so many activities demand your time. It’s often easy to lose sight of the important things. Adopting effective time management tactics is crucial in maintaining a good perspective on the bigger picture and achieving your goals as fast as possible.