By Brad Harding
With 2016 underway, New Year’s resolutions are in full force. While most of us are motivated for the first few weeks, it can be hard to keep long-term commitments without the proper tools. Simple technology best practices can help us maintain productivity in our everyday lives and stay on the right track. The following four tech-centric tips will help you save money and increase productivity as you embark on 2016.
Clean Out Your Inbox With numerous emails facing hotel management each day, it can be overwhelming to respond to each inquiry and request. What makes it harder is the amount of spam and unwanted emails that can interfere with your daily tasks. Using an automated filtering tool like Microsoft’s Clutter will keep track of the emails you read/ignore and automatically move unwanted emails to your spam folder. The tool makes it easy to remove a year’s worth of spam from your inbox in a matter of seconds.
Maintain a Virtual To-Do List Research has proven just how effective to-do lists are to maintain productivity and set priorities. Virtual to-do lists can help you track important assignments even while you’re away from your desk. Uploading your to-do list onto your computer or smartphone allows you to access it anywhere and stay on top of your priorities. Consider using Google Keep, a free service that allows you to capture, edit, share and collaborate on your to-do list on any device, anywhere.
Upgrade Your Computer Memory If you fall victim to a slow running computer, a computer memory upgrade may be the right fix for you. When you replace your computer system’s memory, you can extend its life and help it run faster. Memory (or DRAM), is the component within your computer that provides short-term data access to run multiple applications at once. When your computer has more memory, it’ll run faster allowing you to perform tasks more efficiently. Computer memory upgrades are pretty inexpensive, starting out at just $50 apiece. This simple tip can help make your office computers run faster, allowing you to be as productive as possible.
Set Up an E-filing System Even though we live in a digital age, overuse of paper can inhibit productivity. Many hotels still use paper, printers and filing cabinets to track their guests’ stay history and information. To be more productive, rely on digital signatures to sign contracts, electronic statements to show billing activity and email to send information that used to go out over fax. You’ll be most productive if you find an electronic filing system that will allow you to store everything on your computer. An automated digital solution will keep everything organized and save you hours of searching through stacks of paper.
Together, these four inexpensive tech tips will allow you to make 2016 your most productive year yet. The time and energy you’ll save as a result of incorporating these tips will help you allocate more time where it really matters: your guests.
