How to achieve the perfect work-life balance

Productivity is essential in achieving a good work life balance. As part of National Work Life week serial tech entrepreneur and Flock founder Bhavin Turakhia has helpfully provided some tips on how to gain that precious time that would otherwise be wasted.

Automate, Automate, Automate
Any task which you have to do multiple times is a chore isn’t it? Whether it’s household tasks such as washing the dishes or tasks in the office such as creating timesheet reports or similar, they all could do with some kind of automation. I mean, just where would you be without your humble  dishwasher? Bhavin believes that there are plenty of tasks in the office which can and should be automated in order to save time for the more important tasks that require ‘higher-level thinking.’

Email reduction, instant answers
Email is so outdated. Working through your inbox, ticking the boxes, dotting the i’s and making those decisions, only for the emails to flood back in. To say it’s frustrating is putting it mildly. I know I hate being up to my eyeballs in emails. Instant messengers for business are the saviour. You can communicate instantly and get those answers you need to complete daily tasks, without the inconvenience of an ever full inbox.

Make time, use FaceTime
Meetings. Who’d have them? They are a massive drain on time and energy for everyone involved. Who doesn’t inwardly groan when confronted with the prospect of sitting around a desk with 5-10 other people all talking office lingo; statistics that, focus group this etc.. Eliminate them. Get rid. embrace the 21st century and the various apps available, FaceTime, conference calls etc that enable you connect with multiple in real-time without leaving your desk! After all, we know nothing ever gets ‘done’ in a meeting, it’s always the phonecall afterwards that pushes things forward. Ditch the tradition, embrace the future.

DO NOT DISTURB
Another gem from Mr Turakhia, is what he imaginatively calls ‘Concentration Blocks.’ At a set time of day, for an hour or two, turn all gadgets, phones, watches you name it, onto Do Not Disturb mode and watch the magic unfold. It’s amazing what you can accomplish if you limit the distractions and focus entirely on the job in hand. This one works in the home as well, only I haven’t found a way to turn off the kids? anyone?

Unexpected time in unexpected places
When you’re on your way to a meeting; that you shouldn’t be having; see tip 3 above, whether your mode of transport is the humble helicopter, the car, a bicycle, the bus, or if you’re really lucky the train, you’ll have a few moments to spare. Rather than thinking about mundane things like what you’re going to have for tea that evening, why not use this time productively. Download your work programmes to your phone or your laptop and get ahead of the game.