Your Essential Guide to Productivity

posted in: Life Lessons 3

How it’s going – 2021

We’ve already completed one month in 2021. How productive have you been so far? I’ve seen so many posts this year with people saying they simply don’t feel motivated or productive at all while using the phrase “February is the new January”. That’s basically the 2021 version of I’ll start next Monday, right?

Let’s Break it Down

Dan S. Kennedy defines productivity as follows:

Enter Your Essential Guide to Productivity: tips with optional further reading links because as we know, “Time is money”. For further motivation (to keep reading), the benefits of productivity include reduced stress, increased engagement and improved self-confidence and who doesn’t want more of all that?

Productivity Tools

Right off the bat lets start with some productivity tools that I use (do you use any of these?):

Trello – for organizing and prioritising projects
Slack – communicate, share files and connect with apps easily
Grammarly – an AI-powered writing assistant that helps with spelling, grammar and more
Google Keep – capture notes and get reminders
Google Docs Editors – Google’s office suite which includes Google Docs, Google Sheets and more
Google Workspace Suite –  collaboration tools like Gmail, Calendar, Meet, Chat, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, Sites and more
Skype / Zoom – video communication and collaboration
AnyDesk / TeamViewer – remote desktop sharing and file transfer
Dropbox – file Storage and Sharing

Productivity Tools are great but in the end, they don’t make you productive they just assist with the process. So what does? One commonality that stands out after research is MINDSET. As we all know the mind is powerful so it’s no surprise that this is the main component for productivity.

Your Essential Guide to Productivity

With only so many hours in the day, you want to use them in the best way right? So, let’s keep it short with 10 Tips:

Start – this one is obvious, to be productive you have to start somewhere
Plan – create a detailed breakdown of how you plan to achieve goals and focus on these
Be Deliberate – be conscious and intentional with your actions
Deadline – set goals with completion dates in mind
Accountability & Tracking – take accountability and track your progress
Workspace – this goes without saying but creating and maintaining a space that assists you without distractions
Take Breaks – breaks help you to de-stress, re-charge and re-focus
Fuel – your body (and brain) needs fuel to perform optimally
Stop Multitasking – according to science multitasking divides your attention and impairs your ability to function optimally
Say No/Delegate – not everything is equally important so prioritize or delegate

In Conclusion

Keep in mind no project or initiative is perfectly planned even though it may seem that way from the outside looking in. Work hard and do your best. Your customers and/or colleagues will tell you where improvements are needed which means you’ll get the opportunity to improve things that actually matter.

In the name of #KeepingitReal and #Authenticity, I personally struggle with taking breaks, not multitasking, saying no/delegating and on top of that I am a perfectionist. If you’re the same, remember you are a work in progress so don’t beat yourself up when you fall short. Get up, dust yourself off and remember consistency is key. Find methods/techniques that work best for you and you’ll see changes.

WATCH The Science of Productivity from AsapSCIENCE on Youtube for a scientific take on Productivity.

Sources/Further Reading:
Personal Productivity eBook
EmpMonitor
Paldesk
DoIT
INC
HeySpace


To view more Articles, please visit our Leads 2 Business Blog.
If you are interested in becoming one of our subscribers, please visit Leads 2 Business.
To view notes with screenshots on how to use our website, please visit Leads 2 Business Wiki.

About Sasha Anderson

Millennial Mom + wife living the hash-tag life. Remember: If You Fail - Fail Forward

L2B New Search

Welcome to the New L2B Search that has been developed with feedback from subscribers over the past few years. In this blog, we are going to cover the new features of the Search. Most of the features on our previous search page are still available in the new L2B Search. If you have any additional questions or need further assistance please contact us via email, live support, phone or using our contact form.

When you access the Search (for the first time) you will notice a pop-up requesting you to Enable/Allow Location permissions. You will need to click Allow in order to be able to use the new Location functionality correctly. If you Block this permission the search will still continue but may produce irrelevant results as the Location filter will not included in the search algorithm.
If you clear your Browser Cache, Cookies & History at any point you will be required to Allow this again as all your preferences will be disabled.

Technical Tip: When accessing L2B you need to have the latest version for browsers such as Edge, Chrome or Firefox.

Layout

The search page basic layout is as follows. Clicking the Leads 2 Business logo will take you to your Dashboard/Homepage.

Icons and Menus

indicates the Hamburger button for Search Filters. So named for its unintentional resemblance to a hamburger, its function is to toggle the search filter bar between being collapsed behind the button or displayed on the screen (expanded).

The filters display as follows if expanded:

The filters also include a new Location Filter which uses your enabled location to search for leads relevant to the radius from your location

The search icon/button which can be used in conjunction with filters and/or keyword searches

The keyword search text box where you can enter your relevant keywords

The reset icon/button which can be used at any time to clear all filters and keywords and reset your search

Search Hints assist you with additional search functionality

The subscriber menu which allows you to open your personalised pages

the page size drop-down which you can use to change the page size of results

the ordered by filter which you can use to change how your results are ordered

 

Your Download format shortcuts and Settings

The actions drop-down which you can use to tag, dismiss, monitor and unmonitor selected items

the found items indicator/counter

which looks as follows when doing a search, here we are also showing the keyword search which you can clear by selecting the X.

Page numbers display at the top and bottom of the search page

Selected item indicators. Items can be deselected by clicking on the relevant X.

the Select All function which allows you to select all the leads on a selected page

Performing Searches

Keywords Search Suggest or Autocomplete is an L2B search engine function that provides suggestions to users as they enter their search query into the search box. This search takes into account newest, relevance, views and will also assist if you make spelling errors.

Partial contract numbers will also provide suggested results:

When selecting an item from the list of suggested results that item will open to the relevant lead (tender, project or directory) view page thereby assisting with search efficiency.

Discover Linked Items are related to your search results and click on the items to discover more

Reminder

Less is more, for example instead of searching for “private hospital musina extension 13” try “private hospital musina”.

View Linked Items on Companies

To view linked leads on Companies (this includes company levels like Division, Branch and Contact) you need to search for the company and click on the discover icon via the search page:

Which will open on a new tab to show results for linked items:

 

No Results

When searching with a keyword/text and there are no results the following page will appear.

Clicking View Suggestions will remove all filters from the search in order to try and provide more results and also attempt to determine what you are looking for by expanding the criteria to include possible spelling mistakes amongst other things. If no additional results are available then it’s best to try another search using different keywords or simpler terms.

Below is another example of no results but on the second screenshot showing the View suggestion results:

Directory Tip

When searching using phone numbers all these formats should produce results if the phone number is listed on L2B: “0027 00 000 0000″,”0027000000000″,”+27 00 000 0000″,”+27000000000″,”27 00 000 0000″,”27000000000″,”000 000 0000″,”0000000000″,”000 000 0000″,”0000000000”


To view more Articles, please visit our Leads 2 Business Blog.
If you are interested in becoming one of our subscribers, please visit Leads 2 Business.
To view notes with screenshots on how to use our website, please visit Leads 2 Business Wiki.

About Sasha Anderson

Millennial Mom + wife living the hash-tag life. Remember: If You Fail - Fail Forward

Leads 2 Business Weekly Quote

posted in: General 0

This week’s quote is from Elon Musk a business magnate, industrial designer, engineer, and philanthropist. Founder, CEO, CTO and chief designer of SpaceX; early investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; founder of The Boring Company; co-founder of Neuralink; and co-founder and initial co-chairman of OpenAI.


If you are interested in becoming one of our subscribers, please visit Leads 2 Business.
To view notes with screenshots on how to use our website, please visit Leads 2 Business Wiki.
To view more Articles, please visit our Leads 2 Business Blog.

About Sasha Anderson

Millennial Mom + wife living the hash-tag life. Remember: If You Fail - Fail Forward

How To: Contact Us

Check out all the ways you can contact Leads 2 Business – Click, Call, Chat or Email.

(Duration 1m 22s)


To view more from our How To Series, please visit Leads 2 Business Blog.
If you are interested in becoming one of our subscribers, please visit Leads 2 Business.
To view our Wiki Help with screenshots and video tutorials, please visit Leads 2 Business Wiki.

About Sasha Anderson

Millennial Mom + wife living the hash-tag life. Remember: If You Fail - Fail Forward

Leads 2 Business Weekly Quote

posted in: General 0

This week’s quote is from the English business magnate, investor, author and philanthropist; Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson


If you are interested in becoming one of our subscribers, please visit Leads 2 Business.
To view notes with screenshots on how to use our website, please visit Leads 2 Business Wiki.
To view more Articles, please visit our Leads 2 Business Blog.

About Sasha Anderson

Millennial Mom + wife living the hash-tag life. Remember: If You Fail - Fail Forward

How To: Trade Mapping

For our L2Q Buyers: Learn how to add and/or remove Trade Mapping

(Duration 1m 24s)


To view more from our How To Series, please visit Leads 2 Business Blog.
If you are interested in becoming one of our subscribers, please visit Leads 2 Business.
To view our Wiki Help with screenshots and video tutorials, please visit Leads 2 Business Wiki.

About Sasha Anderson

Millennial Mom + wife living the hash-tag life. Remember: If You Fail - Fail Forward

How To: Buyer Home

For our L2Q Buyers: Learn how to navigate the Buyer Home page.

(Duration 1m 56s)


To view more from our How To Series, please visit Leads 2 Business Blog.
If you are interested in becoming one of our subscribers, please visit Leads 2 Business.
To view our Wiki Help with screenshots and video tutorials, please visit Leads 2 Business Wiki.

About Sasha Anderson

Millennial Mom + wife living the hash-tag life. Remember: If You Fail - Fail Forward

How To: Improve your Indicator

For our Vendors and Open Quotes Subscribers: Learn how to find and improve your Pricing Indicator with a quick video tutorial from “The How To Series”.

(Duration 2m 11s)


To view more from our How To Series, please visit Leads 2 Business Blog.
If you are interested in becoming one of our subscribers, please visit Leads 2 Business.
To view our Wiki Help with screenshots and video tutorials, please visit Leads 2 Business Wiki.

About Sasha Anderson

Millennial Mom + wife living the hash-tag life. Remember: If You Fail - Fail Forward

How To: Advanced Search for L2Q Buyers

For our L2Q Buyers – use the Advanced Search with keywords, page numbers and/or payment reference to select specific items to send RFQ’s to Vendors.
Learn about some L2Q basic functionality with a quick video tutorial from “The How-To Series”.

(Duration 1m 39s)


To view more from our How To Series, please visit Leads 2 Business Blog.
If you are interested in becoming one of our subscribers, please visit Leads 2 Business.
To view our Wiki Help with screenshots and video tutorials, please visit Leads 2 Business Wiki.

About Sasha Anderson

Millennial Mom + wife living the hash-tag life. Remember: If You Fail - Fail Forward

How To: Request Prices as a Buyer – Part 2

For our L2Q Buyers – Request Prices Part 2 – includes how to add use the Vendor Search, Filters, add Preferred Vendors, Select Vendors and Send RFQ’s.
Learn about some L2Q basic functionality with a quick video tutorial from “The How-To Series”.

(Duration 4m 35s)


To view more from our How To Series, please visit Leads 2 Business Blog.
If you are interested in becoming one of our subscribers, please visit Leads 2 Business.
To view our Wiki Help with screenshots and video tutorials, please visit Leads 2 Business Wiki.

About Sasha Anderson

Millennial Mom + wife living the hash-tag life. Remember: If You Fail - Fail Forward

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