When working in a team, your productivity is affected by the decisions and habits of the other members. Even if you are all uber-efficient and always stick to deadlines, the team as a whole might struggle to communicate and deliver things on time. If you and your teammates/employees find it hard to get things done together, read on and see how Nozbe can help you out.
1. Structure your workflow
One of the main problems in team collaboration is the lack of a shared system. Having a shared system allows everyone on the team to be on the same page and to know what to do and what other people are working on. At Nozbe, we’ve established one such system - it goes like this:
- Anything that needs to be done by your team is a project.
- Every project is divided into doable tasks.
- Every task has a person who is responsible for it.
- Every task (if time-sensitive) should have a deadline (that is set up in a pessimistic manner to avoid possible stress and delay).
- All documents and files related to a task are attached to it.
- To ensure order and data security, use a reliable tool - like Nozbe!
Tip: If you give Nozbe a chance, you will have all your team projects in one trusted system accessible from all devices. Your data will be safe and your team communication transparent.
2. Ditch email as a vehicle for internal communication
Email is bad for you and your team; we already receive too many emails about stuff we don’t care about in the moment, and on top of that, our emails can get all mixed up with other correspondence from the outside world and spam accounts.
To solve this problem, we designed a new way to communicate: we use email for the outside world and Nozbe for “internal communication.”
By sharing projects and tasks, we have more transparency. People see what’s happening in each project and who’s responsible for what. All is clear. We totally avoid all these issues of somebody not copying someone on something or forgetting to CC a teammate.
Tip: If an email is actionable, you can always send it to Nozbe and treat it as a task.
3. Collaborate effectively - through tasks
Instead of sending emails, organizing too many meetings and wasting time, just work in projects in Nozbe.
When you share a project with your teammates, you can create a task and assign it to the person who can do it best. By delegating a task to someone, you can be sure they will see it and get on with it whenever they are ready.
You can make sure timelines are met by assigning deadlines to all time-sensitive tasks, by setting up reminders and by using notifications in Nozbe (desktop, push). These can make the whole system more reliable and interactive - you can be notified when someone delegates a task to you or when the deadline comes.
To be sure that all relevant information is at hand and everything has context, you can provide all the necessary details and reference material in the comments section. This way everything that relates to a specific task or project is available for the whole team in one place.
Tip: Even if the task is completed, you can still search for it and access it any time.
4. Try asynchronous communication to save time and keep focus
Working in projects and tasks enables your team to communicate asynchronously. Your team can communicate in a way that respects other people’s time and focus, letting them do more in less time.
This communication model is great because:
- It lets your team work in blocks of uninterrupted focus time.
- You have a record of what’s been said and shared, while synchronous communication often doesn’t get registered.
- It gives people a chance to think before responding (immediate answers aren’t always your best ones).
- You can communicate with members in multiple time zones.
Tip: When you assign a task to a teammate in Nozbe, you can be sure they will notice it and deal with the job when they see fit. This means you won’t disturb anyone who might be in a good workflow while focusing on a difficult task. And while waiting for the response, you can take care of another task from your list. You see… I feel not everything is as urgent as we think it is.
5. Stick to deadlines and keep your team organized
Having a structured workflow optimizes your team’s organization, especially when it advises the team how to proceed with their jobs and records all the projects, tasks, discussion and materials in one place. There is little space for misunderstandings, lost files or unclear responsibility. People are in sync - in sync with what they want to do, what they need to get done and how they should go about to doing it.
As everyone has their own tasks and responsibilities (all beautifully listed in Nozbe), you can focus on your job and communicate with others only when someone needs to give or ask for feedback. Deadlines are clear, set up in the Nozbe app and “guarded” by notifications.
Tasks are simple, specific, well-listed and described in appropriate projects. Everyone knows what needs to be done and when, so interruptions are rare.
Tip: To make your team even more organized, you should all run regular reviews - Nozbe is a great tool for that too.
With Nozbe, your team will communicate in an efficient and transparent way and simply work better. You will save time and do more great things in order to drive your business towards success.
