Tip of the Week: Don’t Let Downtime Stop Productivity

There’s nothing more irritating in the morning than booting up your computer and having to wait for updates to finish applying before getting to work. Sure, it gives you a chance to settle down, make a cup of coffee, and catch up with your co-workers, but there are other productive ways to spend your technology-related downtime. Here is how you can be productive even when your computer seems to be making it impossible.

Prepare the Day’s Agenda
If you have trouble staying organized, you can use the time your computer takes to boot up to reflect on what needs to be done throughout the next eight hours. Write down your tasks and outline what needs to be done for them. Take a moment to map out how you want your day to go. Having something like this in front of you means that your mind is clear of confusion, and you’ll be able to focus when your device is ready for use.

Tidy Up
If you’re like a lot of business professionals out there, your desk might accrue a lot of paperwork, coffee mugs, and general garbage--particularly if you’re one who likes to skip out on lunchtime to stay ahead of the curve. Use the time you’re waiting for your computer to work properly to clean up and make your desk a little more presentable. You never know who could walk in the door, and a messy desk could put off a prospective client.

Just Get Coffee and Chat with Co-workers
Building a healthy office environment is also part of working any job, and if you need your cup of coffee to get going in the morning, there are far worse things you can do while waiting for your computer to boot up. Take a moment to greet your employees and ask how they are all doing. It will humanize you in their eyes and make it look like you care about how they are not just as employees, but people.

Of course, the ideal way to make sure you suffer from minimal downtime due to users waiting around for their technology to work properly is to make sure maintenance is performed after hours behind the scenes. Working with a managed services provider who can run these updates at the end of the workday can help make sure your devices are up-to-date. To learn more about how we can help you minimize downtime, reach out to us at (978) 482-2020.