Welcome to the First Column IT Tech Blog

HomeBlog
The Productivity You Seek is Indeed Within Reach, with the Right Habits

The Productivity You Seek is Indeed Within Reach, with the Right Habits

June 27, 2025

Productivity is an essential metric in modern life, and while it can often feel impossible to achieve, there are ways to overcome the anti-productivity malaise. Here are three habits that are likely to help you in your search for both organizational and personal productivity.

Limit Your Notifications

Notifications are a necessary, yet bothersome thing to keep track of, and it’s largely because they’re so intrusive when we don’t want them to be.

It’s difficult to refocus on a task when your attention is constantly being pulled away from it. You can and should limit your notifications either by turning them off completely or limiting them to a specific time of day. Windows and macOS have options that make this process easy, and many applications allow you to customize notification rules accordingly.

The same goes for your mobile device apps, too.

Take Advantage of Automation

Every job has repetitive tasks that eat up a lot of the worker’s day without offering value in return.

Some examples of jobs that don’t present an immediate return on the time investment include reorganizing files or repeatedly typing out the same message. They’re necessary, but not great for getting work done. You can use automation to eliminate some of the waste and ensure processes are carried out in a more efficient way. For example, you can configure inboxes to sort messages into specific folders or use templates to streamline certain types of content creation.

Microsoft Power Automate and various other tools let you get even more specific with workflows; you might be surprised by how much time you can save.

Keep Yourself Organized

Switching between applications and open windows can take up time, especially if you’re not very organized with them.

There are many ways to organize your digital workspace, including virtual desktops that can be used to keep certain processes separate from others. All you have to do is snap from one desktop to another using the window snapping features. It’s easy enough and keeps you organized.

Oh, right; the shortcut for that is the Windows + Arrow keys.

Achieve Maximum Productivity with Proactive IT

Many businesses make the most of their productivity through technology, which is exactly what we at First Column IT do for SMBs in Northern Virginia. Through our proactive solutions, you can stay focused on your duties without getting pulled away by random security issues or problems with your technology.

To get started, call us today at (571) 470-5594.

‍

Previous Post
December 6, 2023
How to Avoid Amazon Scammers
Scams using online retail giant Amazon have become more frequent around the holidays as online purchases tick up. Most of these scams come in the way of impersonation scams. With the holidays upon us, we thought we’d go through what kind of Amazon scams you should look for and how to avoid being a victim.
December 4, 2023
In-Office Work is Losing Steam
Remote work has changed the way that businesses approach normal operations. Due in large part to the disruptions of the past couple of years, remote work has become a staple of the business environment, and while you might hear stories of businesses pushing hard to return to the workplace, the reality is that they are the exception rather than the norm.
November 29, 2023
How Biometrics Can Help with Payment Processing, and Why Some Users Are Worried
Self-service checkout registers are incredibly popular with Gen Z, and while there are differing opinions on them and their impact on the workforce, there’s no denying that they are here to stay. That said, there is much discussion on whether or not biometric payment processing would make for a more efficient method of checkout. Spoiler alert: it doesn’t, and it’s not welcome for either consumers or organizations.

Have a project in mind?

Start with our free consultation. We will provide a detailed proposal and firm quote based on your specific IT support needs. All at a predictable monthly cost per seat.
Free Consultation - Sign Up Here