StackTips | Boost Productivity with Alinof Timer

Time management is paramount for startups like StackSocial. If you want your business to thrive, or even your career, efficient time management is the cornerstone to success. Knowledge and skills just don’t cut it in todays competitive job market; motivation, efficiency, effort, and drive is what will separate you from the rest. 

Our biggest enemy is ourselves. It’s just too easy to stray away from a task to check Facebook, Twitter, sports scores, shop, upon hundreds of other distractions accessible from the same screen as our work.

Task/time management is crucial and is more in depth than you may think. We recommend checking out David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” to tap into an industry leading task management system/philosophy. In the meantime, here is a great little tip to make sure you are handling your tasks in a timely fashion. 

Meet one of our favorite Mac Apps: Alinof Timer. This little on screen gadget will simply help you get more done by leveraging the immense power of FOCUS.

Here are a couple tips on how to maximize this awesome tool:

• Kick off the day by writing down all your to-dos.
• Assign reasonable time blocks to your tasks. (i.e. 30 minutes of outbound sales emails)
• Set the Alinof Timer at the start of your task and get crankin’!

Once you set the timer and press the start button, you MUST promise yourself you will do nothing besides focus completely on the task at hand. Do not respond to emails, check Facebook, etc. You can do these thing between tasks, but when the timer is going you must be 100% focused.

Focus is crucial. Surfing the web will not make you more money. Be mindful of your work and give it your sole attention. Not only will you increase your efficiency, but your proficiency as well. 

Check out this quick video tutorial on how to utilize the Alinof Timer:

College Students and Startups: a Young Love Affair

It’s Spring which means the weather is getting warmer, Venice Beach is getter even stranger and college seniors everywhere are beginning to realize that they’ll need to support themselves soon. If they’re like many college students across the country they’re probably considering an option that their parents and professors would’ve never thought of… going to work for a startup business.

 There are several factors behind the recent emergence of startup companies’ popularity among college students including a struggling economy, a changing educational system and the phenomenal success and media portrayal of companies such as Facebook.  Add into the mix the celebritization of the Silicon Valley god Steve Jobs and his 2005 Stanford Commencement address that has had college students everywhere ready to hang up the suit their mom bought them for their Goldman Sachs internship to go to work in someone’s basement.

 There are several advantages to working for a startup including a more laidback atmosphere, an overwhelming need for creativity and innovation and the possibility of being involved in the early stages of a company before it experiences success (this adds an element of street cred to any young resume).  Startup companies are a great option for self-starters, people who can assign their own tasks and perceive company needs and potential problems without a supervisor pointing them out. Young companies also provide the perfect environment for teamwork, but this loose supervision requires workers who can “get things done” efficiently and effectively on their own terms.

 The old advice was to work for a large corporation immediately after graduation to “learn the ropes.” College undergrads are now asking, why learn the ropes of a huge rigid company if I eventually want to start my own company? This question has lead many graduating go-getters to decide to jump right into working for the small exciting startup to prepare for someday making their own dream’s come true—wannapreneurs learning to be entrepreneurs.

 Obviously we here at StackSocial are in full support of this startup movement. In fact, we’re looking for some awesome self-starters interested in working in sales for a rapidly expanding company.

Check out our job posting here.