Always go full mobile: 5 reasons to operate your business from your smartphone

What started out as a subconscious experiment has resulted in emancipation from the laptop shackles and provided me with some new-found clarity.

We’ve been fortunate enough to work with a high profile mobile client over the past year and – as a result – have delved into current and future trends around productivity and mobile workforce scenarios. These are some of my thoughts from the various research and insights that we have been exposed to. Some points may seem obvious, but you will only fully appreciate the impact on your work / life balance once you have begun to implement them.

1. You have to be more succinct with your communication approach

Forcing yourself to be a truly ‘mobile citizen’ aids your time spent on your decision making process, encourages you to be more succinct in your communication approach and to deliver key messages to staff, clients and suppliers. We live in a Twitter, streetpole 2.0, environment and sometimes it’s a challenge to distill large amounts of information into a single sentence or thought. Get this right, however and your teams will start producing better work.

The one thing I’ve learnt from working in communication agencies, is how poorly some communicators communicate – either within teams or between various suppliers or stakeholders. Simplified communication and clearly articulated roles and responsibilities are critical for business success.

2. The art of delegation

You have the ability to engage with your team members on a more conversational level when you aren’t confined to a work station and you can flit between departments. Why send that email when you can rather chat with words? Also, the one thing that mangers can be terrible at, is holding onto information or tasks. Being mobile (in more ways than one) allows you to make split-second decisions about tasks that need to be held onto or those that can be delegated to other resources.

Delegation is an art and once you have mastered the ability to catch or release items on your to-do list, you remove much unnecessary clutter from your day, to allow you to focus on the more important stuff – like the strategy of your business or department.

3. Strategy time

Ah! The s word. The one thing that South Africans are so often guilty of confusing with the t word. Strategy is the bigger picture and tactics are the things that you are going to do to achieve your objectives. Strategy is thrown around a helluva lot, albeit incorrectly – not only in comms’ agencies. In order to grow a business, you need a clearly articulated strategy but by being consumed by the day to day executional requirements, you have the potential to become trapped in the doing, as opposed to the thinking.

Consider working offsite when prepping your blue sky planning. The change of scenery will make a massive difference and will allow you to unplug yourself from the place of ‘knock knock, who’s there’ distractions.

4. Be a passenger when heading to meetings

Meetings, and meetings about meetings are the Pac-man to your fruits of productivity. Where possible, be a passenger on the ride to external meetings or alternatively, hail an Uber. Killing off the fog of emails, en route to your next client and achieving near inbox zero nirvana is the best use of your time, while you commute. Also, we are all guilty of wanting to reach down to check our social media updates while sitting behind the wheel in traffic. Resist the urge to claim your place on the Darwin Awards’ leaderboard.

5. If you must drive, go handsfree

It’s not always possible to be chauffeured between engagements, especially when you are in startup phase, so when you do need to drive, use the time to make the day’s most valuable calls. The emotional connection of voice discussions is under utilised in our 2015 lifestyle.

Every year, we read trends’ articles explaining how that year is the Year of the Mobile but the truth is, we are living in the Age of the Mobile and targeting people via mobile is more and more valuable to each and every one of our businesses. Don’t take my word for it, Business Insider has some incredible stats here.

Would love to read your comments and hear how you #AchieveMore by being mobile-enabled…