Can smartphones be used to increase productivity?

18 June 2014 04:47 am

Smartphones, a common tool that many of us use not only for phone calls but also for various activities like surfing the Internet, listening to music and watching movies perhaps. Today, the world is in your fingertips due to the smartphone technology. People like to stay connected via their smartphones. I see nothing wrong with that, until your smartphone affects negatively to your daily work. If your smartphone makes you addicted (may be for some applications, games and so on) or it is burden during your officer hours then you need to rethink of the usage of the phone because you can’t allow a mobile device to ruin your life! So, let’s try to use smartphones to increase your productivity or efficiency.

Use applications (apps) effectively:

•     Keep the apps that are necessary (used frequently) and remove all unnecessary apps that will make your smartphone to perform better.
•     Work/Life related – You can use various types of apps to plan your day. You can plan your daily activities and expected budget for them. You can keep track of your expenses and be vigilant on your money consumption. It will be really productive.
•     Health related – There a lot of apps to measure the burnt calories/energy when you walk/run. They use your speed and distance to calculate different measurements and show you the output. If you are a keen person on your exercises, then you can get the advantages from your smartphones to stay fit. It will be effective and boost your productivity. Sometimes people get addicted to apps and in this case, if you get addicted to this type of an app then it will be for good purpose! But it won’t be true for all instances!
•     Education/ hobbies related – You can use book readers, web browser applications in order to improve your reading (e-books, offline websites, HTML documents, etc.)
•     Don’t download apps from play-stores unless you really need them

Use connectivity properly (3G/4G):

•     Make sure you turn-off all your mobile data/GPS connections when you are not using them because they are battery-killers.
•     You can be productive and effective if you use your smartphone for urgent communications (email, voice, sms) when you are out of office (if you are on your way and if you are in a position to use the mobile phone). You can reply to urgent messages (especially email) even if you are out of office. This will make you more productive in the context of office work.
•     Use GPS navigation systems and maps to find a route that you are not familiar with. It is really productive because the routes and maps are pretty much accurate and informative.
•     Make sure your smartphone connectivity does not harm your office meetings and work. You should not receive unnecessary pop-up messages, updates of apps and other messages while you are engaged in urgent work.

Use other special technology features:

•    You may use all other technological aspects of your smartphone (multi-media, camera and so on) in a way that they make your life smoother. For an example, if you go on an office trip and you need to take pictures of some sites you visit, then you may not take your camera with you because you may have a good camera with your phone.
• You may use multimedia technologies when you are out of office as they might decrease your productivity if you use them during office hours.

They use your speed and distance to calculate different measurements and show you the output. If you are a keen person on your exercises, then you can get the advantages from your smartphones to stay fit




There are many features in modern smartphones to improve your daily lifestyle. They can make you productive and effective once you make sure that there are no hiccups when you use your phone! Smartphones are really handy mobile computers that can make their users to be high performing human machines!

(Tharindu Weerasinghe has MSc. Eng, BSc. Eng (Hons), C|EH, MIEEE, AMIESL)