Redefining productivity: from small wins to 'Teamship'

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Redefining productivity: from small wins to 'Teamship'

Marta Afonso

Published on 20 June 2025

7 min read

Tick button with stars around in Upscale illustration style.

Marta Afonso

Published on 20 June 2025

7 min read

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The problem with a 'more is better' approach

Why small wins matter more than you think

The human edge: co-piloting with AI

The power of Teamship

What does a productive workday look like to you?

Let us know

Discover why true productivity isn't about doing more, it's about working better, together.

As someone leading a brand and comms marketing team, I know that what makes us productive isn't always about speed. It's more about how we work, who we work with, and how supported we feel along the way.

So on this World Productivity Day, I wanted to share my thoughts on what helps (and sometimes hinders) us from doing our best work, and why productivity today is just as much about how we work as what we get done.

The problem with a 'more is better' approach

Modern work is fast-paced, full of high expectations and demands. For marketers, it's easy to feel pulled in several directions at once: shifting priorities, tight deadlines, or the mental load of delivering the next standout campaign. It can be overwhelming.

These challenges aren't new, but they're increasingly common. From attention overload to unclear priorities, many teams face them daily. And sadly, while they may be real, they shouldn't be considered normal.

A recent study by Economist Impact found that knowledge workers spend an average of 122 hours per year—that's over three full workweeks—trying to refocus after interruptions.

What helps is creating the right conditions to succeed:

Clear goals that everyone understands.
Simple structures (or 'processes with a small p', as my team often say) that remove friction from everyday work tasks.
Objective priorities that keep the team focused on what matters.
Space to think deeply when it counts.

These go a long way in helping people feel confident and in control of their day.

Why small wins matter more than you think

Productivity doesn't always come from major change. Often, it's the small wins that unlock real value and help us deliver better work. Some examples could include a clear brief that prevents repeated back-and-forth, finding the right file on the first try, regular project updates before someone chases you, or wrapping up that Slack thread that's been open since last Tuesday.

They might seem small individually, but together, it's these small wins that make a big difference. 'It takes a village…', as the old saying goes.

At Upscale, we're always looking for ways to keep things moving. That might mean using templates to speed up the briefing process, or sending gentle nudges to keep our monday.com boards up to date so no one's left in the dark. One tip that really works for us is updating everything in batches. It helps us stay focused, rather than trying to make sporadic updates in between other tasks (when distractions are everywhere).

These moments don't make headlines, but they keep us aligned and working together to achieve our goals. Over time, they compound into something much bigger: a smarter, more efficient, and more aligned way of working.

According to McKinsey Global Institute, giving employees access to the right systems and tools can increase productivity by 20-25%. Our experience backs that up. When less time is spent figuring out the basics, like automating tasks or integrating the right tools, there's more energy left for creative and strategic thinking.

The human edge: co-piloting with AI

One of the biggest shifts in our working day has been learning to work with AI. Not to replace people, but to support us.

AI is most useful when seen as a co-pilot—a thoughtful assistant that helps us explore ideas, create first drafts, or get unstuck when we're in a muddle. It helps us clear the path that often feels cluttered by repetitive or routine tasks, freeing our team to focus on deeper, higher-value work.

According to a recent Salesforce report, 71% of marketers say generative AI frees up time to focus on strategy and creativity. That's certainly been true for us. However, the real gains don't just come from automating everything with AI. They come from how AI unlocks our team's potential to do their best work, more efficiently.

Approaching AI thoughtfully leads to bigger wins

Like with any tool, getting the most value from AI comes from carefully integrating it into your workflows to support what your team already does best.

For our team that includes:

Encouraging our team members to craft and share AI prompts that help us improve the way we work.
Investing time in AI to build internal tools that accelerate our existing processes.
Maintaining a healthy outlook on AI, taking advantage of its productivity benefits while also understanding its limitations.

The power of Teamship

One word we use often at Upscale is Teamship. It's not in the dictionary (yet), but it perfectly captures how we support each other to do our best work.

Teamship means trust. It means empowerment. It means operating with a shared purpose, having the autonomy to own our work, and knowing there's a safety net when things get tough. It's the recognition that productivity isn't just individual, but a collective work-in-progress.

At Upscale, that starts with creating a safe space for our team to be themselves.

A great example is how our Head of Marketing, Chirag Harendra, kicks off our weekly team meeting with 'Hellos, Life, and Kudos'.

Screenshot of a Slack message from Chirag with the agenda for a meeting. The first topic is Hellos, Life & Kudos.

It's a simple ritual, but it sets the tone and reminds us that our work is fundamentally about people. Giving people the freedom to relax and chat about life helps strengthen our bond as a team.

When you hear questions like 'How can I help you get unstuck?' or 'What do you need to move forward today?', you're seeing Teamship in action. These questions aren't just being asked to check on the progress of a task. They're being asked to make sure everyone on our team has what they need to move forward, and always feels supported. We don't need to focus on individual productivity as a key metric, and everyone on the team knows they're working towards our collective achievements.

And it works. According to a study from Zenger Folkman, teams that feel empowered are 67% more likely to report high performance. From what we've seen, real productivity often comes not from pushing harder, but from creating the conditions for us to work smarter together.

So, what does a good workday look like to you?

Productivity looks different every day. Some days, it's pressing 'Publish' on a big campaign. Other days, it's completing small but essential tasks or helping someone else get unstuck.

What matters is that we make space for the things that support balanced progress: clarity, collaboration, autonomy, and kindness.

So this World Productivity Day, ask yourself:

What are your team's small daily rituals that make it easier to hit your big achievements?

No matter how small, each of these daily rituals contributes to better workdays. Let's keep improving them together!

What does a productive workday look like to you?

Let us know

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Written by

Marta Afonso

Brand, Commercial & Comms Marketing Team Lead

Marta, our Brand, Marketing, and Communications Leader, is passionate about elevating our brand and driving customer-focused strategies. With vast experience across B2B and B2C industries, she crafts impactful campaigns that connect Upscale with its audiences and deliver meaningful, lasting results.

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