Productivity Tips That Are Easy To Incorporate
The Bureau of Labor and Statistics reports that the average American workday lasts 8.8 hours. However, further data reveals that in-office workers aren’t really working for most of that time.
For company’s who prefer their employees to work in-house, it’s important to efficiently use time management to get the most out of each hour.
Otherwise, you might end up trying to get several hours of work accomplished with only one hour of time left. Following a few productivity tips might help keep you more focused and allow you to maximize the amount of work you perform in a day.
Create A Routine
One of the quickest ways to fall behind is by not having a planned routine. You don’t necessarily have to go down to the minute with your routine, but the more detailed your routine is, the more efficient it can be.
Try to plan your day before it starts, and be sure to include more than enough time for sleep and commute. Sleep is extremely important to your overall health, and not having to rush to make it to work on time can be a great way to start your day.
A routine can help to keep you on track and provide areas for potential improvement in the future.
Keep Track Of Your Time
It can be very difficult to measure the amount of time that’s passing accurately. After all, don’t most Mondays feel like they take so much longer to get through than a Saturday? If you can accurately measure the amount of time that you spend performing work-related tasks, you can find better ways to improve it and save some time.
First, you will need to measure the amount of time you need to accomplish your daily tasks. Keep track of the amount of time required to perform these tasks over the course of a week.
Set a timer for slightly less than the average time and try to reach this goal. As you become faster at completing these tasks, you may choose to lower the total time that you set aside for them.
Break Down Your Tasks
Even the most complicated of procedures are broken down into much more manageable tasks. Building a skyscraper is much more complicated than your average workday, but it’s broken down into easy and manageable steps.
It can be incredibly overwhelming and stress-inducing if you face the entirety of your work and responsibilities head-on. Instead, you should try to break each task down into something more manageable and focus on eliminating each task one by one.
Another way that this may increase productivity is by completing the most difficult first. Getting rid of the hardest and most challenging task can help remove some anxiety and give you some momentum moving forward.
Completing the hardest task first can help make the other tasks feel even easier to finish.
Take Breaks
Although it might sound counterproductive, taking breaks can actually be very beneficial for your concentration. Staying intently focused over a long period of time will lower your overall performance and affect the quality of your work.
Taking a few short breaks every now and again can help you to rest and recharge your focus. Try to remember that a workday is more of a marathon and less of a sprint. Instead of running full speed for the entire day, take a few breaks and rest for a few minutes.
These breaks should help you to lower your stress, improve your focus, and help keep your quality of work to your normal standards.
Reduce Your Distractions
The human brain is a fascinating organ that is extremely capable and can accomplish tasks that can seem almost impossible. However, it can also become easily distracting and lose focus at the slightest temptation.
It’s nearly impossible to achieve complete privacy these days. Your cell phone will probably provide dozens, if not hundreds, of notifications every day. Whether it’s phone calls, text messages, emails, breaking news, or social media, the constant bombardment of information can be easily distracting.
It’s very tempting to want to immediately reply to a text or read a new tweet from someone you follow, but these distractions can wait until you have finished your task or your next self-imposed break.
Try muting your phone for a set amount of time and focus on just your work. You might be surprised how much you can accomplish when focused solely on the task at hand.
Don’t Spend So Much Time On Emails
Emails have quickly become a very normal part of everyday life in the workplace. It’s hard to imagine an easier and more effective way of communicating with your coworkers. However, these emails can quickly turn into time wasters and eat up time better for doing something else.
You should make sure that you read and respond to all of your work-related emails, but don’t get too hung up on the response. Try to keep them as simple and concise as possible. It will reduce the total amount of time you spend going through your emails and help get your point across to the recipient.
Staying on top of your emails can also prevent dealing with an overflowing inbox, which can be overwhelming and take a lot of time to get through.
Remember The Two Minute Rule
This helpful tip can be applied to your work life or daily life and can save you a lot of time. The two-minute rule boils down to completing all your tasks that require less than two minutes to finish.
Instead of procrastinating and slowly accumulating these tasks throughout the day, go ahead and get them done now and free up that time you needed later. It can be easily summed up using your dishes as an example.
It should take less than a minute to rinse and wash your plate after using it. If you were to toss it in the sink and the other dishes, the dirty dishes would eventually build up.
You would then have to take time out of your day to wash and clean your dishes when the job could have already been done. It may take some time to develop this habit, but it could end up saving you all kinds of time in the future.
The Takeaway
Trying to perfect every single detail of a task is admirable, but it isn’t very helpful in the long run. The truth is that perfection is an illusion and that it’s more important to complete a task than nitpick.
Remember not to be too hard on yourself and keep in mind that if your quality of work got you to where you are, it must have been satisfactory.
It might take some time to maximize your potential productivity, but it is possible if you put in enough effort. Along with adding a few of these tips into your daily routine, other options help. One option is to use tools like Dialed that help you create a productive routine by tracking time, organizing your tasks, and reducing distractions.
SOURCES
National Sleep Foundation How Much Sleep Do We Really Need? | www.sleepfoundation.org
The 2-minute rule: How to stop procrastinating and start new habits | www.cnbc.com
7 Proven Strategies for Overcoming Distractions | www.entrepreneur.com
