We all want to be productive and finish more tasks within the deadline. Who wants to stay behind their schedule? We all belong to the fast-paced, digitally connected, multitasking world, and, we often feel frazzled. Of course, this can be a roadblock to your ability to focus and kill your productivity.
An independent research agency conducted among 2,040 UK employees in May 2017 and, they have found 42% of the employees had been done nothing to enhance the level of productivity. Fortunately, there are many ways to regain full control over your workday by improving the level of productivity.
So, this article gives you some highly valuable suggestions which you should try to incorporate into your daily life to enhance your productivity in the best manner.
Prioritize your regular tasks.
Are you starting a pile of works but, still don’t know the starting point?
Don’t let this feeling get you overwhelmed because it will kill bury your motivation down. Take some time to concentrate on organizing the tasks.
List down all the functions and rank of them based on the priority.
Determine which tasks can be done quickly and which will be more time-consuming. Gather all the similar jobs together and set a deadline for each task.
Start working on the urgent tasks that are similar one by one and, finish with the more manageable tasks that do not have critical urgency.
Use the power of notepad.
Free up your memory space instead of relying heavily on it or else; it will fail you when you need it most. Start practicing writing things on the notepad so that you won’t be forgetting any crucial task.
It’s not necessary that you will need to pen and paper every time; instead, you can use mobile applications like Evernote, Any.do, and Wunderlist.
By jotting down everything that needs to get done in the week, you will have a bird-eye view of all the tasks that need to be completed so that you can set the priority marking accordingly.
Know the difference between URGENT and IMPORTANT.
Today’s urgent task may not be important tomorrow. So, you should differentiate the tasks based on urgency and importance.
Let’s take this scenario, for example- you need to make a PPT for the business meeting an oncoming week- it’s an important task. While your manager wants you to write an email for his/her client- this is an urgent task. When all your tasks are labeled with important and urgent, you are more likely to give your attention accordingly and finish it faster.
Reduce the number of commitments that you make. If you can cut-short your responsibility, you will be able to reduce the workload and the amount of time that you need to work.
Do one task at a time – Avoid multitasking.
We often do multiple tasks at a time and, as an obvious result, we lose the focus. The ability to focus is an undervalued skill and, monotasking helps you nurture this fantastic skill.
Your overall output or performance increase 2-5x if you do one task at a time with little or no distraction. Doing one task at a time allows you to accomplish more in less time with less effort.
Sometimes, it is better to do the work from home.
A lot of people think working from home kills productivity.
Are you one of them? It’s time to pay a second thought.
A thorough trial by Stanford University professor Nicholas Bloom clearly shows that…
The overall level of productivity is more in employees who work from home than the ones working at the office.
The downside is that the people who worked from home felt more isolated than the people working in the office, and that’s why Bloom recommends people to work from home 1to two days a week.
Reward yourself after completing an important task.
To stay motivated on whatever you are doing, you must reward yourself often.
Keep a tab on your small wins, milestone, and celebrate them.
Cornell researchers Kaitlin Woolley and Ayelet Fishbach published a research study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
People who receive an immediate reward after completing a small task reported more interest and enjoyment in their work.
According to the research we conducted in our office.
You need to learn to say “NO”.
Focusing is About Saying No.
Steve Jobs
Sometimes your co-workers can be the distracting factor as they often interrupt you with different questions and emails
In fact, according to an article published in Journal Street, an average office worker is interrupted every 11 minutes. It takes almost 25 minutes to get back to the track once your workflow is interrupted.
So, it’s quite evident that you would feel more productive without these distractions.
How? It’s simple- learn to say no in a gentle manner.
Saying no is a skill that a lot of people do not have, and if you don’t have it, you need to develop this skill.
You need to know how to say without offending anyone.
Here’s how:
You should not make a delay in letting that other person say no so that he/she can take help from any additional resources. Give the person an explanation about why you are saying no.
Make use of efficient time management tools.
No one can deny the countless benefits that technology has brought us. New aged technologies like different mobile applications, web applications have enabled us to connect, perform, improve, and leverage our resources beyond what once was unthinkable.
With the help of the well known time management mobile apps, you can efficiently manage your work time and give a boost to your work performance.
Some of the excellent time management apps are:
A. Rescue time.
If you are still not sure whether you are using your time sensibly or not, using this tool could be a big help for you. This app sends you the weekly report pointing out the things that are stealing your time.
B. Focus booster.
This app is solely based on a technique called Pomodoro. This app is designed to enhance your focus on a task and eliminate any anxiety you might have with the time constraint.
So, now you might have come to realize that enhancing work performance is not a daunting job.
If you keep practicing these tips mentioned above in the right manner, you will be able to increase your work performance and productivity in a significant way.
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