Improving Personal Productivity At Work
6 Easy Ways to Improve Personal Productivity at Work.
Do you get to the end of your working day and feel like you have achieved nothing? Is it like you have been going around in circles putting out fires and nothing has been crossed off your to do list? It may be time to have a good hard look at your own personal productivity and make some improvements.
Here are 6 easy ways to improve your personal productivity.
- When are you at your best?
Understand when during the day you are at your most productive and schedule the big tasks then.
For many people this is first thing in the morning. Be mindful of this productive window and schedule the big priority tasks first. Avoid meetings at this time if you can.
- Email is not your job.
So many of us spend hours at our desks firing off and answering e-mails. Consider though whether e-mail is a sensible use of your time. Can a question be responded to quickly or discussed on the telephone? Challenge yourself to use e-mail sparingly. Try working with your e-mail program switched off and you will be amazed at your ability to focus without distractions.
Make use of e-mail templates. Do you answer the same question via e-mail again and again? Most e-mail programs will allow you to set up a template to send to a recipient when required. Fill out the frequently answered information and allow room to personalise these as required.
- Know when to take a break
There is a well-known decline in productivity the longer you spend at your desk. Get up and go for a walk or have a stretch.
- The 80/20 Rule
Figure out your own 80/20 rule. 20% of your output generates 80% of your results according to Pareto’s law. What exactly is your 20%? What tasks during the rest of your day can you stop doing? What tasks can you outsource or delegate?
- Batch tasks
In your working day, there will be activities that get repeated. When you pull a group of similar activities together you can complete them more efficiently. This might mean doing everything that uses the same program at the same time. It may mean batching your phone calls. It might mean scheduling some time to get your report writing and editing done at once.
- In the evening prepare for the next day
Before you finish for the day, consider what you have achieved. Have a good think about what needs to be done tomorrow. Review tomorrow's meetings and appointments and any reading or preparation that needs to occur. Write yourself a to-do list for the next day highlighting your top three priorities to do when you are at your most productive. An added benefit of this approach is that it creates thinking and strategizing time. You will find that your mind may be problem solving for tomorrow whilst you commute or sleep!
There you have our tips to improve your personal productivity. We challenge you to implement your favourite one of these and see if your working day improves!
