The growth and success of your career have a lot to do with your daily productivity. Here are 7 ways to become a lot more productive at work.
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Do you feel like your workday is getting out of hand? You may begin your workday with the intention of doing a great deal, but you quickly become distracted and busy with low-impact tasks while delaying the more important projects and tasks. So, how do you reclaim control over your schedule and productivity?
Here are 7 simple hacks to help you be productive at work:
1. Concentrate on a single task
Juggling several projects or activities might appear to help you get more done, though in reality, giving your attention to one task at a time allows you to be more effective.
When you focus on many activities at the same time, you tend to spend more time switching between them. As a result, some tasks may go unfinished or completed with questionable quality than if each activity had been given full attention.
Concentrating on one activity at a time until completed will encourage you to accomplish even more as progress leads to motivation.
2. Prioritize your tasks to be productive at work
If you have been multitasking but find that you often begin more projects than you can complete, try prioritizing your tasks beginning with the high-impact assignments and start your workday with those.
Working on the most important and time-consuming things first can help you be more productive as your energy level is usually highest at the start of the day. Organize your day so that you can begin the day with the highest-impact tasks and end with the lower-impact and less urgent work.
3. Take breaks for rest and exercise
It can be easy to avoid taking a break, but failing to take breaks can be detrimental to your health and make you less productive at work. Extreme exhaustion or burnout are often the results of not taking breaks.
It's important to schedule a few brief breaks throughout your workday. These breaks can help you re-energize, declutter your mind, and prepare for the next task.
Physical activity is an important predictor of psychological wellbeing as several studies have shown. It's a no-brainer that being in a good psychological state helps you be more productive at work.
Set aside time each week to go for a walk, run or visit the gym. Getting some good exercise may be all you need to clear your mind and regain your focus.
4. Block out time on your calendar
Time blocking is another way to be more productive at work. You can boost your productivity by including blocks of time in your calendar for important work. With this method, you set a timeframe for each task you intend to work on.
Consider using 90-minute or 60-minute blocks of time. So, if you're planning to work on a project for 90 minutes, make a note of it on your calendar at the start of the week or workday. When that time block is finished, move to the next set time block.
The goal of time blocking is to construct a visual timetable that will help you keep track of how much time you spend on each task. Similarly, it allows you to concentrate on only one item for each block of time, thereby increasing your chances of finishing the task in good time.
You can add breaks to your time blocks to enable you to refresh yourself as you finish tasks and begin new ones.
5. Be accountable to someone other than yourself
Engage an accountability partner to help you overcome procrastination. This could be a co-worker or a boss whose job is to get regular updates on your project. Your chosen person must be someone you would really hate to disappoint.
You could go a step further by specifying a set of incentives or penalties to accompany your goals and deadlines.
6. Batch similar tasks together
You create friction when you quickly switch between multiple unrelated tasks. You will most likely lose focus if you frequently begin and stop midway between dissimilar tasks in quick succession.
Ultimately you could become distracted and lose track of vital details and nuances. However, grouping similar tasks together is a good approach to reduce the adverse effects of switching between tasks that are very different.
For instance, you can batch email responses together rather than mix response time with several other unrelated tasks.
7. Get yourself some good sleep
Lack of sleep can have a detrimental impact on your performance. Your focus, logical reasoning, and working memory all suffer when you don't get enough sleep.
Since the human brain is particularly vulnerable to sleep deprivation, tasks requiring logical thinking or complex cognition will be harmed the most. Just a night of sleep deprivation is enough to cause significant impairments in our capacities.
So, what's the amount of sleep you require? According to sleep experts, adults aged 26 to 64 should sleep between seven and nine hours per night. If you're not getting enough sleep, having a nap in the course of the day might help you be more productive at work.
In conclusion
It's not very difficult to be more productive at work. However, it does demand being careful about how you allocate your time and energy. Single-tasking, prioritizing, taking breaks, getting regular exercise, time blocking, having an accountability partner, batching tasks, and getting sufficient sleep are all ways to dramatically improve your productivity.
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