Being productive at work can be challenging. It can be hard to know where to start managing your time in ways that are conducive to your productivity. No matter who you are, it can be a struggle to understand how to structure your time effectively. No matter who you are or what you do for work, you need to be on point with how to manage your time.
Here are nine of the best ways that you can dramatically increase your productivity.
Take Absolute Control of Distractions
Every time an email pops up on your screen, every time your phone buzzes, or when your office door opens, your train of thought is destroyed. We all like to believe that we can both participate in a group chat and write our presentation, but the truth is, we can’t. Your best work comes with silence. If you want to increase your productivity, then you must turn off all the distractions.
If you don’t make an intentional effort to limit the distractions around you when it’s time to work, your productivity will take a hit. Keep breaks to a minimum, limit chatter with others, and stop surfing the Internet when it’s time to get some meaningful work done.
Stop Multitasking
It can be incredibly tempting to want to try and take care of several tasks at once. However, it has been proven that multitasking just doesn’t work. If you think that you can efficiently juggle phone calls, emails, and presentations without losing your productivity, you’re fooling yourself. If you want to increase your productivity, you need to focus on one task at a time.
Take Breaks
You might think that spending more time working will help you get more things done; however, when you’re burned out, you will never work as well. Studies show that taking regular breaks during the day will dramatically help increase concentration and boost your mood. To help boost your productivity, take short breaks, and walk around the office or grab a mid-day latte.
Implement the 2-Minute Rule
Make the most of your time by filling those tiny windows of downtime with actual tasks. Finding and completing tasks that take less than two minutes to finish will save you time during the day. If you have tasks that you can complete in two minutes or less, just jump in and do them.
Tackle the Biggest Tasks When You’re Alert
Understanding when you work best is key to completing the big projects on time. No set schedule works for everyone. If you’re a morning person, tackle your big tasks when you first start your day.
Use Your Calendar
Most people only use their calendar to remember special events and birthdays, but this dramatically undermines the power that your calendar can serve in increasing your productivity. A simple strategy that can increase your productivity is to schedule the major tasks you have to accomplish during the day. Don’t just create a to-do list with the functions you need to accomplish, but time block your most important tasks and projects that you need to get done.
Plan Your Day in Advance
Planning your day in advance can help you get a good night’s sleep because you won’t end staying up all night trying to remember everything you have to get done the next day. It also helps you to wake up excited about attacking your day because you already know what you need to do instead of wasting time trying to plan.
What Mary Poppins Taught Me About Time Management
Whether you’re raising children or flying jumbo jets, there’s a lot you can learn about time management from Mary Poppins.
Perfect Your Morning Routine
If you want to take your productivity to the next level, then you must perfect your morning routine. How you start your day is an excellent indicator of how the rest of your day is going to go. You need to find something that works for you and start putting it on your calendar. If you want to increase your productivity, then you must get serious about your morning routine.
Develop a Sense of Urgency
Not having a sense of urgency will not only keep you from increasing your productivity levels, but it will also keep you from reaching your full potential and achieving your goals. Create a trigger that will remind you to move forward with a sense of urgency. Whether you write a reminder down on a notecard or put it in your smartphone, you need to have something that will continuously remind you to get moving.
Not every day will be productive, so don’t beat yourself up over it. Instead, try to refocus your energy and implement these productivity tips into your day. Once you find what works for you, you’ll be amazed at how much you can get done.
For entrepreneurs, every minute counts. To help you increase your productivity, put these five practices in place and notice how quickly you start to accomplish more throughout your day.
