Do you feel that you are lacking productivity while you’re at work? You probably try your hardest to stay concentrated on the task-at-hand, but sometimes get distracted or carried away. If this sounds like you, then these tips might be useful to ensuring productivity and development at the workplace.
While these tips might involve creating new habits, they will be more beneficial than a quick fix, and will allow you to create an environment and routine in which you are more concentrated and efficient.
First, it’s important to get to know what your productivity cycle is like. What times are you most productive? What times are you least productive? By answering these questions, you will be paving the path to a more productive future.
RescueTime is a great tool to help you establish your periods of high and low productivity. RescueTime is a desktop application that records which programs you use and what sites you visit throughout the day and for how long. It classifies the different sites into categories of distraction levels. For example, social networking websites are consider ‘very distracting.’ By using this tool, you can attain some data on your work productivity allowing you to make necessary changes to achieve a more productivity.
Once you’ve established what your productivity looks like from the tool RescueTime, you should change your routine to fit the data discovered.
To start, you can use your lower-productivity times to work on a task that requires less brainpower. For example, you could save your meetings for the time of day that you are least productive, instead of when you are most productive, since meetings rarely require as much effort as regular work activities.
Conversely, you should be tackling your most important or most difficult work when you are most productive, to ensure those activities get done and aren’t left to the hours you are least productive.
Another great tactic to staying productive in the workplace is making sure you review your day. First thing in the morning, check your calendar. Determine which tasks need to be done right away, and which task can wait. Combine this information with the data of your productivity in order to ensure you are accomplishing your to-do lists on time.
A great mobile app that can assist in your daily to-do lists is Any.Do. This app has a feature called AnyDo Moment, which alerts you with a pleasant tone and pushes a notification at the same time weekday reminding you that it’s time to review your day. The app will then list everything on your calendar and to-do list and asks whether you want to keep it on the schedule or move it to another day.
It’s important to ensure you are taking adequate breaks to give your mind a refresher. If you are constantly focused on work your productivity will decrease. However, if you make sure to take breaks, you will be refreshed and ready to tackle the next task when you return to work.
Even if the break is something small, like getting out of your chair to go outside for fresh air, or to get a snack from the kitchen. Don’t just rely on your lunch break, take small breaks in between work to help you stay productive.
A lot of people waste valuable time at the end of the day. The workday is almost complete but feels like it’s an eternity away. Don’t waste these precious last minutes; instead write down a list of end-of-the-day goals to keep you motivated. By adding small things to this list, you will ensure that the end of the day comes quickly and productively.
Try adding some or all of these tips to your workday and see if you notice a difference in your productivity. If you’ve been struggling, then these tips are your answer. Track your productivity, take small breaks, create goals, change your routine, and review your day. These tips don’t require much effort, but will vastly improve the way you work.
For more information on keeping productive at work, please contact us at Your IT Business Consultants. We are here to ensure your workday does not go wasted. Feel free to give us a call at (07) 34950064, or send us an email at [email protected]. Say goodbye to low productivity workdays!