How To Be More Productive At Work
Time is valuable and is, as they say, money. Pressure builds to do more for less and to do it in an ever-increasingly short lead time.
No wonder people feel burned out and generally tired.
Try the following pointers to help you do more in less time – always a good thing!
- Do not get hung up on social media and use email access wisely: being obsessed with either, or both, is actually taking your eye off the ball.
- Ask for brief, crisp and effective communication from your staff: brevity is good and you do not have the time to read a novel when something can be said in a few lines.
- Be prepared to give everything to tasks that really do need everything put into them – BUT only do this for short periods and only for deserving tasks.
- Set out the questions you need to ask and need to get answers to on a sheet of A4 paper before you ask them. Never go into a meeting hoping that questions will just come naturally to your mind, because they won’t.
- Recognise when you are burning the candle at both ends and then factor in appropriate free/downtime to allow you to recover.
- Trim meetings down to the bare minimum: a 60 minute meeting should be cut down to 45 minutes as a maximum and preferably 20 minutes to free up more time for other tasks.
- Run your meetings where everyone stands up – nothing focuses the mind by standing for 20 minutes and you will be surprised by how keen attendees will be to get the business done!
- Get up and walk around if you are bogged down in heavy detail – the fresh air and exercise will sharpen up your approach and get you to a resolution quicker.
- Work out your schedule and then work backwards from the end point of tasks: this will help your time management and give you a more productive and time-sensitive view of what you need to achieve.
- Prioritise the information that you need to have access to – ignore other, competing sources until and unless they become important in their own right.
Good Luck!
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