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!

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. Recognise when you are burning the candle at both ends and then factor in appropriate free/downtime to allow you to recover.
  6. 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.
  7. 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!
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
  10. 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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