A large part of a wasted day invariably goes into
communication that took too much time and yielded little output.
Are you spinning out of control with endless demands on your
time and life? Are your stress levels at an all-time high with never ending
tasks and deadlines leading to endless working hours and no family time to
recharge your batteries? It is time to master productivity skills for the
workplace that will empower you for higher performance while enabling good
health and a better work life balance through reduced stress and efficient use
of office time. Here is how:
1. Think start your day
Spend the first 10 minutes of your work day to figure out
what you want to achieve. Think through pending jobs, pressing problems and
urgent deadlines while making notes on your diary or a task list. Rearrange
them into a rough check list prioritising the most important tasks on top. The
first on the list becomes your primary goal for today – something that will
make the day worthwhile. Use the early part of the day to complete stuff that
requires greater mental bandwidth and save the afternoon for meetings or
repetitive chores.
2. Clock your talk
A large part of a wasted day invariably goes into
communication that took too much time and yielded little output. Become aware
of when you speak, to whom and for how long. If you are on the phone, stand up
to speak and sit down only when the conversation is over. If you are conducting
a meeting, set a start and finish deadline. If it is an unscheduled urgent chat
with a colleague, box it to 2 minutes before you head back to your task list.
3. Birds of a feather
Group similar tasks together and tackle them as a block with
a deadline. Read all e-mails in 10-minute slots at one go, but only every 2
hours or more. Similarly make your 20 sales calls in a row. Clubbing similar
tasks increases the rate at which you complete them once you settle into a
rhythm for that batch. Engage technology to help you out like using labels or
folders to automatically bunch together similar emails. Between two diverse
sets, take a quick break and walk about to get refreshed and to change gears
for the next lot.
4. Take baby steps
Remind yourself every few minutes – is this really the best
use of my time? Stop unproductive work and start the next task on the checklist
with a simple action. Or focus on taking a baby step that will get you closer
to your goal for the day. Thus you can catch yourself from chatting over Gtalk
or the office messenger and refocus on researching information for tomorrow’s
meeting instead.
5. Divide and conquer
Often there is a project or target that is simply too big
and complicated and keeps getting put off for later. In such cases, divide the
project into smaller sub-projects and break those down further into individual actions.
From this list figure out what can be done by other people and immediately
communicate and delegate the tasks to them. From the rest, pick up the easiest
actions and accelerate them to a close. Soon you will pick up momentum and
achieve significant progress.
6. Quick to decide, slow to change
On a cumulative basis, the biggest hurdle to productivity is
your reluctance to decide early combined with an eagerness to revisit and
revise those decisions. Reverse that attitude and commit to taking quick decisions
and sticking through with them. Do you need to fix up a meeting for next week?
Decide on 3 pm for Wednesday, communicate it, set a reminder and move on. Over
time, your quick decisions will be as good if not better than the decisions you
put on the back burner.
7. Uni-task
Multi-tasking kills productivity and is as useful to you as
Windows 95. The right way to work efficiently is to schedule and prioritise
tasks and then tackle them one at a time. With complete focus on that one task,
your speed will go up dramatically and you will get a lot more done in any
given hour than if you try to speak on the phone while creating the sales chart
on Excel.
8. Swallow the bitter pill
Most efficiency experts recommend that you start the day by
tackling the most unsavoury task first. Once that is out of the way, a lot of
energy is released that helps you zip through the rest of your list. Try and
see if that works for you. However some professionals work better by keeping
the distasteful task for the last. Avoiding or delaying that task creates an
impetus to finish other less unsavoury tasks in an effort to stay productive.
Soon the rest of the check list is done and dusted and you have no choice but
to tackle the last one. Which kind of person are you?
9. How to procrastinate
How do you decide whether a non-critical task should be done
immediately or later? If it takes less than 30 seconds do it right away, like
responding to an email invitation for a meeting. For a longer non-urgent task,
put it on your Google calendar or workplace scheduler as a reminder for the
appropriate time. In both cases, the actions enable you to forget about it
completely and move on to your next goal for the day.
10. The last thing to do
15 minutes before the end of day, review what you have done.
Would you have performed better if you had done things differently? What would
you change? This evaluation exercise will ramp up your efficiency on a daily
basis. Finally before you leave, clear your desk of all objects and papers
apart from the computer and a notebook and pen if you use one. The next morning
will start well when you return to an uncluttered workplace.
Thumb rules of efficiency
80-20 principle
The Pareto principle suggests that 20% of your time and
efforts will yield 80% of the outcomes you desire. Focus first on those tasks
that will yield such results and you will be amazed and satisfied with your
output.
Silence is golden
To work faster and better, shut out everything that pings,
beeps, blinks or talks when you are in the middle of a task. That means muting
your laptop, cell phone, chat window and even putting a “Do Not Disturb”
message for your colleagues. Warning: this does not apply to your boss!
ABC analysis
Divide your tasks into A, B and C lists. Tasks that need to
be done right away, like making a critical sales call, make the A list. The B
list has tasks that need to be done today like making that invoice. The C list
is for non-urgent tasks like working on next month’s report. Focus on A and B
tasks and ignore C tasks till they become A or B.
Time is money
So pay money to buy time where profitable. A smart phone
with a 3G connection that lets you work anywhere may be a good investment. Or a
driver for your car so that you can work or sleep through your 2-hour commute
to work.
Set S.M.A.R.T. goals
Articulate and write down each work goal such that it is
Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound. E.g. I will complete
the first 6 slides of tomorrow’s presentation between 10 am and noon today.
Devashish Chakravarty, Director,
Executive Search, at Quetzal
Source: The Economic Times
See more at:
http://content.timesjobs.com/10-tips-to-increase-productivity-and-manage-your-time/#sthash.7KuyrYRr.dpuf
