Pic credit: Vlada Karpovich/pexels.com
Productivity is one of the most sought-after indicators to measure the performance of employees at work. A whole set of work culture, policies, and job roles are defined and planned to focus on how to be more productive at the workplace.
According to a study conducted by Reclaim.ai, only 12% of employees feel productive during their workday. Further, the report indicates that employees are distracted nearly 32 times per day and have more than 25 meetings per week, pulling them away from doing focused work.
At the same time, 80% of workers in America feel stress on the job, nearly half say they need help in learning how to manage stress and 42% say their coworkers need such help. Unfortunately, people feel that they’re working harder and harder and accomplishing less and less.
In short, while many of us maybe be busy, we aren’t necessarily productive! While we may fancy thinking that productive people are always busy, quite the opposite is true. In fact, highly productive people are quite ahead of schedule and produce more with fewer resources and time. When you are productive, you will be in complete control of your never ending to-do list.
Productivity in numbers
Let’s have a closer look at what is productivity. Simply defined, productivity is the ratio of output over input. The more we increase output compared to input, the more productivity increases. This means that productivity is pushing people to do more in less. So is it just numbers at the end? Achieving monthly sales targets in 15 days can be highly productive, however, the quality and long-term impact of those efforts matter. If you are someone in creative writing, the definitions might switch as quality takes over quantity.
Productivity can have customized definitions for every person and you must take a deep dive into how you plan to measure it, before even beginning to understand why and how to be more productive. You may not always be able to measure productivity in immediate outcomes. That means that productivity and time management techniques go hand in hand. Although interlinked, productivity and time management are distinct and not all productive people will be good at time management.
Benefits of improved productivity
Improved productivity isn’t just about doing more work or increasing the output, it can also have an impact on stress levels at work. As you get more productive, the stress of achieving that target which would define your worth in the organization vanishes. When you accomplish everything daily, you will have more time to relax with a book, meet a friend and pursue that hobby you have been planning for long.
How to be more productive?
Here is a comprehensive guide and tips to help you do more in 24 hours:
Action Driven by Purpose
Have you ever given a thought to the purpose of your work life? What is it that you want to achieve? What would the outcome feel like for you? It is a well-researched fact that when you are associated with a compelling reason of why you want to do something, big or small, it provides you with the emotional drive to accomplish it. Why is that you may ask. Knowing your sense of purpose is an assured window to success. It can be bringing positive change in someone’s life, getting promoted or simply seeking an acknowledgment of your hard work. When we attach our actions, with results and our feeling of what it will feel like, we dramatically increase our chance of increasing productivity.
Set Priorities
Instead of beginning the day by responding to emails or replying to phone calls, pen down your priorities for the day. You may begin by listing down your monthly goals, further elaborating on weekly and daily activities. As you chalk out the plan for each day, remember to question the relevance of those goals.
It is tempting to say yes to everything, however, that may just lead up to reduced productivity. To avoid a long to-do list, create a unique blend of activities that are high on priority, yet easy to accomplish. As you move through the day, by accomplishing some of the initial tasks on that list, you will have enough time later to focus on the more challenging ones.
Time Blocks with regular breaks
Pic credit: Ekaterina Bolovtsova/ pexels.com
Your time is an incredible investment window for your efforts and thus the outcome. Time blocking will increase productivity by diving your day into specific blocks. Each time block, which is typically more than 60 min can be dedicated to completing one particular task or a series of tasks from your priority list. For example, you may have time blocks dedicated to responding to emails, writing that urgent report, or even scheduling time blocks for social interactions and lunch breaks. Time blocking is a proven method of establishing the flow of a productive day, minimizing distractions, and creating a focused approach to each task.
Don’t miss the morning hours
Do you prefer waking up early in the morning and starting the day early to finish your task or do you prefer working up till late at night instead? You would be aware of which category you would best fit in. Most often, you would follow your work schedule based on the productivity cycle of morning or evening hours.
However, according to some latest research findings, working in the morning hours helps you increase productivity due to improved mental and physical health. Early birds are proven to have more healthy eating habits, procrastinate less, and are more dedicated! Waking up just an hour earlier every morning would give you at least 15 additional days a year!
Stop Multitasking
Multitasking is a myth. People who think they can split their attention between multiple tasks at once are actually switching between tasks. In fact, multi-taskers invite more stress and decrease productivity, than those who focus on one task at a particular time. If you think you’re being productive by answering emails during other tasks, you’re not. It takes an average time of 15 min to re-orient your brain to the previous task after a distraction, such as an email exchange. So instead, choose to focus intensely on a single task at a time and increase your creativity and productivity at work.
Avoid Distractions
Pic credit: Karolina Grabowska/ pexels.com
Even with the best of intentions, there are numerous distractions throughout a work day. It can be a colleague who may want to set up an urgent call or some messages on WhatsApp and social media apps. Turn off your email and chat notifications once you have created time blocks for the day. You can also try apps like Freedom to block distractions on all your devices simultaneously. No more blocking Facebook on your laptop, only to open it on your phone. Once you start a session, your distractions are blocked from everywhere.
For your team members in the physical space, it is important to communicate your available time for interactions. Put Busy/ Do Not Disturb on the official chat space.
Organize your workstation
Would you like to spend half an hour searching for that important document just before an important meeting? Apart from clearly saving a lot of time looking out for documents, an organized workstation has positive vibes and feel good factor, which is difficult to ignore. Clean workstation is a low-cost and high-impact activity to increase productivity. If you work from home, maintaining a designated workspace can help create a boundary between work and home space.
Set timelines and share them
Pic credit:Buro Millennial/ pexels.com
What if you can create a living memo of all incomplete tasks? Friends at the workplace are best fit to offer constructive criticism and be the red flag bearers when you are going wrong. Share your monthly goals with one or two of your colleagues at work and ask them to question you if you miss a deadline. While it may seem like an obvious lookout when you miss a task, a few others repeating the same would push you to improve productivity. What’s more, you may offer a similar service to them!
Practice Mindfulness
All the issues of not being able to focus can be resolved by being mindful. Mindfulness means maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of just about everything- your thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment, through a gentle lens. You will be amazed to notice how much more you can learn about yourself, and how your mind works just by being mindful. Effective mindfulness will nudge you back to the present moment, bringing the focus on what you are supposed to do. Research at companies like Google, General Mills, and Intel has shown that practicing mindfulness in the workplace can decrease stress levels while improving focus, thoughtfulness, decision-making abilities, and overall well-being.
Change habits and patterns that aren’t relevant
To increase productivity, you must periodically audit your day-to-day patterns. Look at how you are currently spending time. Are all of your habits useful for you? Do you think breaking some patterns and altering a few habits will increase your productivity? For example, check on your habit of saying yes to everyone and everything. Taking a pause may help you realize that a lot of the things in your to-do list can be delegated to your team member or most of the meetings that are scheduled in your calendar could have been managed over a quick chat.
Measure progress and celebrate your success
Finally, everyone needs rewards! Don’t shy away from celebrating your progress, big or small. One of the most significant ways to increase productivity is to train your brain to learn that progressing and achieving your plans gives pleasure. And that will push you to do more in the future.
