Whether it be on an individual level or on a corporate level, we often find ourselves looking for ways to become more effective and efficient. If you could not only reduce the time it takes, but also produce higher quality work, wouldn’t you want to?
We have lined up 8 ways in which you can bring your productivity to the next level.
- Planning
Write down and plan your tasks ahead of time. Use this To-do list to power you through the day. With a clear and targeted focus in mind, it makes succumbing to procrastinating and side distractions much harder!
- Worst First
Start your day off with your most dreaded task instead of leaving it for later in the day. Do not give procrastination a chance to win! Capitalise on your elevated levels of morning energy and willpower to boost productivity. Not to mention, this small victory helps to build up the momentum for a productive day.
- 90/20 Minutes Rule
The premise is that the human body functions on productive cycles called “ultradian rhythms”. The natural rhythm is 90 minutes of activity followed by 20 minutes of rest. When we ignore this natural cycle and deprive ourselves of breaks, our productivity inherently drops. Try to follow this cycle and you will notice a change in your focus and productivity levels!
- Forget Multi-tasking, Try Single-tasking
The human brain is not designed to multitask. What it means to multitask is to waste time shifting our attention between tasks, reducing productivity by as much as 40%. Focus on one thing at a time, get it done and move on to the next.
- Batching
Allocate certain times during the day to check your emails or make phone calls. Clustering helps to keep you focused and not distracted from your tasks.
- Delegate Effectively
Sort the tasks that can be delegated and to whom, and outsource them. Additionally, by choosing tasks that align with the individual’s expertise, skill sets, and interests, things can be completed with more efficiency. With the sidebars gone, you can now channel your focus spotlight to the important things.
- Keep Meetings Streamlined
Avoid and cut out all the unnecessary meetings, or if there is an essential meeting with heavy content to cover, split the meeting into 2. This allows for effective and targeted meetings to ensure you spend more time producing than meeting.
If you are familiar with achieving maximum productivity, you will likely have come across Parkinson’s Law before. It essentially states that “work expands to fill the time available for its completion”. What it means is that if allocate 24 hours to complete a 4 hour task, it’ll take 24 hours. As such, it is crucial to assign the appropriate amount of time for the task to avoid wasting unnecessary time.
- Utilise Pockets of Time
More often than not, time pockets are often overlooked and undervalued. The 15 minutes in line queueing for lunch, or waiting for a train or bus, or in-between meetings. You can use this time to read the news or catch up on updates on your favourite celebrity and if you are alone, you can even drop for 20 sit-ups and push-ups. 15 minutes here, 30 minutes there, do this whenever you can and that’s a few extra hours gained a week.
References: https://medium.com/better-humans/avoid-burnout-and-increase-awareness-using-ultradian-rhythms-5e64158e7e19