Increasing Your Productivity at the Office

The whole point of going to work is to produce something, right? Well, it would seem that sometimes the point is lost on us. Between stopping off for coffee, greeting co-workers, answering personal phone calls, confirming individual appointments and getting more coffee half the morning is gone.

Let’s not even talk about lunch time shenanigans. We are not as productive as we can be at work. It is estimated that the average American can get their job done (if they applied themselves) in 6.5 hours each day, so why does it take us 40 plus hours a week to get stuff together? Procrastination! That is the number one killer of productivity and business progression in the long run right behind disorganisation and social loafing. How do we remedy this situation?

Prioritize

Once you get that planner in place and review your work diary to see what tasks it is that you spend the majority of your time on, you have to prioritise. This seems simple enough, but often multiple tasks are of equal importance. If you can get someone to help you, if you do not have the luxury to determine which task is the most important and start with that, don’t stop until you are finished. Then on to the next task and so on and so forth.
Take breaks, stretch, walk outside for a minute if you can, but stay focused. Remember you are at work to work, the business needs you to grow, and there is always room to increase your productivity even if you are on the top of the heap right now. Producers get noticed, and your work will not go unnoticed.

Organization and Planning

To become more productive at work organisation is key. A critical step by step plan put in place will increase productivity. If the plan is adhered to. Setting up a daily diary keeping track of how much time is spent on which task is an excellent learning tool and can help improve productivity.
The diary should also note how much time you spend away from your work. You will be surprised to see how many trips to the water cooler you make a day. By keeping track of how many minutes is spent on a particular task the work day can be planned more efficiently.
Of course there will be times when all the planning in the world cannot account for the unexpected, but even if the unexpected happens you can take care of it and return to the plan. Planning is key to productivity. A project organises time into blocks that can be assigned to specific tasks. Also, an organised work area keeps a worker from feeling overwhelmed, and there is nothing worse than feeling like you are drowning in piles of stuff. A lot of times when items are disorganised it is easier to ignore it than to have to sort through the stuff, of course, ignoring it does not make it go away, but still it gets ignored.

Implementing these crucial tips guarantees higher chances of increased productivity at your workplace, which leads to a happy boss, and ultimately a satisfied and accomplished you!

Comments are closed.