A series on actionable workplace productivity tips

A significant fact that is taught to us at a very young age is that ‘Time is Money.’ The sooner you realise it, the more productive you will be. Each minute of life is considered ‘Gold’.

You need to ask yourself, have you been treating time like that?

The answer to this question will give you all the clarity you have been looking forward to.

Our day has a standard 24 hours, in which we have to sleep for a minimum of 6-8 years, and we need a few hours for our meals.

Hence, we are left with a minimal number of hours, which is the time we use to make the most of it.

There are primarily two ways you can increase your output at your workplace:

A: Put in more hours to complete your tasks

B: Work smartly, as smart work > hard work

Personally, option A is feasibly not a very practical option. Hence we should all focus on option B that is to work smartly.

Being productive at work is surely not any rocket science. Still, it does expect you to control your actions and be deliberate when it comes to managing time.

Here are 5 effective, actionable workplace productivity tips, which could help you make the most of your time

Effective, Actionable workplace productivity tips:

1. Track and Limit the Time Spent on Tasks:

You may feel that you have been doing well in your head when it comes to time management. You are successful in gauging the time spent on multiple tasks, but you might be a little overconfident with that. As per multiple types of research, it can be claimed that only about 17% of the people are successful in estimating the passage of time taken to complete a task accurately. Hence, always think about how you can improve your time management.

It all begins with tracking the time which goes into task doing and management. You can use multiple tools, which can help you realise how much time you are spending on the daily tasks. You can track right from some basic task like time to get ready to spending time on the mail, usage of social media, etc.

Remember to be the owner of your time, and as an owner, you should know exactly where and how you spend your precious time.

2. Taking Breaks is Important:

There is a huge difference between a machine and a body, but we have started to think of the same thing in today’s time. A machine can work non-stop, but our body does need a mental and physical break from time to time to keep up the productivity. There is a common notion in people’s minds that the greater the number of hours we put, the more we will be able to do.

However, studies claim that even in less time, the work can be completed without any flaws if the productivity is high.

Hence, it is always better to keep quality as a priority instead of quantity. Taking a regular break does sound to many as counterintuitive. Taking regular and timely breaks during long working hours does help maintain the performance levels. On the other hand, working on complicated tasks without taking breaks will lead to a decline in overall performance and spoil our mental health.

3. Self-Imposed Deadlines:

You must understand something; that is, it is you who understands yourself more than anybody else. Hence, you must schedule your day as per your capability. Although you might feel that stress is a negative thing, there is a flip side. Having a manageable level of self-imposed stress can turn out to be positive. This helps get the right focus and pushes us to meet our goals, increasing productivity by 10x times.

Especially for open-ended projects and tasks, it is always a good idea to set deadlines for yourself and then stick to those deadlines. You will be shocked to know that your focus and productivity will shoot up when you keep a constant eye on the watch. A tip here is to make realistic and achievable deadlines and not go over the board and set very hectic deadlines, putting you under stress.

4. Two Minute Rule:

Renowned entrepreneur Steve Olenski introduced the two-minute rule. Humans tend to procrastinate immensely, which leads us to keep pushing the work for the next day, thus missing out on the deadlines. The two-minute rule prevents individuals from wasting time. Implementing the two-minute rule makes the individuals make most of the time they get in the smaller window you get at work.

The idea is simple: if you get an action or task, which you know can be completed in two minutes or less time, you must do it immediately.

As per Steve Olenski, when a task is performed immediately, it is less time to do it than completing it later on. Steve Olenski has implemented this rule in his life, which has helped boost his productivity and save time to do other important things.

5. Perfection is an illusion:

Since childhood, we are trained to do things’ Perfectly,’ and we mess things up in this race. Especially the entrepreneurs hung up on getting their tasks done perfectly, but that is surely an illusion. The truth is, perfection does not exist. Rather than running behind perfection, which is just a myth, the better idea is to complete your task with full focus and complete it with your abilities.

It is always better to complete your task and move it off from the plate rather than keep it hanging and pondering it. Later, if required, you can always come back to the task and make amendments to it. Rather than focusing on perfection, what you should focus on is consistency, which matters a lot. If you are consistent with what you do, you slowly will become a master in it and do that task flawlessly.

There are various other ways of increasing productivity apart from the ones stated above, such as minimizing interruptions and being proactive and reactive, but the ones listed above are the most important ones in my opinion. As long as we take care of them, we will see a significant increase in our productivity the resultant successes we need in everything we strive to do.