Productivity experts have devised some simple methods to improve your productivity at work. They consist of either working harder or working smarter. Personally I like working smarter, but sometimes I end up working harder too. Use just one idea and you could improve your productivity at work. Use all of them and you could double or triple your productivity.
Methods to Improve Your Productivity
Productivity is the source of wealth creation. If you can find way to increase your business productivity then you will be finding ways to increase your wealth at the same time. Here a a few simple ideas to improve not only your productivity, but your wealth too.
1. Work Focused
Find tools to improve productivity and increase your task focus. Work when you are working. Spend less time socializing and focus on what you need to get done today. Focus on the tasks at hand and don’t wander into new tasks, multi-task, or get distracted.
If you want to boost office productivity, you have to focus and not waste your precious time at work.
2. Work Faster
Find ways to pick up your work pace. Develop a work rhythm and maintain your tempo (in lean we call it your takt time). Find ways to increase your tempo and get on with the job at hand. If you are tired or slowing down, then stop, and get a cup of coffee. Keep your tempo up, up, up.
3. Work on Higher Value Activities
Find ways to prioritize your tasks. It’s important to understand which are the higher value activities will bring you more results. Think quality over quantity. Less is more. Doing fewer higher value tasks will improve your productivity at work more than performing a greater quantity of low value tasks.
Are you able to determine why your productivity has increased? Using a visual management dashboard system can help focus your company on what tasks are adding value, and what task are lower value. The business performance scoreboard helps you to monitor key business activities, prioritize assignments, and view the results of the actions taken.
4. Do the Things You Are Better At
Find ways to focus on results as opposed to just getting things done. You probably are better at the things you like doing. As a result you develop skill and get better at those things and do more of them more often. So learn to motivate better performance from within yourself, let go of things you are not good at, and focus more time on what you are good at to improve your productivity at work.
5. Group Your Tasks
Find ways to focus on related tasks. Don’t multitask! Group related task together and do them at the same time. Pick a time to answer your email, make phone calls, or write letters together all at once.
By constantly switching between tasks or stopping to read email, you will lose small amounts of time that make up the “switching costs”. You will lose time because you have to wrap you mind around a new task and understand where you left off. This learning curve time is waste and can be eliminated by grouping related tasks.
6. Work Smarter
Find ways to simplify your work. As the number of steps to a task increases, so does the complexity and therefore, the time required to complete the task. This is called the Law of Complexity. Find ways to remove steps and reduce task complexity. This simple process improvement plan will greatly increase your productive work.
7. Work Longer Hours
Find more minutes in the day. Arrive 16 minutes earlier, leave 16 minutes later, and spend 16 minutes less time at lunch and breaks created 48 minutes a day or 4 hours a week. This will not only increase your available time by 10%, but improve your productivity at work as well. Use this time to get organized for work and plan or review your day.
Ways to Improve Your Productivity at Work
Every day you should review your day’s results to learn how to focus your time on the higher value tasks you are better at. Use your extra time to plan, review and focus. This is all part of Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) that drives continuous improvement in a learning organization.
Once you have figured out the right mix, write it down by implementing a system of policies and procedures. A system will help any organization get organized, focus on the work at hand, group tasks, and as a result, work harder and smarter. Download free policies and procedures to see how its done.
4 Comments
Great article Chris, I loved it.
Especially, the tip #4 about doing what you do best. I believe that this is the key to higher productivity for people at work. People underestimate how powerful is to outsource some of your work to a third party and really focus on what you to best. Focusing on the core of our job and the things that you master will definitely change the way you do your work. So, as a result, your productivity will increase massively.
Thanks again Chris. Keep up
Thanks for the tips! I think core to the tips you mention above is creating a process around the task or tasks you complete multiple times during a week or day. That way, you’ll be working smarter and faster instead of harder because process will help make the tasks more easily replicable. And even better, process makes it easier to delegate work because all the steps required and expectations are contained within the process. Here’s more on that: http://blog.prialto.com/process-is-the-source-code-for-productivity
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Use tools! I use kanbantool.com and it definitely helps me to stay more productive. I like that it has a time tracking feature, so I can track the time I spend on specific projects. It helps me to plan my time better, because I have a better idea how long specific tasks might take in the future.