Do you ever go through a day, or even a workweek and feel like you didn't accomplish your tasks? It is easy to get distracted, whether you work from home or in an open office space, there are a lot of habits to put in place to summon focus and concentration to complete your workload.
No matter where you are in your career or how long you have been in your position, it is good to reflect on if your workflow is helping you to accomplish your professional goals and shine at work. Sometimes it is even folks who have been in the same position for long periods of time that need to reflect the most and re-summon the self-motivation to move forward in their career.
Here are some easy tips to be more productive at work, whether you work from home or in the office.
Block Off Times For Tasks
When you walk into your workday with a to-do-list, but there is no order or structure to it, it is the same as walking into the week blind.
Organize your schedule based on what needs to get done and set a time for yourself to do it. Many people like to swallow the frog first, as they say, go get the worst part over with, but it depends on your own personal productivity levels. Maybe it feels better for you to schedule the small things first to knock more checks off your list, and save the big thing for the end of the day to dedicate your time to it, as long as it gets done.
If you get to the end of the day, and the important task didn't get done, you need to reevaluate your priorities and workflow.
Focus On One Task At A Time
Sometimes to do more, you need to do less. Stop multi-tasking, it actually slows down your progress and takes away your attention to detail.
You can produce better quality work by only focusing on one thing at a time. If you struggle to monotask, try shutting down the tabs that aren't necessary and even set a timer for a task. Set it for 25 minutes, and don't allow yourself to get distracted in that time period.
There are many apps to help you time tasks and keep track in order to stay on task and avoid distractions or fight your habit of multi-tasking.
Schedule Time To Collaborate With Others
One of the biggest reasons that people complain about not feeling productive at work is that their co-workers constantly interrupt their workflow. This is tricky because part of the beauty of working on a team is collaboration and working together, plus many people are friends with their co-workers.
If you are noticing that your productivity is low, try to set some boundaries with your colleagues. Ask your team if they can schedule time with you to work together on something, that way you aren't constantly interrupted and everyone can be more productive.
Take Breaks
To be productive, it is important to take breaks. Many people feel like when they do nothing, they are wasting their time. If you find yourself spacing out, it is time to take a step back.
Many people love the 25-5 method of being productive, where they focus for 25 minutes and take a 5-minute break. Try doing this for a week, and see if you notice a difference in your productivity.
Meetings Should Be Productive
Almost anyone who works in the corporate world, or in any collaborative work environment can say there is nothing worse than an unproductive meeting. If you set a meeting with a colleague, be prepared with questions, and if you don't feel prepared don't be afraid to ask to reschedule so as to save everyone's time.
One way that you can step up for meetings and presentations is to be prepared for team meetings. It can be hard to make the time, but you will get more out of it. If you notice that your team struggles to have productive meetings, speak up about it.
It is your work environment and you deserve to be heard on an issue that affects you, just make sure that you are showing up prepared before asking others too.
As meetings take up a lot of your, and your team, time, make sure they are produced so that afterward you feel ready to accomplish your tasks independently.
Feeling productive at work needs to be an initiative from yourself, think about how much less stress and burnout you will feel if you can be on top of your workload? If you take the time to improve, it will surely be noticed by your manager in your performance review.
