Do you ever feel like you worked hard all day but never accomplished what you wanted to? Sometimes all the hours in a day just isn’t enough. If you’re not maximizing your productivity, it can be hard to keep up with today’s fast-paced life. Use these tips to help boost your productivity:
1. Schedule smaller increments.
Most calendars default to 30 or 60-minute time blocks, while most tasks only take about 15 minutes. Schedule everything you need to do into your calendar in these smaller blocks and then follow your calendar throughout the day.
2. Don’t multitask.
Resist the urge to try to do more than one thing at once. Pick a task and give it all your focus – uninterrupted – until it is complete, or your time is up.
3. Prioritize.
You need to recognize which tasks are most important and emphasize those. Experts recommend using the first 2 hours of your day to work on the most valuable tasks each day.
4. Say no.
If a task isn’t going to help you reach your goal, say no. Most meetings are a waste of time; learn to be firm about your time limits.
5. Delegate.
Whenever possible, delegate work to other employees. This spread of work helps you work more efficiently on the tasks that require your personal attention.
6. Do email once.
The constant phone notifications of new emails can be distracting – shut them off. Schedule time into your day to read and reply to email and only “touch” each email once.
7. Take care of you.
You can’t do your best work if you don’t take care of yourself first. Make a healthy breakfast a priority, and get plenty of rest. Also schedule down time into your day for exercise, meditation, family, and other things that are important to you.
8. Future-proof your plans.
It can be easy to start a project with the best of intentions only to have it all fall apart. Look for potential traps and ways you could sabotage your project, and then plan for these so you can avoid them.
By using some of these tips you can use your time more productively and find your path to success.