Effective tips to increase your productivity

Up your productivity

It is important to work smarter not harder because it saves energy, increases productivity, keeps you motivated and makes you more valuable at the office.

“Focus on being productive instead of busy.” – Tim Ferriss

Develop a routine to start your day. It may be something as simple as tweaking how you start your day or by setting a time to create your task list or at which time you sit down on your office chair.

“Every second is of infinite value.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  • Plan in advance! Create a task list and organise tasks by deadlines and priority
  • Stop multitasking – you won’t save time, only spend more time switching between tasks and shifting attention without paying attention

“People often complain about lack of time when lack of direction is the real problem.” – Zig Ziglar

  • Build in buffer time between tasks
  • Communication is key! This will help you eliminate time wastage and doing rework all the time
  • Learn to collaborate and delegate
  • Automate repetitive tasks! (Mark Zuckerberg wore the same outfit for years, taking away the need to decide what to wear every morning.)

“Do we need more time? Or do we need to be more disciplined with the time we have?” – Kerry Johnson

  • Use a time tracker (like Clockify, Toggl, nTasks, TSheets, Rescue Time or TimeCamp) to keep record of task durations. This will help you keep yourself accountable for your time and help you identify the hours you were unproductive and improve on that.

“Don’t worry about breaks every 20 minutes ruining your focus on a task. Contrary to what I might have guessed, taking regular breaks from mental tasks actually improves your creativity and productivity. Skipping breaks, on the other hand, leads to stress and fatigue.” – Tom Rath

  • Take a break sometimes
  • Establish a closing routine. This can include reviewing your completed task list and tidying your desk

“Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort.” – Paul J. Meyer

Read our article on time management strategies that actually work here.