Productivity is a measure to determine the efficiency of a team or person completing a task.
We often believe productivity means to do more things each day. I disagree. Actually productivity is consistently getting the most important things done. And if you follow the Pareto rule we know that only 20% of daily activities are truly important. Therefore, what is the most important thing to complete every day ? In my opinion, productivity and staying focused goes hand in hand. It is hard to get one without the other.
For years I used to work overtime and, looking back, I realized I could have obtained the same results by working differently and applying some time management techniques. Here are a few things which helped me be become more productive:
- Eliminate Time Wasting Activities by using the Eisenhower method: it is a great tool you can use to determine what is urgent and important vs not urgent and important as well as things to delegate or ignore in your daily schedule.
- Create a daily to do list (the IVY Method is a great tool): use a daily to do list to keep track of your routines and must do activities. Ideally, you create this list in the evening. The IVY Method is a great and simple tool to use. Creating your to-do list in the evening helps you free some time the next morning and you know exactly what you need to accomplish the following day. What I like about this method is that you add only 6 tasks on your list. What you are not able to complete that day you add on the list for the second day. The method is simple and easy to use.
- Handle your most important tasks first thing: ensure you handle top priority tasks at the start of your day vs leaving it for later. We get most of our energy in the morning and we have limited amount of energy. Of course, a lot depends on your style of working. Some people may be more productive in the morning while others in the afternoon or evening. Determine what is best for you.
- Start and finish one task at a time: working on one task at the time is crucial in achieving results. Doing more than one task at a time, takes a toll on productivity. According with American Psychological Association (https://www.apa.org/research/action/multitask), multitasking comes with a cost and affect focus and performance. Multitasking for a longer period of time can increase the stress level and slowly you can become more anxious. And who needs more stress in their life ? As you can see I am not a big fan of doing multiple things at the same time, especially when a task is important and requires attention to complete it. For me, multitasking is the ability to develop multiple skills in order to be able to handle a variety of tasks within an organization or business. Of course this is my own definition.
- Reduce distractions: every time there is a distraction around us or we are interrupted our mind needs on average 17 minutes to get back to the focus mood. This is another reason why I don’t believe in multitasking or starting two things at the same time. Plus our minds get easily tired when trying to do too much at the same time. Ensure that your phone is on mute and any other distractions are off while you focus on completing the task. If you are working in an office environment you may want to consider using a white noise headset to help you keep focused.
- Finalize a task within a specific time frame: this is one of the best productivity tips I learned. Ensuring that a task is completed within a specific time frame is the best way to get results. Most people have a tendency to overthink and therefore being mindful of time allocated to the activity can help you. Set up 15 or 90 minutes (depending on the complexity of the task ) to work on a task, then take a break and continue. You will see how many things you can accomplish if you stay focused.
- Stop overthinking: when you really care about your work there is a tendency to overthink. For years I was spending precious time trying to do everything perfectly. Yes, I was overthinking as I wanted the best quality of work, however, I learned how to get that quality of working by reducing the time spent on it. I have to say this took me a while to overcome it. With technology advancements often speed to market is more important and 80% is good enough. This does not apply in healthcare or in industries where people’s health are at risk. It is easier said than done, however my best way to stop overthinking is to take a 5 minutes break or a short walk and come back refreshed and focused. At least this is what works for me at the moment.
There are lots of other ways to keep productivity up. Here are some other ways you may find helpful.
- Respond to your emails later in the day. It took me years to learn that emails are not as important as I thought. For years I got distracted by replying to emails first thing in the morning which was one of the reason why I ended up spending additional hours at work every day. Well, if it’s your boss emailing you, you most likely have to respond or at least set up the expectation when you can reply in details, however you should not reply if emails comes late in the night. If it’s not your boss how important is it to reply right away ? Depending on the situation, I am sure email replies can wait a bit.
- Unsubscribe from emails you don’t read. With technology advancements out there, we are being bombarded with emails. Is this really necessary ? Subscribing to lots of emails can be a challenge as they could be a distraction. Make your life easier and unsubscribe from emails you haven’t read in the last month. It just increases your inbox.
- Keep your energy high. Energy level is more important than your time. Being a petite person, I realized I lose my energy very easily. A great way to overcome that is to sleep more and get some vitamins, but I also managed my most difficult tasks when I have the highest amount of energy (morning). A great way to keep energy high for me includes stretching, fast walking or drinking some green juices during the day.
- Stay in a growth mindset. It is so easy to get into a negative mindset and see what doesn’t work around us. Especially during COVID we are struggling to stay positive especially with so many restrictions. Reality is that staying in a fixed mindset doesn’t help us and it requires a lot of practice to keep ourselves positive. A great way to do so is to stop watching the news and see the best in things, people and situations. At the end of the day we all learn from every situation. Just ask yourself, what am I supposed to learn from feeling this way ?
What are your tips to staying productive?
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