Improving productivity and learning to manage your time is essential if you want to maintain a good work-life balance that can ultimately help you become a better professional and live a stress-free life. Everyone would like if their days could last longer than 24 hours, well at least a few of them a week would be great!
Unfortunately this is not possible, but with a good organization you will be able to maintain the necessary motivation to turn the challenge of being more efficient into a habit and get a few hours of the day back.
Being productive doesn’t mean having to work longer. Being productive is all about working smarter. Several factors can affect our productivity: lack of organization, concentration, work overload, stress, etc… We all sometimes have a feeling that we are not moving forward in our projects as quickly as we could. That is why it is crucially important to always work more efficiently and productively.
In this article we will show you 5 tips that will help you be more productive at work and life in general. Follow along.
Make Technology Work for You, Not Against You
In today’s day and age, technology is impacting our lives more than anyone could have imagined just 20 years ago. Most people will agree that it is almost impossible to live a normal life without the use of technology in some way. Whether it is for communicating with our loved ones, ordering groceries, tracking our chores, having fun…
With that said, technology can also be a big time-waster, especially at work. When they have a lot of work to do, people tend to procrastinate a lot and spend countless hours going through social media feeds or watching YouTube videos. Luckily there are some tools and apps that can help you work more productively and even save you some time for watching YouTube videos after the work is done. Here we will mention some of them:
EasyPDF – An all-in-one PDF suite. This could be a lifesaver for anyone dealing with a lot of PDFs on a regular basis. It can convert PDFs to almost any file format and vice versa securely and anonymously. The tool is completely free to use, without any limitations.
Evernote – The most feature-packed note-taking app. This tool will help you capture anything and everything while keeping your life organized. It can be synced across all your devices making your notes accessible wherever you are.
Dropbox – Store your files securely on the cloud and make them accessible wherever you are. It has a collaboration feature as well allowing you to work on the same document with different people from different locations and time zones.
Plan and Make Lists
Defining lists and setting deadlines for the tasks you need to accomplish will allow you to have an overview of everything and will help you organize yourself towards achieving your goals. Prioritize your tasks and complete them one by one until you reach your end goal. You will find that it is extremely satisfying to cross off tasks once they have been completed. In addition, it will give you the motivation to achieve set goals.
Lists are a tremendously effective tool in terms of productivity. You can use paper and a pen to make your to-do list. Or use task management tools like the Evernote app we mentioned previously. They can be very useful science such tools can send you notifications and reminders.
Take Regular Breaks
Do you think it is helpful to work long hours in a row in order to be more productive and efficient? Some studies have shown the opposite. They actually concluded that taking a break can increase productivity by up to 10%. Amazing right? This is no longer something that needs to be proven since many studies have been carried out on this subject. It is therefore essential to take real breaks – breaks that allow you to relax and clear your mind. Leave aside social networks, text messages, and mobile applications and have a real peaceful moment for yourself.
The important thing is to find a way to relax, for example, going outside, listening to music, meditating, or stretching. The goal is to take a break from work to clear your head and feel more relaxed. So, please don’t think that breaks are counterproductive. On the contrary, they have many benefits on our health since they can help reduce physical and mental fatigue. After all the more you feel tired and exhausted, the more you lose concentration and performance.
Maintain Good Communication With Your Team
It is a good idea from time to time to check in with your teams and colleagues and see how they are doing. This is especially important in these hard times where most of us are working from home. This shouldn’t fall into the meeting category nor look like you are hyper-controlling them. This will allow you to keep a healthy connection with your business and people. Plan parts of the day when you will email, telephone, or videoconference people in order to maintain workflow and advance various projects towards their end goals.
However be understanding, especially with parents whose organization of the day often depends on the children. At home, explain to your family, your spouse, your roommates when you are at work and that you will be less available, especially before your phone and video meetings. Again, regular working hours or slots will make it easier for everyone to organize.
Delegate, Delegate and Delegate
To be productive, it is essential to know how to delegate. We all have a limited number of hours and the capacity to work. If you are using your time and energy to complete tasks that are not important, that is just wasted time and energy. That’s why it is crucial to learn how to delegate as much as possible. We all have areas in which we are not efficient, tasks that we think we can achieve but can be time-consuming. So why not delegate those tasks to qualified people and use this saved time to focus on your main goals. Learning to delegate and let go may seem complicated at first, but it will save you precious time and significantly increase your productivity!
The quest for productivity requires above all dedication and motivation. Without motivation, it is difficult to be productive and efficient. To cope with declining motivation it would be ideal to use the method of the visualization board that will allow you to boost your productivity and motivation. By combining this method with mentioned tips for being more productive, you will see significant changes in your performance and projects.
