Productivity
What’s killing your productivity?
I listen to rock music while working and my friend couldn’t code a single line if there is music blaring. He always wondered how could someone concentrate with music at such a high volume? He would even be bothered by the sounds of passing cars on the street. So for him, the most productive time is 11pm to 5 am while my most productive time was anytime when I had my headphones on.
The point is, we all have our different sets of ideals for being productive. As long as we are applying our productive time effectively and delivering our work as tasked, there should be nothing to worry about. But have you ever experienced being ‘unproductive’ or ‘less productive’ in your ‘most productive’ hours? If yes, then these might be the reasons killing your productivity:
Work Routine
I believe that if you don’t have a proper work routine, you are more likely spending your time in ‘not so important’ tasks while missing out on your ‘important’ ones.
I had a friend that used to maintain their to-do list in their cellphone and laptop. But it never worked. Then the old paper and pen technique worked for them like a charm. While starting their day, they would write down important tasks on the paper in decreasing priority, start from #1 and strike out each task when done.
Routine doesn’t mean you have to make a time table and follow it every day, it simply means organize your day when you start. For me personally, I just need to remember that I wrote something down and where and then I’ll be able to follow it. Some people can easily remember what they have to do, others need reminders or places to check things off their list when they’re done so they can see what’s left over and progress. Call us for a custom solution for your office. Keep everything in one place and know who’s on what task, and what needs to be done.
Don’t be a method actor
In other words, don’t be a perfectionist. There are many tasks that need perfection but the rest simply don’t. Perfection simply means putting extra effort to improve the quality and it starts to go in a loop. Tasks that need perfection are good to show off you ability to be perfect, but being a perfectionist in every task will eat your productivity and delay your timelines. I have a problem with this, I either go into the extreme of perfectionism or the opposite, whereas my husband has learned to balance and know when to do which one. So that’s what I’m learning right now and it’s greatly improving my workflow. Perfectionism in its extreme would never let you deliver even a small project. It’s cool to be a perfectionist when needed but not so much when not needed, you have to break the character sometimes.
Being too old school
You can simply automate many tasks. Doing everything manually is like riding a horse on the highway. Thousands of tools are available to automate most of your daily tasks, use them. Doing everything manually will make your work monotonous and less interesting, and that will eventually suck your energy. You will feel tired even before you begin your actual important tasks.
So, automate whatever you can. Call us to find out how we can simplify your business through automation! Use the robots, take advantage of them, before they take advantage of us!
Sharpen your weapons
This high paced technology based world will make you outdated even before you realize. You must have heard that to cut a tree in an hour you have to sharpen your ax for half an hour. You skills are your weapons, keep sharpening them and keep learning new skills. Take some time everyday to learn something new. That will always keep you in the race.
Learn to say NO
I personally faced this problem and still do. When you socialize and people get to know what you do, you will start getting many ‘requests’ for small (unpaid) favors. It is not bad to help people, but when it starts impacting your work then it is bad. If you do them all you will easily end up spending a couple of days every week and it will delay your actual projects. So learn to say no or set boundaries whenever necessary.
Post was last modified: October 13 2021 02:15:58
