Busy, Yet Not Productive? — Jag Chima

A lot of people are busy…. but not productive.

I’ve had quite a few messages asking about how to improve productivity, and this is usually from people who claim to have a huge to-do list.

1. The problem starts when you don’t group the most urgent tasks to the non-urgent.

Prioritize the urgent tasks first. When you have a huge to do list it can become overwhelming and confusing on where to start.

2. Breakdown the bigger tasks. When you do this they become more manageable and tracking progress becomes easier.

3. Avoid multitasking. Focus on one task at a time and then move on to the next. So many people try to multitask and end up in almost the same position at the end of the day as when they started.

Your efficiency rate increases when you focus on a single task.

4. Track your time, how long does it take you to finish tasks? When you evaluate this you will begin to understand how to allocate your time and more importantly how to improve on weaker areas.

5. Most importantly, plan your to-do list the night before. Planning ahead saves so much time and leaves your mind to focus on the tasks to hand rather than waste energy on deciding what to do.

Now, when you have your to-do list for the day all planned out, you can see if this looks realistic or not.

If you are unrealistic, you’ll find the same tasks on your list every day of the week and at the end of the week, you may feel that you failed. This can be demotivating.

Be real, once you follow this pattern for a week, you will begin to understand how to manage your time.

When you see ticks next to every task at the end of each day, you know you’re on the right track.

Oh and avoid distractions of any kind! Don’t take calls unless you must, allocate your time for social media and distance yourself from the chatterboxes.

As basic and obvious these points may sound, you’d be surprised at how many people become so busy they forget.

— Jag Chima