5 Ways To Increase Your Productivity Anytime
I know it’s easy for me to say but I firmly believe that it’s possible for you to increase your productivity and to help you here are five productivity tips that you can implement anywhere. Use them at work, use them at home… if you’re really keen and crazy enough, use them on vacation. They will help you make the most of your time no matter where you are and what you’re doing.
Use them whenever and wherever you could use a little help to make sure things get done in a timely matter.
1 — Make A List and Increase Your Productivity
If it’s good enough for Santa, it’s good enough for us. Let’s get serious though. Having a list will help you stay focused and you’ll know exactly what you need to get done. You won’t start your day wasting time trying to figure out what you should be doing or getting pulled in every direction as things pop up.
Make out your list the night before, or first thing in the morning. Write down the most important things you need to get done today to make progress. Think about the best and most efficient way for you to use a list.
Do you work best with a pen and notepad? This allows you to work on your list anywhere, anytime. You can jot down tasks while you get ready for bed or while your computer shuts down at work. Or you can work on it first thing in the morning while you’re sipping your coffee.
If on the other hand you’re a gadget person or someone who always carries their smart phone around, using a to-do list app might work better for you. You can grab your phone and make out your list anytime you have some downtime, even when you’re stuck in traffic on the way home from work.
An app also comes in handy when some of the tasks on your list are recurring. Let’s say for example that contacting three prospects is high on your to-do list each day. You can set up a recurring task in your to-do list app so it pops up every morning without you having to type it in.
Of course the best list won’t do you much good unless you use it. Make it a habit to check it throughout the day and don’t stop until each item on your list is checked off. Getting into this habit alone will help you to increase your productivity.
It does bring up another important point though. Don’t cram too many things on your list. You want to work on just enough items that you stay busy and productive all day long.
Having a list will help you stay focused and you’ll know exactly what you need to get done.
What you don’t want is a huge list that just makes you want to quit. Set the bar high, but don’t make it unattainable. If that happens, and it will when you come across tasks that end up being a lot more complex than initially thought, edit your list and cut what you need to or postpone it until tomorrow.
2 — Increase Your Productivity by Focusing On The 3 Most Important Tasks
In addition to your regular “to-do” list consider a second list that’s limited to only three items. These three things could certainly come from your main to do list. These should be your most important things you need to get done today.
Think of it this way. What if something happened in the middle of your day that made you stop and quit. Say a family emergency or getting sick. What are the three tasks that will make the biggest difference? What things have to get done no matter what? What will make the most progress? This could be sending out an email that could get you a few new clients or orders. Or it could be doing the laundry so everyone has clean clothes to wear tomorrow. Or it could be getting those tomatoes planted.
It doesn’t matter what part of your life you apply this to. You can mix and match things that are important at work and things that are important at home. Or make a list of three things for each. Just make the list.
Limiting yourself to only three things makes you think and prioritize. And getting those three things done early on insures you’re having a productive day no matter what else happens.
Your to-do today list should be your most important things you need to get done today, or at least started.
There will be distractions, there will be fires popping up that you need to deal with, and there will be tasks that need to be taken care of that you didn’t even consider when you made out your daily to-do list. That’s ok. As long as you can get these three things taken care of first you’ll be fine and you will have made some serious progress.
3 — Cut Mental Clutter With Calendars And Reminders to Increase Your Productivity
How many appointments, birthdays and the likes are you mentally keeping track of in your head right now? That’s a lot of clutter in your brain and not something you need to keep mental tabs on.
Believe it or not, having to remember too many different things will slow down your productivity. You’re happily working away on a report when you suddenly remember that your friend’s birthday is sometime in April… did you already miss it, is it today, or is it next week? Do you see how that can slow you down from whatever you’re supposed to be working on?
Thankfully there’s an easy fix. Grab your smart phone or log into Google Calendar and use it to keep track of all birthdays, anniversaries, appointments, and meetings for you. You can even set the calendar to remind you about important dates and times. No need to keep a mental note.
And if you use Google calendar, you can check and receive reminders in multiple spots. Get them on your phone, via email or when you open your Google Calendar on any device. Make these calendars and reminders for work you. Set it up once and you’re good to go.
Believe it or not, having to remember too many different things will slow down your productivity.
Don’t forget to keep the fact that you’ll be adding new reminders and meetings regularly in mind when you set up your system. If it is easiest to add them from your phone, make sure the app or calendar you choose to use, works with that. If it’s easier to do it from your computer, make sure it supports that. Make it work and try different apps and calendars until you come up with a system that works for you and your habits.
4 — Increase Your Productivity by Being Aware Of Time And Parkinson’s Law
Have you heard of Parkinson’s Law? It states — and I’m paraphrasing here — that work expands to fill the time available for completion. In other words, each task you’re working on will take as long as you give it.
I’m sure you’ve seen this in action. It takes you all weekend to clean the house. But if you get a call on Saturday morning that the in-laws are coming over for lunch, the same work suddenly gets done in under three hours.
Or how about you’re working away on a report that’s due by 2pm this afternoon. It will take you until 1:59 to finish, unless you get a call from a friend inviting you out to lunch. You buckle down and get it all wrapped up before you leave at 12:30pm.
It’s important to be aware of this law and also to add one more piece of information to our daily to-do lists. The trick to getting more done in less time is to put a time limit on everything.
Got a bathroom to clean? Set a kitchen timer for 30 minutes and get it done.
Got a blog post to write? Give yourself 20 minutes to do the writing and another 20 to format, edit, add images and publish it.
Got a hiring decision to make? Give yourself 15 minutes to glance through a stack of resumes and pick the three people you want to interview in person.
Give it a try and see if putting a time limit on each task throughout your day doesn’t help you get more done in less time. Don’t be surprised if your productivity skyrockets.
Parkinson’s Law states that work expands to fill the time available for completion.
As a side note, this works really well with kids too. Go to the dollar store and buy a couple of cute but inexpensive egg or kitchen timers. Give your child a task and set the timer. Suddenly cleaning their room can be done in a few minutes instead of hours of nagging and reminding.
5 — Learn To Say No and Increase Your Productivity
Let’s end with one more general productivity tip. And that is to simply say “no”. Yes, I know it’s hard for a lot of us, but how many times have you gotten roped into a lot of extra work or a waste of your time simply because you didn’t say NO?
I get it… it is fun and easy to say “yes” when a friend or colleague asks us to help out or has a “quick question”. And I’m not saying you should say No to everything. There will be plenty of times and opportunities when you should say yes.
But there are also days when you don’t need the distraction, or when the favor asked will throw a serious curveball into your day. Those are the times when you need to stand firm and say “NO”.
This will get easier with practice and when you realize two things. The first is that you may not be doing the other person a favor by doing the work for them or giving them the answer. There’s a lot of value in learning to do things for yourself. Give them that opportunity. And number two is how you’re going to do it. Instead of just saying no, say no but with a suggestion. Tell them you can’t help with the school fundraiser this year, but you’ll email all the research you did for last year’s event or get them in touch with your biggest sponsors. Tell them no, you can’t run the report the boss wants for them, but you can send over the tutorial on how to do it.
How many times have you ended up doing extra work simply because you didn’t say NO?
Do you see how these are much better options and easier ways to say “No”? But how will this help you get more productive? Saying no helps cut out distractions and helps you focus on what’s important to you, your family, your life, and your work.
Implementing thes 5 tips will help you to improve your productivity, don’t try to implement them all at once, choos to try one a week for the next five weeks and see how you go.
Let me know which one you’re going to try first You can leave a comment by clicking here.
Till Next Time
Mike Gardner is The Time Doctor
