As much as technology is supposed to help us be more productive, most of us are drowning in work and are not as productive as we would like. We offer five strategies to maximise your time and success.
According to the experts, productivity is still very low in the Caribbean region. Although in various ways, technology has made our lives easier and offers us ways to be more efficient, effective, and even productive, it has also made life more complicated resulting in us not being as efficient, effective, or productive as we would like.
In this article, we outline five important strategies to increase our productivity. Importantly, none of these strategies starts with technology. They start with your mindset, to set you up for success.
1. Do the hardest thing first
There is a school of thought to do the easiest tasks first so that you have some success under your belt, which can motivate you to tackle the more tedious or difficult activities. However, hard tasks tend to require physical, mental and emotional energy, which may be well on their way to being depleted when they are attempted later in the day.
The better approach – when you are fresh, have the energy and are likely to be your most productive – is to do the more challenging or time-consuming tasks first. Completing those tasks will not only result in a sense of achievement but can also motivate you to tackle a lot of other tasks on your to-do list.
2. Set small goals
According to the quote attributed to Desmond Tutt, “There is only one way to eat an elephant: a bite at a time”. Similarly, when you have a project or large task to complete, the best way to tackle it is through smaller tasks.
However, staying motivated and having the stamina to the end can be a challenge. A good way of approaching large tasks is to set small and manageable goals or milestones along the way. Each milestone will be a sign of the progress that has been made, which will also give you the momentum to continue until the project is completed.
3. Take breaks
The odds are we have all had a situation in which we had to work for hours on end to complete an activity by a deadline. At points during those marathons, productivity declines and you need to take breaks – be it a bathroom break, to have something to eat, or to stretch your legs. However, those sessions are not so much about being productive and efficient in managing your time, but about applying brute force to complete a task to meet a deadline.
Although taking breaks during an intense work session is inevitable and necessary, from a productivity standpoint, scheduling breaks regularly can increase your performance and reduce stress. Hence when you know that a task will take several hours to complete, consider taking a break for 10—15 minutes every hour to step away from your work and give your eyes and brain a rest. When you return, you are likely to feel a bit refreshed, able to re-focus and may even have new-found inspiration to tackle the task at hand.
4. Limit distractions
It is likely you have experienced this scenario. You are trying to type an email or short report, but either an email, text message or social media notification catches your attention, and you pause working on the task that should have your attention. That is a distraction, and they can be plentiful throughout the workday, which if allowed to interrupt you all the time, will adversely affect not only your productivity but also your ability to complete tasks in a timely manner.
The trick thus is to limit distractions. Allow yourself blocks of time without distractions in which you can push through tasks you need to complete. To help, consider turning off notifications or switching your device to a ‘do not disturb’’ mode. Being able to focus for short periods of time will help you be more productive and able to strike more tasks off your to-do list than if you allow yourself to be constantly distracted.
5. Stop multitasking
We have been led to think that being able to multitask is a good thing. Multitasking means performing more than one task at the same time, and though it is indeed possible to do so, often, you may end up doing just enough to keep all of the balls in the air, but not necessarily to do any one of them exceptionally well.
To be fair, there are times when you need to multitask, but if it is important to have very good results for your efforts, it is better to be able to focus your attention on a specific for a fair period of time without interruption. The time you allocate may be as little as 30 minutes before you take a break, but the point is that you are allowing yourself to concentrate on and be fully immersed in a specific activity, in order to do what needs to be done and to do it well.
Image credit: Carl Heyerdahl (Unsplash)
