“Focus on being productive instead of busy.”
– Tim Ferris
Introduction
The definition of productivity is the effectiveness of productive effort or the rate at which a person, company, or country does useful work. In these times every single person has a lot of work on their plate, be it work from the office, school, college, or work related to the house, some extra project you might be working on, or be it just your mental health. To finish the numerous tasks, we need to be productive to finish these effectively and still be left with some time to relax and hang back from the rush of daily life. So we can say that productivity is about getting the required result in less time and effort. Increased productivity is directly related to improved time management. This article aims to list ways to increase productivity for work.
Plan Ahead
The practice of approaching work at random is one of the hindrances to productivity. When you attack work at random, you are not sure about how much more is left and by when you will be able to get to it. To deal with this, you must plan ahead, it can be daily, weekly or monthly planning. It puts you in control of how much work you have and till when you can complete it. Planning offers you clarity.
Set Realistic Goals
You should set goals in such a manner that you have set milestones that help you in knowing your destination. The best way to set goals is to follow SMART.
S – specific, significant, stretching
M – measurable, meaningful, motivational
A – agreed upon, attainable, achievable, acceptable, action-oriented
R – realistic, relevant, reasonable, rewarding, results-oriented
T – time-based, timely, tangible, trackable.
Track and Limit
If you implement a tracking system through which you monitor how much time you take to finish one task, you will be able to understand if you are using your time effectively or not, and if not, then where are you wasting it. Every person has a different productive golden hour. By tracking your day, you will be able to understand when your golden hour is and you can schedule your work accordingly.
Be Proactive, Not Reactive
Being proactive helps you in avoiding the time you waste around and then rush to react in time. When you are reactive, you let others call the shot and give you the work to be done but when you are proactive, you are a few steps ahead of others and you get to call the shots.
Minimize Distractions
Most of our time gets wasted on the number of distractions that put us off our work path. Everyone has become addicted to being online and that is one of the major distractions. It is important to work smarter and set boundaries such as setting work hours during which time you will not be available to others, silencing notifications, setting time slots to check social media and emails, and not doing it during the work hour.
Get Enough Sleep
It is a known fact that not getting enough sleep has negative effects on our performance in all aspects of life but work gets affected the most. This happens because when you are working, you need logical reasoning which is done by your prefrontal cortex which gets impacted by the lack of sleep. Therefore, it is important to get at least 7-9 hours of sleep a night.
Conclusion
Once you understand the importance of productivity, you will learn that it will become a huge part of your whole life, not only when it comes to your work life but also your personal life, as when you are on top of all your work is only when you can give enough time to your personal life as well.
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