Productivity is important in the workplace. Productive employees make for a happy, healthy workplace with a good culture, and when employees are productive, they help the business to become successful.
Note that hiring an employee is an investment, however, and businesses want returns on their investment, which they receive if the employee is productive. By measuring productivity, a company can gauge how well a team or department is performing and, if necessary, make the appropriate adjustments.
Best Tips to Increase Productivity at Work
Are you an employee wishing to boost your own levels of productivity while at work? The tips below will increase your productivity at work:
1Get proactive with how you organize yourself
If you spend all day responding to emails and phone calls, you’ll achieve little during your working day except putting out fires.
Plan your day and what you wish to get done. Part of this means setting aside time for emails and phone calls, instead of just reacting to them the moment they come in.
One of your tasks, especially if you work in a finance department, may include working with invoices and arranging payments. Using special software, you can save time by filling out in advance any checks you have to write.
2Stop multitasking
Multitasking is a myth.
Research has shown that it decreases productivity and efficiency.
Switching constantly between tasks, under the illusion that we’re multitasking, forces the brain to mentally adjust to the task, which costs us time, rather than make us more efficient. It’s better to devote your attention to one task and complete it before moving on to the next one.
3Track how long you spend on tasks
Do you know how long you spend on tasks?
You might think you’re good at gauging how long you work on them, but do you actually time yourself and track the time it takes you to finish tasks? A lot of people aren’t as accurate as they think they are.
Use a tracking tool to gain an idea of how long you’re spending on emails, social media, invoicing, etc. Then once you know where you are, you can make some adjustments.
4Take regular breaks
You don’t have to just break for exercise, though. You should be taking regular breaks anyway, as counterintuitive as this sounds.
Short breaks during long tasks allow you to maintain a consistent level of concentration, whereas if you just slog away at a long task without stopping at any point for a break, your performance will decline steadily.
So no matter how busy work gets, make some time for a break. You’ll be doing yourself and your employer a favor.
5Avoid unnecessary meetings
People attend meeting, book them and then complain about them because meetings take up so much time, eating into everyone’s productivity.
Can you accomplish a task via phone, email or even an online meeting? If so, go down that route instead of booking a face-to-face meeting and throwing away hours of productivity.
As well as staying clear of scheduling meetings unnecessarily, avoid attending any you think you don’t need to.
Ask yourself whether your presence at the meeting is critical. If so, you’ll have to accept the invitation. If it isn’t, decline the invitation but let the person organizing the meeting they can consult you if they have any questions.
6Get enough sleep
Long hours, early commutes and lots of responsibilities at home can take their toll on you on the workplace.
The lack of sleep can wreak havoc with your concentration, working memory, mathematical capacity and capabilities of logic. Any tasks that require complex thought or logical reasoning will suffer.
Make sure you get around seven to nine hours of sleep per night.
The list above is just a selection of ways you can increase your productivity in the workplace. Other measures you could take include creating a to-do list, eliminating distractions and, if you’re able to, delegating tasks to others.
