Do you feel that you aren’t nearly as productive as you would like to be? If so, don’t worry, because there are millions of us just like you. We all have our natural levels of productivity, and there are things that can greatly affect these levels. The trick is to figure out what is keeping us from being productive, and how to counter this problem. Your time is precious, so you need to find hacks that will make you more productive. Where to find such hacks? Of course from the already successful productivity geeks. So, check out these 10 ways to be highly productive:
1. Always Be Prepared
Before they leave the office for the day, productive people get things all set up for the next day, so they are ready to start work as soon as they arrive in the morning. Not only is this one less thing to do, it helps you to be more productive because you are ready to begin the day. Start your day off without distraction by being prepared.
2. Use Project Management Apps
Why spend a lot of time managing projects when there are apps that you can use to set reminders, schedule meetings, and more? If you want a project management app that is easy to use, check out everything you can do with Casual or Basecamp. The applications make it easy to track where you and every member of your team is in the process of completing a task.
3. Delegate Your Responsibilities
Productive people know that they can’t do everything themselves, so they assign certain tasks to other people. When you do this, you can spend more time on the important tasks, and let others do the rest.
4. Set Aside a Specific Time for Emails
If you keep going to your email all the time, you are never going to get anything else done. Set up a time each day that you will devote to checking emails, and unless you are waiting for an important message to come through, don’t look at them for the rest of the day.
5. Prepare to Bite the Bullet
This sounds horrible, doesn’t it? That’s the whole point. This phrase means to do something you really can’t stand doing. Get the worst thing on your to-do list over and done with right away, and you don’t have to think about it again. Putting something off means you may end up wasting more time worrying about it than it would take to get it done.
6. They Know When to Step Back
Not all little emergencies need your attention. The more attention you give to the little things, the less attention you will be giving to the important things. Know when to step back and stop worrying about those little things.
7. Don’t Be Afraid to Say “No”
You don’t have to say “yes” every time someone asks you for something, to do something for them, etc. Saying “no” once in a while will leave you with more time to get things done.
8. Start tp Do Things Now
Procrastination keeps you from being productive, so stop doing it and take care of things now. Respond to that email, return that phone call, or whatever else is demanding your attention.
9. Don’t Try Multitasking
The more you try to do, the less you get done. Multitasking is actually not something to be proud of, because it means that you are never devoting your full attention to any one task. Do one thing at a time, get it done, and then move onto the next.
10. Get Rid of Distractions
With the exception of emergencies, set aside your phone and other devices for several hours each day. You will be surprised to see just how much you can get done when you aren’t looking to your phone and other devices every few seconds.
11. Don’t Waste Time in Meetings
Meetings can drag on for hours, often unnecessarily, and this is time you could be using to be productive. Let everyone know at the beginning of a meeting that you have every intention of sticking to a schedule and finishing the meeting as soon as possible. Don’t let the meeting veer too far off track or you may find yourself spending way too much time on useless topics.
Featured photo credit: Kyle Van Horn via flickr.com
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