Have you ever finished the work day and then found that your to-do list is actually longer
than it was when you started?
Well, increasing your productivity at the workplace actually is really easy with a few
simple minor adjustments.
If you stay tuned to the end of this video, I have a surprise download just for you.
Hi, if you're new here, welcome to the best career and project management advice coming
to you every Wednesday.
As the saying goes, it's not the number of hours that you put into work, but it is the
amount of work you put into those hours.
So if you want to really get great productivity improvement hacks, then stick with me, like
this video, and let's learn how to work smarter and not harder.
Plan your day.
Okay, this is really important and it is going to help with your productivity.
First and foremost, whenever you plan, never plan for 100%, plan for a 60/40 split.
So 60% of your time, you plan for it, including meetings and activities, and 40% leave free.
Because I promise you, things pop up and you want to be able to deal with it without feeling
stressed, because you're not able to get your other things done.
Now with planning, it's not just about planning for the day, it's actually planning long-term.
So when you do plan for the day, I want you to plan the night before.
Again, this just helps to ensure that when you wake up, you know exactly what you have
to do and when you have to do it, there's no guessing.
You also want to plan for the week.
So every Sunday, take a look at your week and really work it out from a standpoint of
what meetings you have and deliverables, and when do I think I can get these things done
based on the available time that I have?
And last but not least, you want to also plan for the month.
So at the beginning of every month, take a look at what you have going on.
So there's this rendition of looking out and then moving back in.
But the key is plan, plan and plan.
It truly makes a big productivity improvement when you do that.
But again, only 60%.
Establish a routine.
Now, I don't want you to say, establish a routine and stick to it 100% of the time,
okay?
You need to have flexibility, things pop up, et cetera.
But really get some discipline and plan a routine.
So if you decide that emails suck your time, ensure you only look at emails once a day,
and perhaps it's in the morning, or maybe it's best if you do it at the afternoon or
at night.
Decide how that works for you.
But it is really, really important that you have some routines.
Also take a look at getting most of the heavy lifting of what you want to get done, and
the really important stuff, at your prime time.
So for me, I'm a morning person.
So I actually get up early, and then I do a lot of my key things in those early hours,
because I know as the day progresses, things just start popping in my lap, and there's
no way I'm going to get those things done.
But for other people, maybe the afternoon or even the evening.
But again, make sure that you balance things out.
Understand and stick to a routine.
It's going to help you.
But that routine needs to have some flexibility.
So just don't be rigid with your routine, but ensure that key elements, that you follow
it with discipline.
Continuously improve.
Are you familiar with the word kaizen?
This is a Japanese word, really symbolizing continuous improvement.
So this is something that you always want to be looking at a daily perspective and from
a productivity perspective.
Why?
Well, I promise you, processes and ways of working are never perfect and there is always
room to grow and improve.
You don't want to be stagnant, or what I like to say, have monuments in your systems that
nobody ever changes and you work around and actually creates more work for you.
That is not working smarter.
That is definitely working harder.
So look to continuously improve.
And don't forget that, look at our environment, things are constantly changing.
So if you have a kaizen mindset of continuously improving, it makes a huge difference in your
productivity.
Because I promise you, a little bit of improvement every day makes huge steps overall and is
going to lead to greater things for you.
Prioritize.
Oh my goodness, this one is so critical when it comes to productivity, yet I find organizations
and individuals don't do it.
They try to do everything at once, and everything's a number one.
Well, I'm going to let you know, it's not.
You definitely daily, hourly, however it may be, things shift and change continuously,
and you really have to learn how to prioritize.
Why is this important from a productivity perspective?
Well, you can't do everything well altogether.
So you need to figure out, what is really important to me?
What's a true priority number one?
And how can I focus my time and attention on that?
You can't multitask, and understanding your prioritization is going to help you pick the
thing that you really need to work on and dedicate your time towards it.
This is just going to ensure good quality work, and you're actually going to get things
done faster.
I promise you, multitasking doesn't work, and prioritization is the key to understanding,
how do I put everything else away and just work on this one thing?
Minimize distractions.
All right, you probably have heard me say this tons of times, those bings, the dings,
the phone, the email, Netflix, all of that stuff has an impact on our productivity.
I don't care how good you are.
I myself get really distracted too.
So you need the discipline.
You need to minimize it.
You need to put things away.
So a lot of times on my phone, I put it in airplane mode or I put it in quiet mode.
I even at times unplug, when I'm working from home, my TV.
Because you know what happens at lunchtime as I'm making my sandwich?
I'm just going to throw on Netflix.
And then all of a sudden, one quick little 20 minute episode turns into three of them,
and an hour or more goes by.
Distractions are just that, distractions.
And they take away precious time that you can never get back.
So it is really important that, have the discipline, understand what your distractions are, and
really put them away.
It's like if you were trying to become healthier or lose weight, are you going to have chips
around you all the time?
No, you're not going to buy them or you're going to hide them.
Same thing when it comes to distractions.
Okay.
Now for my surprise for you.
And the surprise is, I want to see if you understand what exactly you do with work.
Do you work on projects?
Now, what is a project?
A project is anything that has a true start and a true end, and a deliverable that you
have to deliver on.
I come across individuals who tell me, "I don't work on projects."
But in actuality, they do.
They just don't realize it.
And I'm sure that you probably do work on projects.
So what do I have for you?
Is, I want you to be successful and productive all the time, and if you go to the link below,
you can grab Why Projects Fail.
Even if you were to just take a look at this from a productivity standpoint, because it
is all linked and interchangeable.
So in order to be productive, you definitely need to grab this.
Because this is going to help you, whether you're on projects or just in your daily workings
at work.
Now, on that note, I'd love to hear from you.
What do you do in order to be productive?
Is there anything new here that you're going to try?
Please put it in the comments below.
I'll see you at the next video.