How To Be More Productive At Work

Being productive at work is useful in many ways. Firstly, you’ll have a great sense of achievement, and you’ll feel proud of how much you got done. Secondly, you won’t have to bring work home with you, or stay late (or get in early!) to get everything done. Finally, you’ll gain more confidence in yourself, and this will help you to achieve more such as a promotion or even finding the courage to start your own business if that appeals. If you find that you aren’t as productive as you think you could be, here are some ideas that might help you.

Set Micro Goals

It’s good to dream, and it’s even better to dream big. However, having a goal that is huge and lofty and hard to reach won’t help with your productivity. It may even slow you down because you become so focused on achieving what you’re aiming for that you become overwhelmed and too busy to do anything else. The big dream is the end goal, but remember that it will take many smaller steps to get there. These smaller steps are micro goals, and setting them up can help you become a lot more productive.

Every time you hit a micro goal, reward yourself and understand how much closer you are to your ultimate goal. Immediately set the next micro goal and start heading towards it. The sooner you can reach these smaller goals, the sooner you will reach your main aim, but breaking it up into small steps will help you stay on track and keep you moving forward.

Find A Better Way

There will be processes, systems, and tasks that you do at work that frustrate you because you’re fairly certain that there is a better way to do things. If that is the case, then concentrate on finding that better way, and implementing it where you can. Once you are no longer frustrated by the work you have to do, and once the work itself is easier to deal with, you’ll find you get a lot more done, and you’re much more productive. As a bonus, it’s probable that you won’t be the only person in your place of work who is irritated by the way things are done. If you can be the one who changes things for the better, your colleagues and your employer will notice.

Question Things

Similar to the point above, if you find that you are being asked to do something that doesn’t seem quite right to you, question it. It could be the fact that no one has questioned it before that means nothing has ever changed, and a simple word from you will have other employees also stepping up to say that they don’t like how something is done. Once these problem areas are changed, productivity is sure to go up.

Quit Smoking

Since smoking is no longer allowed in the office space (for a good reason), smokers now need to go outside to a special smoking area to have their cigarettes. Not only is this terrible for their overall health, but it also means that they have to stop what they are doing to go out and smoke. It can easily reduce productivity because they are not at their desk and because by stepping away for a longer break outside, their ‘flow’ has been cut off, and they may take a while to get back into their working rhythm. This all reduces the amount that can be done in a day and means that more work has to be taken home or done after or before working hours.

Giving up smoking is the best option because it is better for your health, and because you won’t need so many breaks away from what you are doing. If quitting is hard, as it often is, vaping could be a good option for you. You can shop these vape pens to see the different varieties that are available.

Take Breaks

Although this point may seem to contradict the one above, it does make sense. If you are becoming tired, or you feel that your creativity or productivity is waning, then getting up from your desk and walking around, perhaps going to make a cup of coffee, getting a glass of water, even just taking a stroll along and corridor and back can be enough to make you feel yourself again. If you are staring at a piece of work and forcing yourself to finish it, then the end result will be much less satisfactory than something you felt happy and healthy about.

These breaks should be relatively short, however, and certainly not as long as a smoking break would be, as breaks that are too long will break the flow of your work and your productivity will be lost. It’s a fine line, but once you have it worked out, it will help you immensely.

Think About Your Day

When you get into bed at night, it’s a good idea to think about your day in as much detail as possible. Think about the conversations you had and the meetings you sat in. Remember the decisions you made and the work you did. It’s important to work out which of these elements of your day made you feel productive, and which ones brought your energy levels down. Once you know what makes you unproductive, you can stay away from it. If that is impossible, then you can be aware of what is going to happen, and ensure you have a backup plan in place.

Reward Yourself

No matter how badly you think your day has gone, there will always be at least one moment of productivity. It may not have been in the office, but in some cases that’s not a problem. You need to simply remember that you can be a productive person and that tomorrow you will be. It’s a good idea to reward yourself in some way when you have been productive as well, as this will spur you on to do more. This doesn’t have to be a physical reward but could be an extra 10 minutes of TV, or the chance to do some painting. Anything that makes you smile will then be linked to your workplace productivity and will help you in the future.