Improving your productivity is easy. Add just one of these strategies to your working day and see what a difference it makes to your sense of control (it will go up) and your stress levels (they will go down). Add a new strategy each week or each month, until they become habits. The habits will change how you work and play.
Checklists
For regular, ongoing tasks and projects, create a checklist so that you don’t have to rely on your memory. Just check the list and do what comes next. Operating theatres and car servicers are experts and they use checklists because they cannot afford to miss anything. Follow their example.
Choice
Every day, every hour, every minute we exercise our ‘choice’ muscle. Not choosing turns out to be a choice too. Practising pro-active choice gets easier and easier, and we get more and more done.
Clarity
Clarity is power. The clearer you are about your desired outcome, the greater the possibility of achieving it. Be specific. You don’t want a vague almost-there result. You want to nail it. Clear your mind.
Clock
Have a clock visible so you can keep track of the time. Use it to help you be on time.
Cloud-based
Use a cloud-based system to store your data (for example, One Note, Evernote, iCloud, Google). This way, if something nasty happens to your personal system (paper-based or computer-based) you can retrieve it using any computer, or even access it via your phone.
Remember to back up regularly to the cloud. Take photographs of important paper-based data and, again, save them to the cloud.
Coach
Get a coach. Your productivity will soar when you allow an expert to come alongside to motivate, encourage, share their knowledge with and stretch you.
Coffee nap
A coffee nap is a simple secret to a more productive day. Drink a cup of coffee, wait ten minutes, then have a 20-minute sleep – no more and no less. Set an alarm – the exact amount of time is important for your ‘sleep cycle’, otherwise you will wake up groggy. Your
Comfort zones
Comfort zones are made to be stretched. To become more productive, go beyond what is safe and comfortable. Try something new to create a better result, a great experience, and an exhilarating life. Dare to risk. Don’t overdo it, however. Stretch a little, but not too much – you don’t want to fly past the healthy stretch zone into the paralysing “panic” zone.
Communicate
Productivity and running to time go hand in hand, but sometimes the schedule blows out. When this affects other people, keep them in the loop. This simple courtesy gives them the chance to adjust their own schedule. More importantly, it keeps the relationship intact.
Concentrate
Set up your environment to help you concentrate. Turn off notification “pings” on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and email (computer and phone). Recent studies have shown that a single-task focus is more productive than multi-tasking, so pick one task, screen off everything else, set a time limit for completion, and go for it.
Context
Divide your tasks according to their context. Assign them to your customised categories. That way, when it’s time to ‘make phone calls’, or ‘go to the supermarket’, or ‘talk to the boss’, you have a list of tasks in that context ready to execute.
Control
We all need a sense of control. If you are feeling helpless, rethink the situation. Don’t assume there’s nothing you can do.
Les Watson, The Time Lord, www.getmoretime.com.au
