Business

Perfect 10 tips to boost daily work productivity

Prioritise the task list and each task that demands your personal attention. Planning will make you more empowered to manage exigencies and calibrate your work outputs.

Do you feel dragged down during the day, fighting yourself to finish off the day’s work, racing against the clock to tick off the last task in your to-do-list? Don’t be surprised, you are not alone, most of us try to do just that, to complete our daily work routine.

While we strive for a perfect score of 10 on 10, it is not that difficult. Minor work calibrations help boost our productivity and a sustained effort makes it our habit to score a 10 on 10 in whatever we do most of the time!

 

Gadini / Pixabay

Below are 10 doable things that may help you achieve what you want to achieve during your daily routine, and also leave you with enough time for yourself.

1. Have a good night’s sleep:

A tired mind is the best source to let you not concentrate on your tasks at hand. Lack of sleep or a disturb night’s sleep acts as a productivity retarder and prevents you from working at your desired pace. Have the desired quality sleep that your body requires and see the difference next morning.

2. Morning exercise:

RyanMcGuire / Pixabay

Morning walk, yoga, stretches, working out in the gym – do your bit in the morning. This will help you focus your mind on yourself.

You will start appreciating your physical prowess, and know the limits to which you can push yourself. With sustained efforts, you can always improve your stamina and physical prowess as you wish.

A healthy mind in a healthy body is a must to get the best out of ourselves.

3. Plan your start:

It helps to plan out your day in advance. Things you need to do, things you need the team to do, what are the projects that need immediate attention, what are the decisions that are dependent on others.

Prioritise the task list and each task that demands your personal attention. Planning will make you more empowered to manage exigencies and calibrate your work outputs.

4. Plan the day end:

It is as important to plan the day end as the day beginning. Pat yourself on the back for finishing most of the things in the task list, but don’t despair and brood if a few things have not been completed.

5. Plan a day in advance:

Plan a day in advance, a week, a month – repetitive tasks and follow-ups that need perseverance have a remote chance to escape your attention, if they are listed on a monthly calendar. Reminders on the computer, mobile phone, and organiser help a great deal in reminding us of the repetitive tasks. Harness technology to the fullest!!

6. Plan for exigencies:

Give yourself some breathing space. Don’t pack your schedule like a can of sardines. Have enough breathing space to provision for exigencies that keep cropping up as small or big surprises. Provisioning for exigencies in your macro plan helps in all instances.

7. Cut repetition:

One can save a lot of time by avoiding repetition of tasks. A one-hour deferment for a meeting to gather all and explain it to the entire team saves a lot of time!

8. Meaningful reports:

Don’t indulge in over reporting. Short, succinct, precise communication and delivered and received in the desired time frame helps all in the chain.

Personal visits to the clients can be avoided if you can provide pictorial reports. Always remember a picture speaks a thousand words.

9. Time for yourself:

You started the day by devoting time to yourself during the morning exercise regimen! Unwind with yourself during the need of the at office and home. Rewind the day in your mind and fill the gaps. You will empower yourself with “self-analysis” of your work and be better prepared to take on the challenges next morning.

Talk to self, reward for things done well and weed away any laxity that has held you back at any stage.

10. Weed out extras:

It pays to weed away a few things from your routine that don’t help you achieve anything. Too much time on social media, a smoke with friends, idle gossip, redundant processes are some of the things that you can eliminate and taper down to get more time for yourself to complete the daily tasks on time, every time.

You can develop a simple scorecard and try to assign a mark between point one (0.1) to one (1) for each attribute you start following as per your personal satisfaction. The moment you score 10 out of 10, send me your self-certified scorecard to receive your personalized appreciation certificate.

(The author is a management coach and works as Director, Corporate Affairs at CIDC, New Delhi. He  can be reached at [email protected] )

(In association with Construction Standard)

 

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