How to be More Productive at Work

Have you been working so hard at work and feel like you have not been able to achieve anything at all?

Then you are not alone.

Being productive at work can be difficult, from managing your time to achieving great result can be a hard nut to crack.

If you find it challenging to be productive at work, then you need to take a look at this article. This article will help you to be more productive regardless of what you do, you will be able to manage your day effectively.

Are you ready to work smarter and become more productive?

Then let’s start:

1. Take One Task at A Time

It could be tempting for most people to think that taking up different tasks at the same time will help them achieve more.

Achieving more does not necessarily mean doing more, it has to do with doing the little you can do well. So, if you believe in carrying all the task at the same time, then it is time for you to stop.

Multi-tasking or doing so many things at the same time doesn’t increase output, it rather reduces your concentration because you will be struggling to do more and not caring about the quality of what you have to do.

Focusing on one task at a time will help you work faster.

2. Break Down Your Projects

Looking at large projects that you have to do can make the work look overwhelming even before you start. So, to be more productive at work, it is better for you to break-down your big task into little bits.

Breaking down your task into small bits will help you to be more in control of the project.

To make the task easy for you to handle, you can break the task down and take them a day at a time.

You can break down your projects into a different task and then choose a day to do a particular task. You can create a calendar to help you track your progress each day.  

Taking your task, a day at a time will help you track your achievements, and will help you to be more productive.

3. Schedule Your Task 

Taking a glance at all the things that you have to do can put you into pressure. To be more productive, you should look at all the things that you have to do and understand what you are supposed to do.

Understanding all the task you have to do will help you schedule different times for different projects instead of taking all the project at once.

You can start with the simple task and then decide to do the difficult ones when you are most relaxed and alert. What you have to do is to basically create a scale of preference, and then select a task at a time.

Sometimes starting with the difficult task can be more challenging because while you are struggling to do perform the task, you may experience some difficulties that may delay the task.

You will notice that when you start with a smaller task, you would have achieved finishing them well because they are less challenging to you.

You can write your tasks down on a notepad, then tick the ones that you have finished in ascending order.

It is easier for you to be more productive at work starting with a smaller task.

4. Take Breaks 

I know that it could be tempting for you to work throughout the whole day especially when you have a lot of things to do.

Working the whole day does not mean achieving a lot. The truth is that when you work for long hours without breaks, you will notice that at some point you get burned out. The moment you keep pushing when you are already burned out is when you start becoming unproductive.

If you keep working when you are tired, you will get more tired, you become frustrated, and you will just keep doing what you are doing just to beat time and not to add value. So, what is the point?

To be more productive, you can take a walk, go for a coffee break, or take a moment to relax your mind. After doing any of these, you will discover that you will come back refreshed to even approach your task with a better mindset.

Relaxing and taking a break can help you see what you are doing from another angle that you did not notice before.

5. Learn to deal with interruptions 

Do feel like being more productive at work, but somehow it looks like you can control it?

Different things stop people from achieving the level of productivity that they want to see every day, and one of the common things that affect many peoples’ productivity at work is ‘interruptions. 

Many things can probably interrupt you at work like; email notifications, social media notifications, and even co-workers.

If you react and respond to every notification that you see, then you are working your way to becoming less productive at work. 

Checking your social media feeds all the time at work will affect your concentration.

To deal with this, you can schedule specific times to take a look at your notifications. You can schedule your break times and maybe after your work hours.

I know that your co-workers can be interruptions some times too. If you are good at what you do, your co-workers may need your help from time to time. It is not wrong to help others at work, but taking on too much added to your task can be less productive for you.

To deal with interruptions from co-workers, you should practice the following:

• Don’t accept more than what you can do
• Let your co-workers know that you have your task too
• Learn to say No! when it is not convenient for you to help. You should remember to do that politely too.
• Keep your supervisor or line manager updated when it is needed. If you have tasks lined up for you to attend to, you can tell your supervisor about an external request for you to do something outside the task. Doing this will help you know whether or not you should take up certain tasks.

You can respond to a request that you would love to reject this way: “I would love to help you with this project, but I have a lot to cover in limited time for now maybe later will be fine”

This response has helped you reduce the pressure of having too many things to do and the risk of disappointing someone.

This response will also help you focus on more important tasks, and that way you will remain productive.  

6. Use productivity Tools

If you usually have a lot to do, you can make use of some productivity tools to make reduce the time that you spend doing things. Some productivity tools will help you manage your time effectively.

Time is key to achieving great results at work. Using productivity tools will help you reduce the time you spent working because it will allow you to automate some of your task that is routinely based while you focus on other ones.

Productivity tools like; Evernote, Zapier, Slack, Hootsuite, and Trello are tools that will help you to be more productive at work.

Being productive at work doesn’t mean having more time to do all the things you have to do, it is about managing the time that you have to achieve great results.

I understand that sometimes it feels like the 24 hours that everyone has may appear not to be enough for you. Regardless of the demand on your time, careful planning all you have to do will help you become more productive.

These strategies are all you need to become more productive at work. If you want to see more, you can check out this infographic.