Whether preparing a white paper, crunching numbers, or doing your taxes, productivity is a necessity. And now with robots poised to steal millions of jobs over the next four years, it's important that you continue to amp up your productivity skills. Here are a few tips to brush up your productivity:
1. Delegate tasks: With the surge of technology, we humans are driven to do more with less: less time, less resources, less mental bandwidth. You can't do everything yourself. Being able to delegate tasks to others around you, or pull together collaborative teams, is critical to staying productive.
2. Opt out of meetings: How many times have you sat in a meeting that chews up 3 hours of your day and yet pertains very little to your role or the projects you have on your plate? Employers are just as interested in your productivity as you are. If there's an opportunity to opt out of a meeting, take it.
3. Avoid impromptu meetings: Every office has those people who like to carouse around and stop by cubicles and offices for a chat; and before you know it, you're down a rabbit hole of detail about your the finger sandwiches served at your colleague's rotary club gathering. Here's a tip I learned from the book The 4-Hour Work Week: headphones. Put your headphones in your ear, and attach them to your phone. When Mr. Meet n' Greet comes by, motion to your ears and gesture that you're on a call. Problem solved.
4. Schedule email check: This is another tip from the 4-Hour Work Week: check your email at certain times of day, not ad hoc--unless of course you're expecting something urgent. Our phones give us the illusion of urgency with their flashing screens and jarring ring tones--but how much of your texts and emails are actually urgent? 10%? By scheduling email checks, you can focus on getting things done, while remaining confident that you won't miss anything. A way to set it up is have an automatic reply stating you're working toward a deadline and will be checking your email at 1pm that afternoon, at which point you'll get back to the individual. Sounds crazy? Might be the right reason to try it out.
5. Find a happy place: If you have mobility and able to work at a cafe or library, it's good to get out of the office when needing to focus on a project or deadline. Often offices can be full of distractions and obligatory meetings and chats. Getting out to a cafe or library can give you a sense of freedom and escape--just enough to focus your energy. If you are working on something that requires a difficult solution, it's good to get out somewhere outside convention. I knew one guy who created solutions while wandering the aisles of Walmart.
6. Get offline--if you can: Social media is a huge time-waster. It's that little escape you are compelled to take just a few minutes for, then easily find yourself burning an hour scrolling through last week's posts. If you don't need to work online, don't--you'll be less distracted by incoming emails and social media notifications, and thus less tempted to free surf.
7. Make lists: This is a good way to keep projects top of mind. Some people like to use Google Task that syncs up with other apps, while others prefer simple pen and notebook. If you have larger tasks, break them up into sub-tasks--and bang off the smaller ones before you do the larger ones.
8. Keep a notebook: This relates to #6. Keeping a notebook is important for jotting down new ideas, reminders, to-do lists, etc. I know many believe technology has rendered such things obsolete, but how many times have you lost notes from your phone or accidentally deleted them?
9. Reward yourself: This is an important thing to do for boosting your confidence and sense of accomplishment. If you've pushed yourself hard to get a project completed, or you've had a number of things to bang off in a short period of time, give yourself a reward: could be a latte at your favourite cafe, or taking yourself out for lunch. Whatever it is, rewards are a good thing.
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