If finding ways to be more efficient and productive is one of your New Year’s resolutions, here are ten strategies that will definitely improve your daily and weekly results:
Some people do their best work early in the morning, and others aren't fully productive until the afternoon or evening. Identify Your Most and Least Productive Time and Use Your Energy Cycles to Increase what you accomplish.
Pick the two most important tasks on your list each day and commit to completing just those two tasks today. (Build your day around those two activities.)
Keep track of your time for a week. How can you become more efficient and productive if you don't know where to start? (Download our free Timekeeping Journal)
Batch Like Tasks is a fantastic way to increase both your focus and productivity. The second fastest way to improve productivity is to batch like activities on your Master List. Group emails, phone calls, similar tasks or projects, trips to certain parts of town, or different floors/departments within your office. Set up times each day to work on activities you must accomplish, and you’ll have more discipline.
Focus on one thing at a time. With greater focus and concentration, tasks will take less time, you'll make fewer mistakes, and get more accomplished each day.
Break your day into hourly intervals, the 50/10 Rule. We’re far more effective when we focus on what we can accomplish one to an hour rather than “by the end of the day.” Work 50 minutes then recharge for ten. Continue the entire day.
More effectively manage interruptions by negotiating a better time to handle their request. See if you can defer their request to a better time when you could "batch" it with a similar task. Stop jumping from task to task all day.
Reduce the Amount of Time in Email Each Day. · Don’t leave your email open all day long. Rather, set-up a short block of time each hour (say ten minutes) to check, prioritize, and respond to emails. When you check your email, you're in control. When email goes "ding" it's in control and chances are you'll respond to it immediately.
Before you end your day, reflect on ways to improve tomorrow. Reflect on what you did well that day and how you could improve your results tomorrow. Consistent productivity improvement is more quickly achieved through daily reflection.
Get off to a faster start each week. That means, close out Friday better, reflect on your week, then plan for next week. Create mental separation so you can enjoy the weekend!
Start by downloading our timekeeping journal. Understanding where you're spending your time will show you opportunities for improvement. Typically, the difference between your daily plan and what happened that day is an "eye-opener."