While a mild amount of stress is healthy to get your creative juices flowing, too much of it can quickly have a negative impact on your productivity and reduce your output for the day. Today, we’re going to be looking at 5 easy ways to become more productive at work, and you’ll be able to apply these to your daily routine immediately:
1. To-do lists help you get an overview of what needs to be done
To-do lists serve as a great way to get an overview of what needs to be done, so you can plan better. There are many ways to go about it: you can either use the traditional pen and paper, or go digital. If you decide you prefer the latter, your choice mostly boils down to having a simple text file to track your tasks, or a dedicated software such as Onestop ecommerce solutions, the benefit of which is to allow for prioritizing tasks, custom alerts, etc. In any case, having a to-do list allows you to utilize your resources to the maximum.
2. Remove distractions to concentrate better
Distractions are probably the number one thing that eats into your productivity. If at all possible, strive to remove them. This means no more checking your Facebook or Twitter feed when you should be working (at least not all the time). Instead, it’s better to work for an hour or two, then check the news feed as a means of rewarding oneself and taking a breather. Listening to music can also be a distraction in certain cases. Scientists have found that music with lyrics or spoken words can act as a distraction, while music without these elements can actually boost your level of concentration.
3. Multitasking will slow you down
Building upon the previous point, multitasking may sound great on paper because it allows you to handle more tasks at the same time, but it’s actually not great in terms of your productive output. Sure, you will be able to do more things at once, but you won’t accomplish as much in the same period of time. This is because every single time a person switches between tasks, the brain gets distracted and needs some readjusting. Furthermore, multitasking means you won’t be able to give your 100% attention to a particular task, and the quality of work is likely to suffer to some degree.
4. Have a dedicated room for work
This mostly applies to those who work from home, so if you’re living the corporate lifestyle, you can probably skip this paragraph. Anyway, the findings of psychologists indicate that we tend to associate certain places with certain activities. For example, in our heads, bedrooms and living rooms are typically associated with relaxation, and offices are associated with productivity. Try to avoid doing work in places where you usually relax (and vice-versa) and see how it affects your work-related output.
5. Make sure your working environment is not too hot or too cold
Apart from getting enough rest and not trying to work on an empty stomach, it’s important to take care of your working environment and making sure it has just the right temperature. If it’s too cold, put on some extra layers of clothing (or close the window if it’s open). If none of that is applicable, just exercise for 5 minutes; it will warm you up for sure. Being in a room that’s too hot is a bit more difficult to solve. If you have a laptop, try temporarily relocating it to a different place, or use any kind of cooling system (such as a fan, for example).
Conclusion
Productivity is directly linked to your monthly results, and the more you get done, the more you will earn. Hopefully, our tips have been of some use to you. Have you learned a new productivity strategy today? Then apply it as soon as possible, and the results are bound to follow!
Kidal Delonix is a contributor to Mr. Hoffman's blog. The views and opinions are entirely his/her own and may not reflect Mr Hoffman's views.
