1. Track where you waste time. The first step in becoming more productive is to identify your regular time-sucks. Track how you spend your time during the day and look for patterns. Maybe you’ll find you’re getting caught up on social media or checking news updates too often. Or that you are wasting time with colleagues or in meetings. Once you know where your time goes, you can manage it more efficiently.
2. Build habits to help you start working. Getting started seems to be a hurdle for most of us. One way to overcome this problem is building a routine that tells your brain and body it’s time to work. Routines are a sign of people who have goals and have found the best way to actually accomplish their goals. Your routine could be something as simple as grabbing a coffee at the same place on the way to work. Once the coffee is finished, that’s your cut-off point and trigger to start working. You could even have a short playlist that gets you in the mood to work, so listen to that as part of your routine. But remember as soon as its done – it’s time to work!
3. Measure your results, not your time. Work smarter not longer. One way to do this is to adjust the way you measure productivity. Focus on measuring by results, not by time on task, and you’ll definitely get more done. Another way to measure what you get done each day is to keep a “done list,” which is a running log of everything you complete in a day. If you start keeping a list of everything you get done in a day, you might be surprised how much more motivated you are to do work that matters and stay focused, so you can check things off your list.
4. Make work fun. People are naturally more productive when they are enjoying what they are doing. Enrich your office space by adding color. Science had proven that color greatly affects peoples’ moods which in turn affects productivity. Use MoodClue neon markers on office whiteboards to brighten up presentations. Put up photos of a happy colorful time around your work space. Have a coffee cup or water bottle that makes you happy. Bright colors are key to productivity.
5. Rework your to-do list. One of the most counterintuitive but effective methods for increasing productivity is to limit how many items are on your to-do list. Write your list the night before and have no more than 5 things on your to do list. Have them be the most important 5 things that you need to accomplish and do them before turning to any other tasks. By prioritizing the essential tasks, you ensure that you get to leave the office on-time and guilt-free. Don’t forget to write tomorrows list however before you leave!