When you’re sitting at your desk in the office (or at your cool in-home office), what day do you find yourself struggling to be productive? What time of the day do you find yourself getting the most distracted, resulting in a decrease in your productivity level? I’m not afraid to admit that Monday is my worst day to be productive (I blame the eternal weekend we’re all working for), and I find that once I eat lunch I have a really hard time staying focused. Anyone from 123Print reading this, or at our parent company Taylor Corp., I swear I get all my work done. Scout’s honor!
The fact of the matter is that we’re all human. We can’t all be at our best 8, 9, 10 hours a day every single day. We’d burn out so fast! So, accept the fact that there are going to be certain days and certain times where the littlest things distract you (right now I see a cobweb floating in what appears to be mid-air and man is it distracting), there are going to be times where Facebook is screaming at you to be checked and you’re going to run the risk of not getting everything done that you had set out to do. Sounds like a problem right? It’s not! The key is to learn tips and ways to stay on task, to make sure these things don’t become a problem. Basically, how can you give your brain a jumpstart when you start feeling yourself losing focus? Try out some of these ideas to help stay on task. I’ll start trying them as well!
1.) Map out your priorities. Makes lists. Every morning, give yourself 5-10 minutes to figure out what you should be working on and accomplishing that day or that week. Don’t get stuck on a single task at hand. Think about the bigger picture. Having your “eye on the prize,” so to speak, will help you move from project to project more efficiently. You’ll have a bigger goal to reach and not just “get tasks A, B and C done.”
2.) Figure out what hours of the day you’re at your best. If you’re the freshest and find you can concentrate more when you first get into the office, tackle the projects that require the most brain power then. Personally, knowing I’ve gotten something big done first thing in the morning helps motivate me to accomplish the smaller tasks later on in the day.
3.) Don’t be afraid to take a break. Sooner or later, after hours of plowing through your work, you’re going to start to feel frazzled causing your work to suffer. Stop what you’re doing, get up and do something else. Maybe go for a walk outside, surf the internet for 10 minutes, hell play a few quick rounds of Angry Birds on your phone (just don’t get sucked in!). Finding the right short, mindless escape will help give you more energy, patience, perspective and allow you start the next task/project more refreshed than you were.
4.) De-clutter your workspace. Productivity can be dramatically reduced if you constantly have to dig through a bunch of papers, napkins or trash just to find a pen or a Post-it® Note with an important phone number on it. Your entire focus will be shifted and you may find it difficult to get back into the swing of things. On a semi-related note, if you work from home keep your office out of sight from your bedroom. Don’t allow yourself to be tempted to go to your bedroom to nap or straighten up, and don’t allow yourself to get up from bed after a full work day and head back to the office. This leads us to the next tip…
5.) Stay healthy and relax. Keep a healthy diet and lifestyle. Let off stress by going to the gym. Don’t worry or stress about the little things. If you do these things, you’ll find you’re feeling more positive, which can and will result in a greater sense of productivity.
6.) Skip some meetings. If you’re anything like me, the thought of a meeting makes you want to whine and stomp your feet. However, the thought of skipping a meeting makes you feel guilty. This needs to stop. Meetings are time consuming. Focus on finding new and effective ways to solicit ideas, makes decisions and have discussions without calling five one hour long meetings.
7.) Stop trying to multi-task. There is no way you can get anything done if you’re trying to do a million things at once. Trying to do more than one thing at a time pulls your attention in all different ways. Things are bound to get overlooked or not done properly. Focus on one essential task at a time!
8.) Don’t be afraid to say “No.” This is probably one of the hardest things to do. Yes, as a good employee you want to finish everything given and assigned to you. As a good employee, it is also your responsibility to tell your manager when you are overloaded. If you’re feeling overwhelmed with your workload, the work itself may actually suffer, as will your productivity. Maybe you’ll procrastinate more because the idea of having to accomplish this huge mound of work is daunting and exhausting and you just can’t imagine tackling it. Avoid getting into this situation.