Does this sound familiar? You arrive at the office at 9 O'clock on a Monday. By 9.15 you're already drowning in to-do lists, being bombarded by emails and your calendar is full to bursting with meetings and follow-up meetings. At the end of the day, your brain feels like it's been fried like an egg and you need a little lie-down.
We can all agree that productivity is important, but it shouldn't come at the cost of your mental wellbeing. Since today is World Productivity Day, here are 5 tips to help you improve your productivity without sacrificing your sanity!
Although it seems counterintuitive, taking regular breaks can actually increase your productivity. Regularly resting your mind for a few minutes at a time throughout the day can help prevent mental fatigue and becoming overwhelmed by stress and anxiety. This could be taking a tea break, chatting with a co-worker, or going for a walk in the fresh air. Taking breaks helps to refresh your mind, and improve mental clarity and cognitive function, which leads to increased productivity levels and producing a better quality of work.
Planning out your day the night before allows you to make the most of your time. Find what works for you; some people like to use time blocking which involves scheduling tasks at particular times whilst others may prefer a more flexible approach. A to-do list is vital to planning your daily activities and an effective technique to prioritise your tasks is the 1-3-5 rule. This involves selecting one big thing you need to accomplish, 3 medium things, and 5 little things. This can also include embracing great project management methodologies like Prince2. No matter what tools and techniques you use, it is useful to visualise your day and break it down into manageable tasks and activities.
The ability to focus is vital to maximising your productivity. Even though you may feel busy and productive when multi-tasking, you can actually suffer from increased mental fatigue when ‘context switching’ too frequently. Context switching refers to when we switch between unrelated tasks, projects, or topics. According to Work Life, ‘45% of people say context-switching makes them less productive’. Therefore, focusing on one activity at a time allows you to accomplish more and importantly take care of your mental wellbeing.
Many hands make light work. Delegating and sharing tasks between a team can help you accomplish goals and complete projects at a faster rate than working on them solo. You could potentially save time by asking your colleagues for help and guidance rather than struggling through a difficult task on your own. A digital platform such as Microsoft Teams can aid communication between colleagues and foster a collaborative environment so you can accomplish more as a team.
There are countless digital tools and habit tracker apps that help you manage your time, improve productivity and keep track of tasks. For instance, the Microsoft 365 Outlook calendar allows you to time-block your schedule and can send you push notifications, so you’ll never miss that important meeting or upcoming deadline. Also, your business as a whole can improve its productivity by using Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software, such as Sage 200 or Microsoft Business Central. Save time and manage day-to-day business activities related to accounting, HR, project management, sales, supply chain management and much more.
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