5 simple productivity tips

Too much work and not enough time? Here are five simple productivity tips you can start doing today.

Switch to airplane mode

Now, of course, you can’t do this all the time. But, there are enormous benefits to be had by banishing your notifications, if only for a few hours. And it’s not just your phone. Look at your schedule at the beginning of the week and chose a day, or half-day, two hours, or whatever you can spare – to cut yourself off from distractions. That means restricted internet, no email, no texts, and no phone calls. 

Studies suggest that it takes, on average, 23 minutes to get back on track from a distraction, so spend just a little time without any and watch your productivity skyrocket!

Just get it done

Now this may seem controversial to many, but I am going to say it: sometimes, done is better than perfect. 

Yes, we should all strive to do the best work we can, and it’s fair to say that with enough time, a lot of work could be improved – but that’s exactly it, we don’t always have the time. 

There must come a point during a task when you weigh up how much you are bettering a piece of work in correlation to the time it is taking. If you’ve just spent two hours changing the colour palette in a PowerPoint deck, move on, there are many more important tasks that require your attention!

Sleep!

Not on the job, obviously, but the night before. Our quality of sleep has an enormous impact on our productivity levels. In fact, lack of sleep has been shown to have the same impact on cognitive function as being over the drink-drive limit – impairing memory function, blurring judgement and increasing stress levels. So when you go to bed tonight, turn off the iPad, banish the nighttime book and get some zzzzzz.

No more meetings…

…well only for one day a week. Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz introduced “No Meeting Wednesdays” to his startup company Asana, and calls it “an invaluable tool” when it comes to productivity. Imposing a company-wide ban on meetings, just for one day a week, helps to make sure that everybody from managers and directors to customer service and sales reps have a least one day in the diary that is entirely free from scheduled commitments. 

Save the best ‘til last

This one is really simple – draw up your list of tasks for the day or week and prioritise them in order of the ones you want to do the least. Then simply strap in and plough through your to-do list.

Doing your least favourable tasks first, cuts down on procrastination and helps to alleviate stress at the end of the working day or week, as the only tasks left to do are ones that you consider to be either easy or enjoyable.