How can I increase my productivity at work?
If you’re asking yourself this question, you’re not alone. Balancing work and life is not easy and many people feel that their productivity levels at work could be improved.
When I took my first job out of college, I was excited to finally feel like an adult.
I couldn’t wait to wake up early and dedicate a day’s worth of work to my new career.
As time went on and I started to get more acquainted with the difficulties of working in the real world and I realized that people often struggle to keep their day-to-day schedules and agenda items on track.
Even though I intended to be a busy bee and work my tail off, I sometimes found myself losing focus and going off course with my work. Not only did my lack of productivity frustrate me, it also made my work pile up as the weeks went on.
All of us could use some increased productivity from time to time, and if you’re one of those people struggling to get the work accomplished, perhaps you should test out some new habits to help you become more productive.
This is especially important for those of you who easily lose focus at work.
3 Ways to Increase Your Productivity at Work:
1. Check personal emails at home
Personal emails can take quite a while to check, so it’s best to check these kinds of emails before you get to work or after you get home from work.
Not only do they tend to distract you, they also make you overlook the work emails you should be paying attention to instead.
Think of it this way, with all that time and effort you’re spending checking your personal emails, your work emails are just sitting there in your inbox. Remember, your boss isn’t paying you to sit around reading emails from friends and family, so don’t take advantage of the ability to do so.
2. Leave your cell phone in your car
Whenever we receive a text on our phone, it’s in our nature to want to respond to it right away. We also can’t help but want to answer our phones when they starting ringing, buzzing, and beeping away.
A great way to avoid being distracted by your mobile device is to go ahead and leave it in your car. That way you’ll have your phone close by in case of an emergency, but you won’t have it sitting right next to you to fidget with all day. It’s a win-win situation.
3. Limit your web browsing to lunch time
Now I’m not going to be ridiculous and say that you should never access the web while you’re at work, but it’s important to know where to draw the line in checking things like Facebook, Twitter, CNN, and other miscellaneous websites.
I say a good rule of thumb is to limit your web-browsing time to whatever time you don’t use during your lunch break. That way you’ll know that your browsing will be kept to a minimum and that you’ll know when it’s time to get back on track.
4. Set aside time for being unproductive
Let’s face it: people are entitled to have some play time during the work day.
Yet, as I stressed in the point just before this, it is important to know where to draw the line.
If it’s vital for you to check your online banking statement, email your grandmother, or order a friend’s birthday present, that’s fine. Just have a time limit in place for all your non-work-related tasks and move on from them when that window of time is up.
Write out a list of all the required tasks you must get to each day and finish those up first. Leave your unproductive window of time for the end of the day so you won’t have to crunch everything in at the last minute.
It’s hard to stay focused on our jobs, especially when there are so many distractions floating around us at all hours of the day. If you’re struggling with productivity, perhaps you should try adopting some of these four habits into your work behavior.
