Are you still spending work hours without getting ahead in your main tasks? Maybe it’s time to change your way of working
When it comes to work, it is not a matter of quantity, but of quality. The important thing is to be as productive as possible during the workday.
Start by avoiding the following situations in your work hours.
The planning and the relevant breaks are essential to improve our productivity.
The situation is repeated often: you arrive at the office to face a work day, after several hours of dedication, you feel that you have not yet focused on your main tasks and that your journey is not going to be as profitable as you thought .
We think that sacrificing more hours to work will solve this problem, but the solution is much simpler, since everything is based on learning to manage time better.
To start modifying your habits and get more productive, it is best to start with what we should NOT do. These are some of the things we should avoid:
1. Knowing how to say NO
It is the advice that Steve Jobs always gave.
If you say “no” to irrelevant things every day, you can spend more time on the work that really matters.
2. Meetings, the jousts
We tend to do extensive meetings, but without a clear objective and it is something that we must finish with.
The meetings should be short, with the necessary professionals and with a clear objective.
It is important that a leadership or decision-maker be present at the meeting, so that the meeting serves to advance the work or project.
3. Material for meetings
Many companies prohibit their employees from presenting to PowerPoint at meetings. First, because performing them usually takes valuable time, and second, because they usually collect irrelevant information that can be omitted.
It is clear that, for the effectiveness of the visual material, its design must be concise and with the relevant information.
4. Less reports and more decisions
A good distribution of tasks also involves applying for work philosophies that give more autonomy and power to employees, especially middle management.
There are companies that ask for their workers, instead of presenting extensive reports with proposals, to make short-term decisions and carry them out.
Obviously, the first step will always be to communicate it to the superior and obtain his permission or opinion.
In this way the execution will be faster, the workers will feel more empowered and the boss will be aware and will be able to supervise the actions, without going through a long and slow process.
5. Manage your emails
Emails are our favorite tool, but also the great enemy of productivity.
Dedicate a specific time to review and respond to emails that you consider urgent.
A good organization of the emails in folders, by clients or projects, will also facilitate the daily task.
6. Plan
Every workday has to begin with an exhaustive planning of the tasks to be fulfilled.
In this way, we will mark the priority actions, we will be able to evaluate the progress and rectify before any unforeseen event.
Having in mind the work plan will make us more effective and decisive.
