If you are constantly trying to determine the right thing to do, your productivity can be severely hampered. You are forever stopping and starting. This failure to gain momentum can easily lead to you spending more time determining the correct course of action than you spend carrying out the action. Some people even use their desire to determine the best course of action as an excuse to procrastinate. They claim that they need time to decide before they can begin. In terms of time management and productivity, indecisiveness is a silent killer. Productivity habits are an excellent way to overcome this problem. When you have a good set of productivity habits available to you; you may not know the very best option available to you but you will be able to determine an effective course of action and begin the task. You know that you can make any necessary adjustments as you go along.
Habits are intended to make life easier by reducing the amount of thinking that you have to do. Consider when you are driving a car; how many things you do without thinking about it – from slight adjustments in direction to minor adjustments in speed. The more experienced you become at driving, the less you have to think about driving. This is known as unconscious competence. If you had to think about every little action that you take while driving, your brain would tire very quickly. The same is true in life. By developing effective productivity habits, you cut down the thinking you have to do when faced with minor tasks, thus saving your energy for the important tasks.
9 Productivity habits to boost your performance
The following productivity habits will enable you to save a great deal of time on a daily basis. Developing, and mastering, these productivity habits takes a small amount of effort but reaps significant rewards.
1. Focus on importance
Many people advise that you start with the most difficult task of the day so that you can get it out of the way. Others recommend that you start with your easiest task and ease your way into the day. I disagree with both approaches. What is the point of completing either of those tasks if they are not important? It’s just wasted time and energy.
If you always focus on completing the most important task that you can complete at the time, with the resources available, you will always be on top of your productivity. Productivity habits are not just about getting more done; they are about getting more of the important stuff done. That is why your productivity improvements should begin with focusing on importance.
2. Choose the right time
Energy levels have peaks and troughs. There will be times during the day when you feel like you could take on the world and at other times, every task will seem like unnecessarily hard work. Spend a week noting your energy levels every half-hour. At the end of the week, you will have a far better idea of the times of day when your energy levels are highest. You can schedule important tasks for these times and less important tasks for times when energy levels are low. Arranging your tasks like this will greatly increase your productivity levels.
3. Dump it
Identify the tasks which do not need to be done and dump them. There are almost always tasks which people perform, which are not necessary. For every task you perform, ask what value it adds. If it does not add any value, get rid of it. The same approach applies to mail; physical or email. If it is of no use, bin it or delete it. Holding onto stuff which is no longer necessary clogs up your productivity system. One of the most important productivity habits which you can develop is to eliminate things which no longer serve a purpose, at the earliest opportunity.
4. Have a plan
Before you go to bed, devise a quick plan for the next day. Review your task lists and identify the most important tasks you need to complete and the resources you are going to need. Prepare everything before you go to bed. That way, when you arise the next morning, you can hit the ground running. Should an emergency occur and you are set off course, your plan will allow you to get back on track at the earliest opportunity.
5. Communication free periods
Communication can be one of the biggest obstacles to productivity. While communication is essential for helping you to achieve more through working with others; excessive communication can stop you from focusing on your most important tasks. It is important that you remember that you do not have to be contactable, 24 hours per day. When you want to focus on your most important tasks; turn of all phones and communication devices. Close your email account and, if you have an office, put a sign on the door warning that you are not to be disturbed.
Some people find this very difficult to do but when you are allowed to focus solely on your important tasks, you can complete them quicker. Once they are complete, you can then make yourself available for communication again. It may help others to accept your need for privacy if you notify them of when you expect to be available again e.g. via out of office reply on email, voicemail on your phone or via the sign on your door.
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6. Batching
The ability to maintain focus is one of the most important productivity habits. When you are constantly switching focus between tasks, you have to readjust your focus constantly e.g. have you ever tried to hold 2 or more conversations at the same time? You cannot do it effectively. People seem to think that they can multi-task but in reality it is not possible to multi-task. What you are really doing is rapidly refocusing from task to task. The problem is that most people cannot do this effectively. Every time they switch task, it takes them a couple of minutes to get back in the flow. If you add up these couple of minutes during the course of a day, you will see that there is a great deal of time lost.
A more effective approach is to batch your tasks and complete them all at once e.g. when you are paying invoices, you can set one time during the week for doing so. Whenever an invoice is received, it can be added to your file of invoices. Then when the time comes each week, you take out the file and pay all of the invoices in one go.
7. Use a timer
There are some activities which can really eat up your time. They will be different activities for different people e.g. email, social media, surfing the internet etc. For these tasks, it can be a very good idea to use a timer. If you have a Facebook page for your business, you may decide that you are going to spend 15 minutes per day working on that page. When you log onto Facebook, you can set the timer for 15 minutes and start working. When the 15 minutes is up, the alarm sounds, and you log off of Facebook. Limiting your time forces you to be more productive.
Timers can also be useful when you are trying to implement new productivity habits. You might decide that you work best when you work flat out for 30 minutes, take a 5 minute break, then work flat out for another 30 minutes. If you are trying to condition yourself to work in a manner like this, a timer is a great tool to help you.
8. Have targets
There are many mundane tasks which must be done. You may not like doing them but they are an essential part of your job. These tasks vary from job to job. With these types of tasks, you may have to devise an alternative way of handling them. One such way can be the use of targets. Targets are one of the oldest productivity habits but they are still effective. Some of the tasks they work well with include sending sales letters, making cold calls etc.
For example, you could determine how many sales you need to make per month to hit your income target. If you know your conversion percentage (number of calls required to make a sale) you can quickly work out how many calls you will need to make each month. You can then break that into the number of calls you will need to make each working day. That will be your target for the day. When you sit down to make your calls, you tell yourself ‘I am not moving until I have made X number of calls’. This approach will help you to develop self-discipline and, by making the required number of calls you will reduce the amount of pressure that you experience towards the end of the month.
9. Delegate/outsource
Identify the tasks which you are completing, which would be more appropriate for others to complete i.e. they do not really fit in your job remit. These jobs are best handed off to somebody more suitable as they are not the best use of your time. Somebody more suitable will be able to do the job quicker and to a higher standard; allowing you to focus on the tasks which you are best suited to.
One of the most important productivity habits is to know your strengths and play to them. Delegation and outsourcing are essential in allowing you to do this. The person to whom you assign the task may be part of your organisation or may be outside of your organisation. Either way, the most important thing is that they will be able to do the job as good, or to a higher standard as you, freeing up your time. As an example, I outsource the creation of all of my advertising banners. It is not something which I am good at and it allows me to focus on creating the products.
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Implement these productivity habits into your life and you’ll find yourself getting more done in less time. The ultimate purpose of productivity habits is to be able to focus on your most important tasks while ensuring that everything that you have agreed to do gets done. It is very easy to waste a lot of time thinking about the best way to do things and how to fit tasks into your schedule. Many people seem to confuse thinking and doing and use thinking as an excuse for procrastination. The productivity habits, above, will not solve all of your problems but they will help you to stay focused on what is important and keep moving towards your objectives.
Image credit: Paul Prawdiuk