7 Changes For Higher Productivity

Keeping your focus can be quite the task and as much as you don’t want to admit it, you love distractions. It turns out there really aren’t any secret tricks to staying more focused, but it’s certainly easier said than done.

I spoke with Tony Wong, a project management blackbelt and an expert in keeping people on task, so I thought he would be a good person to ask for some tips on staying productive.

Here are a few of his tips for staying productive:

1. Work backwards. When you break down work into smaller chunks it makes it easier to designate the specific tasks necessary to complete the overall goal. Simply writing down “launch the company website” on your to-do list isn’t the most effective strategy.

2. Stop multi-tasking. Switching quickly from task to task does not work. Studies shows that changing tasks quickly makes you dumber than being stoned. This means that your IQ drops by five points. Your IQ while multitasking could even drop 10 points, 15 for men, five for women. This means that men are three times as bad at multi-tasking than women.

3. Eliminate distractions. Make a point to shut out whatever it takes to get you to focus. This means locking your door, shutting off your phone, or even turning off the Internet connection. Go to a quiet area and remain there until your task is complete.

4. Check your email on a schedule.  Checking your email constantly only lowers productivity. Set two or three times during the day that you plan to check and send emails.

5. Use the phone. Email conversations seem to slowly be eliminating the normality of a phone call. Don’t reply more than twice to an email. Pick up the phone instead.

6. Create an agenda. Most people dive head-first into their day, which often leads to panicking as they read through their emails. This accomplishes nothing. After you wake up, drink water so you rehydrate, eat a good breakfast, then set prioritized goals for the rest of your day.

7. Work in intervals. It’s important to recharge throughout the day. Get up, go for a walk, have a snack, do something completely different to recharge.

(Photo: Courtesy ofRennett Stowe, Flickr)