GET THE MOST OUT OF YOUR DAY AND INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY
Productivity is described?as ‘the effectiveness of productive effort’ especially in industry, as measured in terms of the rate of output per unit of input’ and is vital to ensuring success in the workplace.
Learning to improve your productivity can increase your overall performance and reputation, as well as setting you up for higher career progression and increase earning potential.
Prioritise Your Tasks
When it comes to productivity there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution, and everybody works in different ways and finds various approaches to problems beneficial. However, there are some tried and tested tactics that you can implement to help you get the most out of your day.?I still use old school lists, and stay disciplined to this daily but use a time management tool to prioritise the task.
Time and Resource Management
In order to prioritise effectively, you will need to understand the difference between ‘urgent’ and ‘important’. Many people believe they are working on tasks which are important when they are actually working on tasks that feel urgent but are not actually contributing to their productiveness.?Managing your time, talent & Energy is the key to effective and efficient productivity, one tool I use is the Eisenhower matrix.
What is the Eisenhower Matrix?
The Eisenhower Matrix is a time and resource management system. It helps you see which tasks are top priority, and which can wait, using company goals, and personal targets as the filter.
It helps you to make decisions, delegate, schedule and put tasks aside, making a workload more manageable and focused.
Why is the Eisenhower Matrix effective?
The core benefit of the Eisenhower Matrix is that it saves time, keeps your talent focused on their skillset, and retains their energy for important and relevant tasks.
In 2020, managers struggled with?the onset of the pandemic and the time management for remote workers. As teams were split up for months at a time, covering furlough, working long hours, time was scarce and talented people were stretched and their energy eroded.
Remote workers felt unable to switch off, as bosses increasingly interrupted non-working hours, as knowing employees rarely left the house, and many felt increasingly lucky to have any work at all. Very few managers were used to managing and trusting this working scenario. The personal effects now known were pretty damaging as well as seeing the flipside benefits to well managed hybrid and remote working for certain roles.
The Eisenhower Matrix can help you tackle some of these issues.
By focusing on what really matters is the root of everything to managing your time well. It helps you avoid the trivia that inevitably comes along.
Some people can filter and prioritise naturally, but some need a tool to act as that external filter. The Eisenhower does this perfectly…..
The Eisenhower method is a popular way to understand the importance and urgency of tasks. It consists of four quadrants based on a range of reactiveness and responsiveness scales; you will need to understand where tasks fit in this matrix in order to prioritise effectively.
This method will support planning and scheduling strategic time each day and continue to track your time to ensure you are using it productively.
?? Quadrant 1 - Urgent & Important
If a task is both urgent and important, it falls into the first quadrant, ‘do’.
They are tasks with two critical characteristics:
Understanding the demands and capabilities of tasks that require urgent action and completion to prevent fire-fighting. If the workload is falling overwhelmingly in quadrant one (do), that’s quite a stressful space to exist in.
领英推荐
?? Tip -To ease the pressure, you can: Spend time planning the workload. Review where the work comes from and Plan for problems.
?? Quadrant 2 - Important but not urgent
If a task is important, but not urgent, it falls into the schedule stage. This means you have more time to do it. These tasks can be scheduled for your attention later.
You can identify scheduled tasks because:
The tasks in quadrant two (schedule), are usually relevant and important for your overarching business goals. The lack of a deadline means they can be put off, indefinitely and be trampled on by quadrant one.
?? Tip – Look to assign dates to these tasks if you can.
?? Quadrant 3 – Urgent but not important
If there’s an immediate need for a task, but it’s not a task relevant to your role, or you don’t have the skills to do it, it falls into the delegate stage. This means it can be delegated by you.
Blanket rule – if it’s outside of your skillset, but it needs doing right now, hand it with priority to someone with the right skills and abilities.
?? Tip – Ploughing on, regardless, means you’re not strategically aligned with the goals of your team and the company. You’re stifling team effectiveness and from providing true value to your organisation and your people.
?? Quadrant 4 – Not urgent but not important
These tasks don’t help you reach your goals and have no deadline.
These fall into the ‘delete’ category. You don’t have to do them unless your manager encourages you to, and that’s the end of it.
There is a tricky element to the delete quadrant. You need to learn to say ‘no’ to tasks, first to yourself and then to others.
?? Tip – Do not let you or others distract you. Do not let others define your priority.
Take Care of You
Give yourself the best chance of achieving your full potential by maintaining a healthy lifestyle. British entrepreneur?Sir Richard Branson?swears by exercise as the secret to maximum productivity throughout the day. Aim to get 7-9 hours per night), exercise regularly, even if it’s just a short walk in your lunch break,?and keep up a healthy diet. *You will be surprised of the benefits.
Not looking after yourself properly will negatively affect your concentration and productivity, along with increasing your chances of facing a burn out.?Always ensure to block time for self-care and help reduce the impact work may have on both your mental and physical health.
Times are changing, especially with the impact of the pandemic, so adjusting to the new world of work is vital.?