Productivity Hacks for Procurement

Reaching optimum productivity in Procurement can be an impossible goal to achieve.

We want to get as much done whilst we're in the office during the workday, but can get sidetracked by ‘urgent’ issues that arise.

It's not easy to focus given the many conflicting demands that we have.

Here are seven reminders to help you get more done:

1. Send less email! Email is a massive time killer and the more email you send, the more email you will receive. Pick a time to email and only do email during this time. Use instant messenger to communicate quickly with someone. Avoid CCing big group of people to be mindful of their time, hopefully they will show you the same courtesy!
2. Pick up the phone or go see someone instead. Use your network to cut through issues by talking to the right person to get things done - unblocking a project, providing information etc. Face-to-face time helps you build relationships and saves time on drafting emails and dealing with the inevitable misunderstandings.
3. Time blocking helps to provide focus on a specific task at a time of day. Context switching takes mental effort which means you're less productive, less able to concentrate, produce a lower quality of work and become increasingly stressed.
4. Prioritise your work. Make sure you block time to work on your rocks - the most strategic, high-value work, that which is most important to your stakeholders. Use self-service to help stakeholders help themselves with low value, low risk work. By systemising this process, you're able to retain visibility whilst freeing up the time previously served on these activities (and it's surprising just how much time this is).
5. Remove all regular recurring meetings from your calendar and prioritise only the most important. Try running 15 minute meetings. See if an instant message exchange can help solve issues without a meeting. In meetings, make sure that you have a clear purpose and outcome for the meeting as well as the process by which you will meet your objective.
6. Set clear and realistic deadlines. Agree realistic deadlines with stakeholders which are challenging but achievable. Don't put additional stress upon yourself by making deadlines unachievable. Think through everything you need to do to achieve an outcome and look to involve those best placed to complete an activity if that's not you.
7. Avoid perfection. Perfection is the enemy of progress. Often we make decisions with incomplete information. Similarly, the work that we do cannot always be 100% perfect - it can often be better to get something 80% there and sent rather than 100% there and late.

How do you ensure that you are getting the most done?