Are you wondering how to increase productivity at and achieve more of your goals? This article is for you.
Every day comes with 24 hours to navigate life and achieve your goals. Then, the 24 hours turns into 168 hours a week; which also transform into 720 hours in one month. Then you sit back and ask yourself, “What did I accomplish within this time?”
However, when you analyze the 24 hours you have each day, you realize that you have not been productive. You have not achieved anything meaningful; meaning that you didn’t use your time wisely. Thus, you wonder, how can you be more productive and accomplish your objectives?
You have two options to increase productivity instantly:
- You can increase productivity by working smarter or
- You can tackle your operations by working longer and harder
Understandably, you will choose the first option and work smarter; we all do. Nonetheless, it becomes especially impressive when you’re working from home. Thus, everyone, including the kids and your business blog, needs your attention.
Hence, how can you make things work for you so you can be productive and accomplish more?
In this article, you will learn practical steps you can apply today to boost productivity. Nevertheless, before we address the productivity hacks, let us define a few of the factors that affect productivity and why it is essential.
What Factors Affect Productivity?
Eight primary factors affect productivity. These are:
- Organizational elements
- Management
- Technical
- Personnel undertakings
- Government causes
- Production
- Financial situations
- Location factors
These eight components can negatively impact your productivity, resulting in the inability to accomplish your business goals. However, for the sake of this article, we will discuss each of the elements above in the next post.
In light of this;
Why Is Productivity so Important?
Productivity is so vital because it is a measure of the effectiveness of the workforce in terms of production. It includes the use of human resources, machinery, finance, and other mechanisms that help to transform input into profitable production.
Moreover, productivity is paramount because every organization or business wants to achieve its desired targets, that is where productivity comes in handy. It is an essential criterion in the performance of a business.
Put differently, The more productive your organization in providing consumer goods and services, the more profit you’ll make. In consequence, let define actionable tips to enhance your productivity.
Make a List and Prioritize Your Task in The Order of Importance to Increase Productivity
Listing and prioritizing your work in the order of importance will contribute significantly to improving your productivity. It will enable you to focus on what matters and tackle more vital tasks. In this way, you can strategize the order in which you will do your work.
Mind you; not all undertakings are equally essential. In other words, your priority list will help you define jobs that need your immediate attention and those you will tackle later. Hence, it will have the most crucial task at the top and help you plan to meet deadlines.
Thus, create a to-do list with the most vital tasks at the top of your list.
Improve Productivity by Delegating or Outsourcing Task Accordingly
To increase productivity in your business, you have to start delegating projects to team members or outsource your work to freelancers if you’re a one-person pioneer.
Delegating and or outsourcing is vital in becoming productive since you cannot possibly do everything alone. You are not an Island, so you need others to assist with the workload and help you achieve more.
Thus, you can use the best tools in the market to delegate your work. Some of the best tools you can use to delegate tasks are:
- Coschedule
- Asana
- Evernote
- Basecamp
- Google Drive
- Trello
These tools will enable you to work smarter and not harder. With these tools, you can assign work to team members and keep track of their progress. However, to outsource jobs to freelancers, here are some credible sites for this purpose:
- Freelancer
- Upwork
- Guru.com
- Problogger
- Freelance Writing Gigs
- Fiverr
Schedule Time for Planning to Boost Productivity
Scheduling, as you may know, is the ability to set aside time for planning your daily activities to enable you to prioritize what is essential and accomplish your goals. Think of your time as an indispensable resource. Your time is valuable, and you want to use to it wisely since you do not have it all.
In light of this, scheduling time for planning will aid you to understand what you can practically undertake with the time available to you. So, to tackle unproductivity issues, make sure to set aside time to plan before embarking on your projects.
Moreover, since planning is a process that demands a thorough exploration of available options, try not to become so involved in planning that you get trapped in it.
Furthermore, the good thing about planning is that it lets you look at your business differently. It enables you to think deeply about your business in ways you may not have considered. This process will assist you in establishing a sustainable marketing strategy that will readily boost your productivity.
Be Clear of Your Objectives and Define Your Productive Hours to Enhance Productivity
Being clear of your business goals helps you to make your priorities known to members of your team or employees of our company. In that way, it becomes easier for everyone involved to focus on achieving the objectives of your business; which could be to boost productivity and increase profitability.
Consequently, what are your goals? What do you want to accomplish? How can you be more productive and achieve your targets? Being clear of your objectives is a starting point to achieving your goals. It will allow you to put more efforts into your task and get more work done, thereby improve your productivity.
Also, you need to find the best times when you are more productive and leverage it. For example, I do extra work in the early hours of the morning; that is my best productivity time. But for others, it could be different. Therefore, define yours and align your work schedule with it accordingly.
However, you can use some of the tools mentioned above, including “Coschedule” to set your goals and define the best times when you’re more productive.
Do the Difficult Task First to Increase Productivity
The is a psychological attachment to why people prefer to do the difficult tasks first before attending to the easy ones. Thus, when you do the hard work first, the natural part becomes much easier to accomplish. On the other hand, if you choose to do the easy one first, the difficult task becomes even more complicated.
Therefore, it makes sense first to tackle those that are more challenging. Moreover, earlier above, I stated that I do more work during the early morning hours. Why is that so? It is because the mornings are the times when you tend to have focus and clarity. And when you have a discussion, you give more attention to what matters most.
That is why it is best to take care of the difficult task first. So, take a look at your to-do list and identify what needs to be done first and enlist the tasks ahead of the others. And when you start and complete the hard work first, you feel fulfilled with a sense of accomplishment.
Establish How Much Time You Spend on Projects and Set Time Limits
Several marketers, especially bloggers and freelancers who work from home may think that they can accurately quantify how much time they’re spending on different projects. But it is not easy, especially when you’re estimating time manually. However, why is it vital to track your time?
It is crucial because tracking the time you spend working on tasks is fundamental to understanding your productivity rate. It also helps you learn how much time you spend and how to prioritize it to be more productive.
A tool like Time Doctor will help you in this regard. It is an excellent time tracking software that allows users to track their work. The software does not only help you see the time you spend on a project, but it also monitors your team. Then it gives you useful data of which tasks your team worked on overtime.
Hence, after establishing the time you spend on different projects, set time limits for future undertaking to improve your productivity. Set a deadline and stick to it; it will improve your focus and more productive at work beyond your imagination.
Apply the Two-minute Rule to Increase Productivity
The 2–Minute Rule is essential in boosting productivity because it overcomes procrastination and laziness. It makes it easier to start taking bite-sized actionable steps to accomplish more work. And when I say bite-sized steps, I’m referring to projects that can take you two minutes or less to complete.
Applying this tactic will let you make use of small amounts of available time to get more work done. It means that any task that will take you 2-minutes or less to do don’t keep it for later. Do it right away.
Wrapping Up
Increasing your productivity can make a huge difference in your business and life. It will enable you to do more tasks without stress. Consequently, you will achieve more from your efforts, thereby allowing you the much needed time to enjoy and focus on other vital matters.
However, although there are several ways to boost productivity and accomplish more, the tips outlined above are no-fail ways to be productive. Apply them and tell us about it.