If you permanently have that Monday feeling where work is dragging in and you are less productive than ever, you need to revamp your working lifestyle and come up with ways to improve you productivity at work. These seven handy tips will help you improve your working rate, and hopefully your overall working morale.
1. Use tracking software and limit time spent on tasks
Give yourself the challenge of writing that blog post in forty minutes, or having all of your emails completed by 9.45pm. Limiting yourself to time blocks per task will push you to work harder and within the time limits. Websites such as Toggl will help give you this drive for productivity at work and allow you to determine how much time you need or take for a task.
2. Suggest you have your meeting standing up
Studies have shown that deciding to have a meeting standing up will lift spirits, change the group dynamic and will lead to decisions being made more efficiently and quickly. This means less time spent on the meetings, and you have had time to give your legs a break and a stretch.
3. Write or mentally create a to do list during your commute
Coming into work without a strict plan of things you need to do that day means time wasted in the morning planning your daily actions. Even by mentally organising this en route to work you can minimise time spent planning and maximise time spent doing.
4. Take breaks as regularly as you can
Although the pressure is always there to get jobs done, it is important to take breaks. Doing 90 minutes of work with 5-10 minute intervals will lead to higher productivity as you are breaking up the work in order to not let it become monotonous or boring.
5. Try to stop multitasking
Multitasking is sometimes quicker, but often it just leads to things taking longer and deadlines not being met. Give yourself strict deadlines for each task and complete them individually to allow you to focus on the task and get each thing done quicker.
6. Get rid of any distractions you might have
Mobile phones and social media are horrible for your productivity at work (unless you are a social media manager). Either turn them off, or have them face down with the sound off, so that you are not tempted to have a scroll through Instagram instead of getting on with the task at hand. Allocate yourself time throughout the day to take breaks as mentioned previously, when you can reply to friends or family and so on.
7. Minimise distractions as much as possible
To the best of your ability, try to get rid of distractions from your colleagues and so on. Stopping to chat about the latest office drama for two minutes might not seem too damaging but it will affect your productivity for the time period following. Try not to let getting a coffee turn into a group chat when you should be completing your current task.
