How to Increase Productivity in Six Steps

Improving productivity always begins with knowing exactly what it is you want to accomplish. This of course means setting some concrete goals that will help you stay focused throughout the day. These goals must however be important and meaningful. They must encourage you to work with purpose, urgency and passion. With this in mind, figure out exactly what it is you are working toward and the important reasons why you are pursuing these goals in the first place. Now put your goals into writing and place that piece of paper next to your work desk. This will help you to stay focused on the prize.

Have you ever reached the end of your workday and wondered where on earth your time has gone? There was of course a lot of promise at the start of the day. You had a fantastic plan in place, but for one reason or another, you’re kind of now struggling to figure out how you didn’t manage to get things done. You’re clueless because you weren’t consciously aware, of how you’ve been spending your time. With this in mind, commit yourself to conducting a time audit of how you spend your time over the course of a week. This will help you to pinpoint where improvements can potentially be made.

Having conducted a time audit, you now know exactly how you’re spending your time and where it’s potentially all going down the drain. You now at least have the clarity you need to figure things out. Specifically, you need to figure out how you can potentially utilize your time more efficiently throughout the day. The goal is of course to get more done, and the only means of getting more done is by thinking smarter about the way you go about your work activities. In particular, you must figure out what’s most important and then find time to work on only those things. Eliminate, delegate and outsource everything else.

At this stage, it’s of course very easy to get a little overexcited about all these changes you will be making to your work schedule and routine. However, this is where you need to throw a little caution to the wind. Making too many changes too quickly could potentially derail your productive intentions. You need a period of adjustment where you can slowly build momentum over time. To guide yourself through this period, it’s important to figure out how you will make these changes, and then acquire the relevant support, tools and resources you need to help you make this transition successfully.

Having outlined the changes you will make, it’s now time to draw up a plan of action for bringing those changes to reality. But what makes up a solid plan of action for improving productivity? Well, most importantly it must help you visualize an optimal path for getting things done. This essentially means outlining exactly what you will do, what you will avoid doing, and how you will adapt when unexpected circumstances arise. Moreover, it means figuring out how to do things move efficiently throughout the day. In other words, don’t just accept how things are. Challenge yourself to do things better.

Remember that time when you got sidetracked and subsequently missed your deadline? Well, that actually happens to the best of us, but it really shouldn’t happen at all; not when you review your progress regularly. Conducting weekly review sessions will help you to stay on track and on target moving toward your goal. These sessions will help you figure out, what you’ve accomplished, what you’ve failed to accomplish, what’s working for you, what’s not working, and the potential adjustments you can make that can help improve your productivity and get you better results.