How to Be More Productive at Work

(Video: How to Be More Productive at Work)

Ah work! The struggle to get things done is causing you to pull your head out and stress-eat until you notice the little pot-belly hanging fruit below. Now don’t go all monkey ape ba-na-na just yet.

If you are having trouble with productivity at work, fear not! Here are 5 practical action-fast strategies to how to be more productive at work.

1. Break Things Up and Downsize to Simplify.

This is the easier than you think. Don’t look at it as one giant task, instead different small parts making up that one task. Incremental progression is the aim here. With the amount of time you have, allocate the amount of time you think you need to complete each separate part. This is setting up a game plan to guide you through and keep you on track.

2. Create an Imaginary Boss.

In this day and age, employees can do whatever they’re doing in the office anywhere with a computer, but the office hours are still mandatory. Why? We tend to be lazy when we get too comfortable. Try comparing working at home in your pajamas TO at the office in a suit with everybody watching you. Which one do you think yields the more productive day? Exactly. You may not have a boss who is constantly monitoring you, but pretend to have an imaginary boss always looking over your shoulder. Think of it like having a gun pointed at you to get things done. How’s that for motivational productivity?!

3. Get Creative and Make It Fun.

So many times, we live in this inactive zombie-like state of mind to what we’re doing the task – being there, without being there – and only going with the flow to slide by. The end results? Poor work INPUT that yields poor result OUTPUT. Don’t be like that. Make it fun and enjoyable. There are many ways to do this. For example, either get somebody else involved to make it a conjoined team effort, or, like rewarding a kid for good behavior, implement an reward system for yourself for each and every progression you make, not matter how trivial that may be.

4. Set Micro-Miniature Deadlines.

Have you notice how you tend to work the most work done when you have a strict deadline? You hasten and don’t stop like you’re a mission. Well, do the same thing here. Use a some sort of stopwatch. Ask yourself, how fast can you get this done in under 5 minutes, or if you really want to take it to the next level, 1 minute. Think of it like a video game where you have to beat this level in under a minute. This will increase your speed and alert, like you just took a shot of Red Bull (believe it or not Red Bull is still far more effective than 5-Hour Energy 🙂).

5. Just Get It Done.

As the famous Nike’s slogan says, “Just Do It.” Accept imperfection. Perfectionism is your worst critic. It’s that little voice in your head telling you it’s not good enough, and it has to be perfect This is what stops people from ever completing anything. Just get it done, then worry about going back and perfect it later. Microsoft is well-known for doing this, releasing their operating system, then getting all the critical feedback to improve it. Don’t be your own critic; leave that job to other people. Always be striving for continuous improvement, or Kaizen.

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There you have it; 5 simple things you can do right now to make you more productive at work; and if you’re reading this work, what are you waiting for? Hop to it now whatever it is you need to be doing.

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