If you are anything like me you probably have more things to do each day than hours to do them in. So the question is: what quick and easy things can you do to help YOU be as productive as possible?
- Create a stop doing list! Find one thing a day you or your team members should stop doing. Think about low value or unnecessary tasks that take up energy and resources. Make it a team challenge to spot 5 per week.
- Do it NOW! This is so simple and surprisingly effective. If it takes less than 2 minutes to do, action it straight away. This keeps your to do list short and helps you clear some valuable brain space for more important activities.
- Be time aware. Give yourself a time limit for everything and stick to it. i.e. take 3 minutes to reply to that email…finish your meeting in 15 minutes…take 20 minutess to complete that customer’s quote.
- Eliminate distractions. Have something complicated to do? Close your email down, put your phone on voice mail and tell everyone in the office that you’re not available for the next 30 minutes. Being disrupted when you are in \’the zone\’ sets you back and could lead to procrastination.
- Learn to say NO or at least NOT NOW. Stop yourself from immediately jumping in and reacting when ‘urgent’ things come up. Always ask yourself – ‘does this really (I mean really) need to be sorted out right at this moment or could it wait 30 minutes or 60 minutes or 3 days?’
