Productivity

Did you know 28% of your working week is lost to task switching, procrastination and distractions around the office and home? This shocking stat is from the book, The One Thing by Gary Keller, which I highly recommend. We have to do task switching as Project Managers all the time, but we often do it without realising it. Can you imagine getting back 28% of your week to work on what you want?

Mobile use can be overwhelming, the feeling of always having to check it, whether checking it's in your pocket as you move around or have you got any new messages since the last time you checked. It's incredibly distracting, kills our focus and drains our willpower and often without realising its negative impact on our performance at work.

Often when you hear about habits and productivity, it’s about working hard, how much you create, staying focused etc…What’s not always talk about as much is self-care. Making sure the focus is on you, may sound selfish to some, but the more you work on yourself, the better you relationships will be, your productivity increase and many other aspects of your life can improve.

So can you have the best day ever or even the perfect day? That could be reducing how much you procrastinate, being more focused and present, achieve what you planned to do. This approach can move you one step closed to achieving that perfect day.

This productivity tip is actually five tips as it's the five most impactful things that have improved my productivity at work, and when done together throughout the day, they have a massive impact on the amount of work I produce, plus the value it creates.

Performance algorithms are a simple but powerful way to improve your performance, avoid procrastination and fight off those inner negative thoughts, and they're so simple to create.

Don't let your days control what you do, be proactive and plan your day so you can take back control.

If you struggle with nerves before a big meeting, interview or any event, this is a quick and easy way to become calmer and improve your performance.

There is a simple approach called reflections which I originally heard from Ed Mylett where you allocate some set time to think about key events that have happened that day or week. You then write down in a weekly learning log the key things you would do differently next time.

This approach is an excellent note-taking strategy for meetings when you want a clear separation between what you hear in the meeting, versus what you have learnt or what you need to do after the meeting. 

The importance of habits

If you’re looking for a great way to take notes in a meeting, come up with ideas or just anything where you need to get a lot of information down on paper fast, you can’t go far wrong with creating a Mind Map.

This tool will help you find out what you should NOT be spending time on and help you either automate them, delegate them or eliminate them!

To take control of my week ahead, day to day and make sure I recognise what didn’t go well, I follow these three steps to maximise my productivity. 

Do you want to be left behind, moving along at a pace where you’re busy and feel like you’re getting stuff done, but you’re not achieving anything significant?

Sometimes you come across motivational and inspiring quotes online and look at the person saying it or re-quoting it and think, do they really mean that or they just forwarding it on in the hope of a few likes or shares.

Remote working has been a thing for many years now, but for some companies, it’s always had an air of distrust about it.