Sometimes, we feel like we are SO busy, but we are not accomplishing anything. How can that be? We know how many hours we are at our desks. We know that we have a lot to get done. But when we look back at our day, it seems that we accomplished very little!
Let’s look at some productivity busters and what changes we can make to address them. These changes may be small, but they can make a world of difference in our feeling of accomplishment at the end of the day!
- Not having the tools we need or sharing our tools with others. Make sure that you have everything you need on your desk. Scissors, paper clips, pens, markers, and sticky notes should all be within reach.
- Not having a plan. Plan your schedule for the day. You may have to move things around but just having a plan keeps us moving forward. Also, have a list of what’s next. This keeps us from wandering off into social media-land when we finish a task or project.
- Working on more than one task at a time. Multi-tasking causes us to have to refocus repeatedly, losing time in the process. Stick to your task until you have to stop, then make an intentional switch to the next task.
- Checking emails and texts throughout the day. If you are stopping what you’re doing to respond to emails or texts, you’re losing productive time. Check your emails first thing in the morning so that you can prioritize anything that came in overnight into your day if necessary. Then respond to emails and texts at certain times during the day, maybe right after lunch and at the end of the day.
- Sending repetitive emails. In a previous post, I talked about how to set up templates for messages that you send repeatedly. Creating templates can save you time!
These suggestions can help you move from just being busy to being productive! And when you’re productive, not only do you feel better about the time you have spent working, but you’ve also accomplished more!