30 Ways to Improve Productivity Today
- By Andrew Jacobs
- Oct 19, 2015
Do you ever wish there were more time in the day? Follow these tips to increase your productivity!
- Delegate tasks and/or ask for help. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, asking for help can ease stress as well as cross items off your to-do list.
- Tackle your most dreaded tasks first thing in the morning (the ones you’re currently procrastinating). You’ll feel more productive and have more to look forward to for the rest of the day.
- Search and apply. Look at other companies or organizations and their best practices. Apply these to what you’re currently doing in order to improve.
- Create to-do lists. These will help keep you on track and motivate you to stay productive. You’ll feel great each time you cross out a task!
- Prioritize meetings. Your time is valuable and not every meeting needs to be attended. Figure out which ones you can skip and which ones require your presence to efficiently maximize your time this week.
- Take breaks. They're important!
- Set a timer for each task. This can motivate and challenge you to complete tasks in a timely fashion.
- Try playing music in the background. Listening to music actually helps some people focus!
- Just start! This is one of our favorite ways to improve productivity. Starting can often be the hardest part. Sometimes, you just have to brace yourself and get it over with. Stop over-thinking and just do it!
- Figure out your prime productivity time and use this to effectively plan out your day.
- Always carry a notebook and pen to write down your thoughts and ideas! It’s easy to forget them as you go through your day.
- Get plenty of sleep. Don’t underestimate the importance of sleep! EVERYONE needs quality sleep to be fully functional and at their best.
- Organize your desk/office. It’s a proven fact: clutter can decrease productivity. Take the time to create a system or find simple ways that help you stay clutter-free. Read about how to feng sui your desk!
- Try listening to audio books or education podcasts while you’re completing mundane tasks like driving to work or cleaning your apartment. Those are the prime times to multitask.
- Stop Netflix-binging. It's never too late to break bad habits! You can instantly maximize your productivity just by turning off the TV. The average American watches more than 4 hours of television every day. Over a 65-year lifespan, that’s 9 years glued to the screen. Think of all the things you could have accomplished within those 78,624 hours.
- Ask yourself, “Am I currently making the best possible use of my time?” Asking yourself this question throughout the day is one of the easiest and most effective ways to improve your productivity. It can really help you focus on which tasks are more important. Be honest with yourself!
- Set up auto-pay for your bills. You’ll save time AND money from avoiding those late fees and increased interest rates.
- Focus on result-oriented activities. Pareto’s law states that 80% of the output results from 20% of the input. In other words, 20% of our actions leads to 80% of the results. Find the 20% that is creating the 80% and focus solely on those activities.
- Tell other people about your goals—you’re more likely to complete them. This will create a sense of accountability.
- Hold standing meetings. Standing during meetings is great for a number of reasons. It’ll feel better than sitting all day long, improves group performance, and helps team members stay focused on meeting agenda.
- Be effective first, and then be efficient. Effectiveness refers to doing the tasks that matter. Efficiency means delivering higher output in less time.
- Stop procrastinating! Seriously, stop it.
- Set up an aesthetic work space. Research shows that adding visually-pleasing items to your desk and office can increase productivity by up to 15 percent. Click here to find out how to create a mini garland for your desk! Follow us on Instagram for aesthetics ideas!
- Group and complete similar tasks. You can save time by completing like tasks in one session instead of spreading them out.
- It’s okay to say “no.” Nobody can do everything. Learning to say no will empower you to focus on what is most important and minimize distractions. It’ll also earn you more respect in the office!
- Plan your day the night before. Spend a few minutes mentally planning how to spend the next day. When you wake up, you’ll feel prepared, organized, and ready to take on anything.
- Follow the "2-minute rule.” If you have a task that can be done in 2 minutes or less, do it IMMEDIATELY. Don’t even bother putting it on your to-do list.
- Wake up earlier! Almost all top CEOs and high-ranking successful people have this one thing in common: they start the day early.
- Use the best tools. There are many apps and programs to help you stay organized and on track. Test and figure out which ones are the most helpful to you.
- Reward yourself for finishing big tasks. E.g. go shopping for new office supplies!
We hope you got something out of our list of ways to improve productivity. JAM wants everyone to live up to their potential! Let us know what your favorite productivity tip was in the comments!