The Greater Baltimore Chamber of Commerce exists to help the local business community grow. Productivity directly affects how fast individuals and businesses move towards their goals. Therefore, it’s only fitting that we share productivity hacks to improve your workday with you.
Factors that Limit Productivity
Productivity is the efficiency by which you complete a task. Some of the factors that might reduce your productivity include:
- Distractions in your immediate environment or social media
- Procrastination
- Lack of awareness. It is not possible to be productive if you do not know how much time you have and how much of it is spent productively.
- Reduced energy levels. It is hard to be effective when you don’t have enough energy to work.
What Are the Productivity Hacks to Improve Your Workday?
Here are four productivity hacks to improve your workday:
Stop multitasking
You might think that you’re being productive by handling multiple tasks simultaneously. In essence, you’re splitting your attention between two things that might cause you to take longer per task or compromise quality. To get through more tasks efficiently, aim at working on a single job at a time.
A highlight of the day
We cannot do away with task lists. But if not properly utilized, a lengthy task list can confuse and curtain your progress. This could start a snowball effect where you get more pressure as the task list grows.
To help you coast through your tasks, highlight your most important task each day and aim toward achieving it. After it’s done, you may proceed to work on the next one.
Time-block your day
According to Parkinson’s Law, tasks expand to fill their allocated time. A job that you could complete in 3 minutes could take you 30 if you don’t assign a timeline.
You can utilize productivity tools like Google Calendar to split your day into time blocks corresponding to each task that you desire to get through your day. It’d be best if you strived to concentrate on the job intensely for short bursts within the time blocks because the human brain can only focus for so long.
The Pomodoro Technique is one way to achieve that. Using this technique, you break your time blocks into 25-minute sessions with 5-minute breaks between sessions. You may increase the length of each session to suit your optimal concentration span but don’t forget to adjust your breaks accordingly! Those are important to refill your energy banks.
Employ the 2-minute and 10-minute rules to beat procrastination
The 2-minute rule states that if a task will take you 2 minutes or less to accomplish, take care of it immediately. This rule helps you get through small tasks that might otherwise crowd your schedule. No matter how small, completing the task also motivates you to get on with the next job.
The 10-minute rule states that if you don’t feel motivated to begin a task, tell yourself you’ll only do it for 10 minutes and then stop. Doing these tricks your brain into acting and builds momentum as a result. Momentum produces motivation, which helps you overcome the initial aversion to starting the task, thus avoiding procrastination.
Join The Greater Baltimore Chamber of Commerce Today
Learn more productivity hacks to improve your workday from fellow entrepreneurs through the Greater Baltimore Chamber of Commerce networking sessions. To learn more about how you can join us, call us at 410-484-2337 or get in touch through our website.