Productivity at work: 5 tips to apply

Be productive does not mean having to work longer. Being productive is all about working smart. Several factors can affect our productivity: lack of organization, concentration, work overload, stress ... Thanks to the organization and the optimization of its working time, we can achieve be more efficient and productive at work.

We will find out in this article 5 tips to be more productive in the office.

1. Plan and organize your tasks

The ideal is toestablish a to-do list every beginning of the week in order to have an overview of the missions to be carried out. Then, to better find yourself among the list of things to do, it is necessary prioritize your tasks, that is, to define the urgent missions to be carried out and those less urgent. Thus, you can start with the quick tasks, taking only a few minutes, in order to free your mind and get fully involved in the more complex missions.

In order not to be unmotivated by seeing the to-do list, spread your tasks over the whole week and stick to your agenda. Do not engage in "multi-tasking" at the risk of being counterproductive. The main thing is that when you start working on a project, you finish it before moving on. By performing several tasks at once, you produce work of lower quality because you cannot be 100% invested on all your put. In addition, it will be more difficult for you to be focused and it may be penalizing in the performance of tasks that require concentration and reflection, such as writing an article or a report.

If you are having trouble concentrating and are wasting too much time to complete a mission, use the Pomodoro method. This method consists in alternating work and break phases. Start your timer for 25 minutes and try to complete your task in that amount of time. Of course, if it is a project that requires several hours of work, segment it into several tasks and practice this method to achieving your goals faster and easier. At the end of the 25 min, give yourself 5 minutes of breaks and start again. It's a very effective method to be more productive because it allows to boost our motivation to achieve the desired goal.

2. Set a work schedule

Set a work schedule and deadlines to meet are essential so as not to lose productivity. Sometimes we have deadlines imposed, but if the deadline is far away, it is better to set personal deadlines to fragment his tasks. When you don't set deadlines for yourself, you often tend to postpone your work or take a long time to do it. Finally, we end up working in an emergency by performing the mission at the last moment, which causes stress and loss of efficiency due to less time spent on reflection.

Thus, the fact of se set your own goals allows you to complete your tasks much faster by being guided by a schedule that you impose on yourself.

To establish a schedule, one must listen to oneself and follow one's preferences in order to find one's ideal work rhythm. For example, if you realize that you are more productive in the early morning, perform the tasks that require the most concentration and thinking at that time. Everyone works differently. Some people are more productive in the morning, others in the afternoon or others in the evening. By being an employee for example, it can be difficult to set up, but try to set the times of the day when your concentration is at its maximum in order to better break down your working day and be effective.

Plan your agenda is important to measure our effectiveness. In this way, by carrying out a weekly and monthly schedule, it is easier to prioritize our tasks by identifying time-consuming tasks or tasks that take longer to complete. As you go along, defining your schedule will be much easier because you will know your work rhythm, the time you spend performing such a task, etc.

3. Give yourself regular breaks

Is it useful to work long hours in a row to be more productive and efficient? A study conducted by Cyril Couffe (Doctor of Cognitive Psychology and neuropsychologist) demonstrated the opposite. The result is clear : taking a break can increase productivity by up to 10%. This is no longer to be proved, and many studies have been carried out on this subject.

It is therefore essential to give yourself REAL breaks, that is, breaks to relax and clear your mind. We leave aside social networks, SMS and mobile applications to give ourselves a real moment for yourself. The important thing is to find a way to really relax, for example, going for a breath of fresh air outside, listening to music, doing meditation or stretching. The goal is to get out of work for a moment to clear your head and feel more relaxed. So, one should not believe that breaks are counterproductive. On the contrary, they have many benefits on our health, in particular because they contribute to reduce physical and mental fatigue.  And of course, the more tired and exhausted you feel, the more concentration and performance you lose.

4. Organize your work desk

A tidy and well organized office directly influences the way you work and your efficiency. To get started well, the first essential step is therefore to make a sorting. Easy to say but not always easy to do, we often tend to accumulate a lot of things that are useless or no longer used. Yet, sort your desk allows you to see more clearly in his work and free yourself from a weight.

Once the sorting is done, it is essential to tidy up your desk regularly otherwise, all the efforts made will have served no purpose. Thus, you will save a considerable amount of time when you need to search for a case in an emergency. To find it in its storage, you can put post-it notes on your folders, sort them by dates, by projects ... each method is unique to each one.

Finally, for increase productivity, it is essential tooptimize your work environment. Equip yourself with furniture andergonomic office accessories are the key to improving one's well-being and health at work. Have a comfortable chair, quality computer equipment, and good brightness will promote our mental and physical well-being by offering us optimal comfort, conducive to concentration and productivity.

5. Disable notifications

Enemy n ° 1 of productivity, notifications interrupt our work regularly and confuse us every time. Between the considerable number of emails we receive in a day and notifications from social networks, SMS or applications, we waste a considerable amount of time consulting them. Unfortunately, it is very often difficult to resist the temptation to open our notifications when they appear on our computer or phone screen.

The only radical method of stopping this habit is to disable all notifications. Set yourself times to check your notifications during the day. For example, to check your emails, choose to check them at the beginning of the day, before your lunch break and at the end of the day for. This will save you from constantly interrupting your work to check your emails. On the other hand, turn off your personal notifications completely and consult them only during the lunch break. By proceeding in this way, you will be less tempted to consult your phone too regularly and stay focused on your projects.

Conclusion

There quest for productivity requires above all investment and motivation. Without motivation, it is difficult tobe productive and efficient. Therefore, everyone must find their own motivations for be productive and achieve your goals. To cope with drops in motivation, the ideal is to use the visualization table method which will allow you to boost your productivity and motivation. By combining this method with our advice for be more productive at work, you will notice significant changes on your performance at work and in your projects.