5 Tips for increasing your productivity at workMany leaders will agree with the statement “there are not enough hours in the day!” Most of us, not just leaders alone, will experience periods of time where we struggle to manage the pressures of a heavy workload and find ourselves wishing for an extra few hours in the day (or days in the week). However, it is not that there aren’t enough hours in the day, rather, most of us do not use the available hours as effectively as we might.

How you organise yourself and get things done matters! Being more productive at work requires you to be more deliberate about how you manage your time.

Below are 5 simple tips you can use in order to increase your productivity in the workplace:

1. Avoid unnecessary meetings

Knowing what meetings to attend and what meetings to refuse is very important. You might find that, a lot of the time, you are able to accomplish the same goals or tasks via email or phone instead of attending a meeting.

2. Take regular breaks

Working at a task for a long period without breaks has been shown to result in a steady decline in performance. Research shows that taking short breaks during long tasks can actually help to maintain a more consistent level of performance.

3. Learn to delegate tasks

Choose the tasks that you are willing to hand over to others to action, and then delegate accordingly. Provide clear instructions and then put the trust in your team members to achieve the tasks they have been assigned.

4. Set deadlines for your tasks

Setting and sticking to deadlines for tasks has the power to increase productivity. Even with open-ended projects or assignments, by setting yourself a deadline you may be surprised to discover just how focused and productive you can be.

5. Stop trying to multitask

There is some research that shows that our brains were never meant to do more than one thing at a time and that multitasking can actually lower your IQ. With our brains thought to be incapable of handling simultaneous tasks, this could explain why multitasking has the power to decrease productivity significantly.

There will never be enough hours to get absolutely everything done, but there are enough hours to get done what is important, without being in a constant state of crisis. By making your professional productivity a priority, trying the above steps and seeking out further ways to increase productivity in the workplace, you will not only get more done, but alleviate a lot of the stress that comes with the daily pressures of a busy workload.