Increasing Productivity

What does everyone have in common? We all have 24 hours and day, 7 days a week. That is something that none of us can change or at least until someone invents some kind of time traveling or matrix thing but if that were possible, shouldn't it already exist? Think about that.

Increasing Productivity is Key

Until then, we're stuck with a limited amount of time in a day. At any given moment, you should be pursuing some dream or goal that you have or resting by doing some leisure activity. If this is so, then it would only make sense that in general, we are all trying to achieve some sort of outcome. For some, it can be an Olympic gold medal while for others it could be to fill up their empty stomach. Whatever the case may be, you are pursuing something. If you are at work then you have projects to do. If you work at home then you have a business to run. We all have things to do, lots of it, but most of us don't quite have enough time to do it and wish that somehow we can have more hours in the day. So what can you do about it? You can start by increasing productivity.

Whether you work at a company or at home, one great way to get more done is to just be more efficient at what you do. Many times, you can get more done in a few days than you normally do in a full week if you just do a few things a bit differently. This is how you can add more "time" to your day without the need of some crazy invention. The following are some tips you can try out.

1. Make a list

This is one of the most basic productivity strategies. When you make a list of all the things you need to get done, it'll be a lot easier to get them done because you can easily see what you need to do next each time you finish a task. Just by writing things down you are telling yourself that these are the things you plan on getting down. On the other hand, if you don't have a list, you can go through the day experiencing a lot of "what to do now?" moments. These are moments when you sit around and do nothing simply because you're not sure what it is you should do.

When you make a list, you force yourself to do what's on the list. Now, the list you make doesn't have to be perfect. At first, just list things that you know you need to do down. When the time comes, you'll just start doing it once you see it on the list. Because you will constantly be able to see what other things you need to do, you can judge just how fast you need to do things in order to get everything done.

2. Keep time.

Keeping track of how long it takes you to do certain tasks is a great way to get an idea of how you can improve your efficiency. Most of the time when I'm doing a task that I do on a daily basis, I will start my stopwatch right when I begin the task and stop it when I'm done. Then I would log the time down on a spread sheet next to the name of the task. By doing this I can measure what the average amount of time it takes me to do certain tasks and can do two things with it.

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I can either find ways to improve my time overall without compromising the quality of my work or I can see if I'm spending too much time on certain things that I need to cut down on. This is an extremely effective way to increase productivity because once you know your averages, it will actually help you work faster just to stay within the time limits. This will help reduce those moments where you just sit there day dreaming. It happens.

3. Assembly line technique

If you have certain things at work that you do in a repetitive fashion, you can increase your workplace productivity by using the assembly line technique. Basically, if you have to make or build several things in quantity that require several steps in the procedure to complete one, instead of completing one then starting another one, what you can do is do the 1st step for all the quantity needed, then do the 2nd step for all of them, and so on until you finish.

Henry Ford first started this with his production of the automobile and was able to increase production many times over. The concept behind it is that if you just focus on one thing, you can get the job done faster than if you had to focus on multiple things. Since you're doing the first step for all of the items you need to produce, you're almost working on autopilot. Having to switch tasks will cause you to spend time switching modes. By doing the assembly line technique, you will be able to get more done.

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4. Focus on one thing at a time

Continuing with the previous tip, if you want to increase your productivity, you generally want to focus on one task at any given time. The reason for this is that you can concentrate all of your attention into one task and just get it done with. By doing multiple tasks that are different in nature, you are having to switch your mind back and forth. This will just end up slowing you down.

5. Multi-task

This may sound contradicting to the previous tip but it's not. Multi-tasking is great if you know how to do it efficiently. It really comes down to knowing what to multi-task. You want to pick things that are either very similar or require little focus. When you mind doesn't have to be in one place and you can still get the task done, then it would be a good task to do in combination with other similar or brainless tasks.

For example, if you need to make a bunch of copies and make a phone call, you can do those two things together since making copies don't require much focus. I know that's a simple example but you get the idea. You don't want to write up an important report and have an important conversation at the same time since they both will require a big chunk of your focus.

Some thing will work better for you than others. Just experiment and see which tips will you increase productivity. You can also find people who seem to get a lot done in a day and find out what they do and do the same thing as well.