Savvy job consultants know that being productive means completing a list of tasks without getting derailed. If you want to keep your work day on track, you have to eliminate distractions like responding to email and a disorganized workspace. You’ve also got to overcome the desire to multitask or procrastinate.
Use these secret strategies to tackle those bad habits and become an office productivity machine.
4 Job hacks from job consultants to keep your day on track
Set aside time for email
Email is one of the biggest distractions in the modern workplace. The easiest way to lose all focus is to feel you must constantly check the inbox. Email interrupts your workflow the same as taking a phone call. The best way to proactively manage your email is to only check it at specific times in the day
Set aside time in your daily plan for checking your email. For example, check your email in the early morning, at lunch, and an hour before leaving the office for the day. Remember: emails sent in the early morning are more likely to get a response. To avoid being distracted by your email outside those times, close the email program.
Create a good working environment
A noisy or cluttered working environment can really get in the way of your productivity. But it’s an easy fix. If your workspace is noisy and distracting, use headphones to block out the sound.
Clutter is another physical productivity drain because you have to spend extra time trying to find what you need under mountains of paperwork. Create a work environment that helps you focus on the job at hand. A few hours of office cleaning and organization can free up hours of focused work time. To keep everything neat and tidy, do a clean sweep of the space at the end of each day.
Avoid multitasking
Multitasking doesn’t make you a miracle of efficiency, it’s just another distraction that can kill your productivity. Trying to keep an eye on all those screens–smartphones, tablets, and computers is largely to blame.
The notion that you can successfully accomplish two or more tasks at once is a myth! It actually decreases information processing and retention. It can take longer to complete tasks if you’re attempting to do more than one task at a time. By focusing on one thing at a time, tasks can be accomplished quickly with better accuracy and attention to detail.
Don’t procrastinate
People tend to put off tasks that they don’t enjoy or that require lots of time and/or effort. Most procrastinators claim they work best under pressure or when they’re trying to make a deadline at the last minute.
While it may be true for some (a study by JP Pawliw and Hendrie Weisinger shows that 67% of people do work well under pressure) procrastination is a big drain on productivity. Everything else has to take a back seat to those projects that were put off until the last minute. It’s not the way to work if you want everything done and done well. Procrastination is a distraction that can be curbed with a little organization and planning. Instead of putting off tasks until the last minute, break them down into smaller, more manageable tasks, and then tackle one per day. This will allow you to make consistent progress toward your goal, increase productivity, and create a better end result.
Being productive is an important skill. That’s why top job consultants recommend tackling the biggest distractions in your work day. Stay on top of email and tidy up your disorganized workspace. Put an end to multitasking and procrastination and your productivity and job satisfaction will both increase.