Whether you’re working in an office, a garage, a workshop, or in your bedroom, productivity matters. It’s what will help you to get the most possible work done in any given day, hour, or minute. Most of the time, productivity is just a matter of getting organised ahead of time. Let’s take a look at some of the ways in which we might get organised!
Make a to-do list
Time that you’re spending wondering what to do next is not time that you’re using wisely. Instead, make a list of all the things that you’d like to achieve in a given timeframe – whether it’s a day, a week, or a year.
To-do-lists are great for crushing your day. You can get into the habit of checking items off as they’re completed, and feel a sense of accomplishment that’ll keep you going.
Set Goals
If you’re got a big, seemingly impossible task, then you should break it down into manageable stages. If you’re learning an eighty-bar piece on the piano, or you’re writing a 10,000 word report, then dividing the task into logical sections is going to help. That way, you can see just how quickly the project is progressing, overall.
Prioritise
Some tasks matter more than others, in the short-term. Try to get urgent work done quickly, and have a system for seeing how long your non-urgent work has been sitting around waiting to be completed.
Organise your things
If you’re working in a mess, then it’s unlikely that you’ll be productive. This goes especially if you’re working in a job that requires having a lot of different tools in easy reach. Get your storage organised, with different items laid in tool boxes according to a logical system. That way, you’ll always know when it’s time to reach for a given tool.
Don’t multitask
Trying to do a lot of different things at the same time will ensure that you do all of those things badly. This is because your attention will be divided. Instead, try to get everything done sequentially. Do one thing, then move onto the next, and then the next. In the end, you might find that you spend less time than you did when you tried to multitask!
Delegating where Possible
If you’re working as part of a team, or you’re in a leadership role, then don’t just assume that you can get everything done yourself. If a given task falls outside of your skillset, or you think that you can free up some time to devote elsewhere, then don’t be afraid to give it to someone else. This can work even if you’re a one-person business: there’s no shortage of online freelancers waiting to take on the work that you’d rather not do!