10 tips for boosting your daily productivity …

It’s a rewarding experience to be productive at whatever you do, but not every method for approaching your work adds to the fruitfulness of your labor. Sometimes how you go about your work actually impedes your productivity.

That reminds me of a story about a big lumberjack who bought a new chainsaw because he was told it could cut down at least 100 trees a day.

But on the first day he only managed to cut down 25 trees. The next day he tried harder and finally cut down 33 trees. The third day he started early, worked late, and even cut his lunch break short, but he still managed to cut down only 48 trees.

He went back to the store and confronted the manager with his complaint. He told him of his efforts and of the results. The manager couldn’t understand what had gone wrong, so he asked to take a look at the chainsaw. He grabbed the starter rope and pulled hard, and the motor started with a roar.

The lumberjack jumped back in alarm and yelled, “Hey, what’s that noise?”

There are several things you can do to be more productive. Some are specific to the kind of work you do, but here are 10 tips most of us can apply;

1. Organize yourself the day before. You start your day by losing time if the first thing you do is have to figure out what you need to do! It’s a more natural and time-saving process to finish your day by taking a few minutes to outline your work for the next day, and make sure you’re ready to go when you walk in the next morning. This is more natural because you’ve been working all day and have a keen understanding of where you’re at with your work, which provides you with a clear understanding of what needs to happen the next day. It should only take you a few minutes to set yourself up for an easy start the following morning. This prepping includes stopping to gas up your vehicle on the way home if you know you’ll be traveling outside the office the next day and would need to get fuel – do it on the way home rather than taking time out of your work day tomorrow.

2. Set yourself up for success by getting the sleep you need the night before. The average person does not get an adequate amount of sleep, resulting in starting their day with a sluggish body, muggy mind, and minimal motivation. Having to “pull yourself” through your day will result in looking for shortcuts that leave you settling for lesser quality work and getting less done. It also makes for a less enjoyable experience. All of that self-induced difficulty can be eliminated by building a habit of getting the sleep you need to effectively face your days.

3. Don’t start your morning with chaos. If your morning routine before leaving for work is an exercise in chaos, you’ll bring that battled and beleaguered attitude into the start of your work day. Because many people don’t get the sleep they need, they keep hitting the snooze button until the last possible minute, then they make their mornings an unnecessary rush. have to bound out of bed, throw on your clothes, skip breakfast, and speed through traffic; now you’ve insured that you’re an unorganized, scattered mess upon arriving at your workplace. And many people do this every day! It will take you a little time to gather your thoughts and feel like you’re even presentable. You can eliminate the chaos by making sure you have enough time in the morning to awake, properly fuel, bathe, and present your body, and let your mind gather itself for the day BEFORE launching out into traffic and heading to work. By eliminating personal chaos by organizing yourself each morning, you’ll arrive at your workplace with the best possible attitude for a productive day.

4. Prep for your day. If you planned and prepped your day before leaving work the previous day, you should be mostly ready to go once you arrive at your job. It’s still a good idea to take a few minutes to review your plans and do any needed final prep for the day. Things may have occurred overnight or first thing that morning that affect your plans, so take a few minutes to adjust your schedule accordingly. You might need to do a quick check of email and voicemail, make sure you have the supplies you need, and make sure you’ve communicated with others (who need to know) how you’ll be spending your day and reminding them of anything you need from them. Make sure you’ve set expectations for yourself, identified minimum accomplishments for the day, and assign time limits to activities on your to-do list. Again, this should take only a few minutes if you prepared the day before.

5. Limit the capacity for interruptions. Before they can even happen, limit the possibility for interruptions to occur:

– BUT, be flexible with interruptions. Sometimes interruptions are as or more important than what you’re working on at the moment. Have the wisdom to allow for interruptions that need your attention now, and redirect those that don’t.

– Practice an “open door policy” with a closed door. That means communicating that you are accessible to others but at times you’ll close your door to communicate you need to not be interrupted unless something meets a criteria of importance you’ve previously set and communicated.

– Create “do not disturb” blocks which takes the closed door a little further by clearly communicating you’re not to be disturbed during these designated times.

– Turn off social media. You can schedule times in your day for checking and updating social media if necessary, otherwise such activity can be limited to breaks and your personal time.

– Redirect chatters. When others show up at your office door, cubicle, or workspace, and it quickly becomes clear they’re there just to chat about non-work or unimportant matters, be polite in assertively communicating you’re otherwise occupied and the conversation will have to wait for a more appropriate time. Don’t let people rob your time with endless banter.

6. Begin your day with what you least want to do. Start your day by tackling first the thing you dread the most. If you don’t, it’s likely you’ll be tempted to procrastinate doing it and put it off, often over and over again, leaving it undone (which often makes it a bigger issue to tackle when you finally get to it). When you start you day doing what you least want to do, once you’ve accomplished it, it makes all the rest of your day feel much easier and more enjoyable. By putting this unpleasant task off, you spend your day dreading what you’ll eventually have to get to.

7. Stand up and move throughout the day. You’re a whole being, meaning that what you experience physically during the day will also affect your thoughts and emotions. Being sedentary for long periods of time creates physical needs that can distract you unconsciously. By simply standing up and/or moving around a few times each hour, you help “reset” you body to enable it to function more effectively.

8. Take your breaks. This benefits both mind and body, allowing for 10 minutes to an hour at a time for refreshing. Not only does your body need a chance to move and refuel, but your mind needs a chance to refresh and reset at different times throughout your day.

9. Don’t overstimulate yourself. Instead of getting adequate sleep the night before, properly fueling your body before leaving for work, moving throughout the day, and taking breaks, many people try to bulldoze through their day powered by coffee, “energy” drinks, and cigarettes. Artificial stimulation cannot produce the same quality of thought and physical operation as can proper self-care; you’ll see the reality of this in your work.

10. Before leaving, prepare yourself for tomorrow. As you near the end of your day, you’re able to see what you have accomplished and can easily measure what needs to be done tomorrow. Take a few minutes to plan your work for the next day; doing so will set yourself up for a good start tomorrow.

How you go about your day will affect your productivity. Try some or all of these ideas and see if your productivity improves.

Scotty