Being a productive member of the team is important, you want to be seen to be pulling your weight and earning your spot on any team. That said, procrastination can be all too easy in a busy workplace, and streamlining productivity can be a difficult task to master.
Of course, there are big steps you can take such as learning and mastering time blocking. Then there are the common sense methods such as an effective to-do list app or keeping away from your smartphone. But this article is not about those obvious ‘hacks’ for upping your professional input. This article is to show you that there are some smaller, simple habits you can form that will help improve your productivity, without even knowing it.
So here are some simple tweaks or changes you can make to your daily working life to increase your productivity in the workplace.
Your workspace
First and foremost you need to think about your workspace. A cluttered and disorganized work environment will inevitably result in cluttered and disorganized output. Whereas clutter-free space will help you to think more clearly and in turn produce better results and improved productivity. Spend a little time at the start (or end) of the day tidying up your workspace to ensure everything is in its place and appropriately organized.
You also want to ensure that your working environment is conducive to productivity and concentration. You can do this by ensuring that you have privacy when you need it, as this can allow you to focus without hindrance or distraction from others. Of course, this can be difficult in shared office space or if your work from home space doubles up as a living room or bedroom. A great tip to help create some seclusion and privacy in such spaces is to invest in room or classroom dividers. This can help shield you and your workspace from the surrounding environment and help you carve out a little private area just for you and your work. Sectioning off a space to work in this way is also a great tool for getting you in the mindset of work, which is especially important when working from home.
Do your least favorite task first
You are not the only one who has a least favorite task that you put off and push to the end of the to-do list. The trouble is, the more you put it off the harder it will be to complete. What is more, if you complete this task first it will make the rest of your working day feel easier and less stressful, and it will make you more productive.
Take short, regular breaks
Even when you are at your busiest, taking a step back and having a break from your to-do list is one of the best ways to get through it. Yes really. The harder you toil away at your tasks without a break the less productive you will become. Take some time to step away, get some fresh air, make a drink and reset and re-energize your efforts. The results will be notable.
