10 Easy And Simple Ways To Be More Productive

Before going to how to be more productive, let us be clear on “what” you want to produce and how you are going to enhance that.

So list down a list of things or kinds of stuff you want to produce.

It must be tangible so that you can track your productivity and work towards improving it.

What does Productivity mean to you?

Does it mean doing

• more in less time
• more meaningful works
• what you planned to do
• too many tasks at one time
• things which were not planned but you still did it

So here are the 10 Easy And Simple Ways To Be More Productive

#1 – Set Clear and SMART Goals

Your productivity goals must be SMART  (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound)

#2 – Get your resources ready beforehand

Get your information, tools, and other resources beforehand, ideally one day before. Let’s say you have to create a campaign for a client, so before you start, get all the inputs, creatives, and guidelines ready and keep it handy so when you get down to a task, you are well equipped.

#3 -Identify your Performance Zones

We all have three types of performance zones, high, medium and low.

High-Performance Zones are the time of the day where we are at our best and whatever we do gets completed in time and with perfection. So keep the most important tasks of the day for these zones.

Medium-Performance Zones are the time, where even though we are productive we may get calls, may have to attend other things and may not be able to give our 100%. Keep the regular tasks of the day for these zones.

Low-Performance Zones are the time of the day, where either we don’t feel motivated to do anything, and may not produce the result. We can keep this time to socialize on social media, do networking, download useful kinds of stuff, or collecting information and resources which can be used in the next tasks

#4 – Keep Away from distraction, Let others know you are busy when you are on a task

Stay away from anything and everything that distracts you, it can be your smart-phone, WhatsApp, facebook, or whatever and whoever may distract you. I have seen people saying, “I keep everything open as I may get an important message or mail and hence keep everything open. Please understand, if it is important, they will call you, And if it is important for you, call and ask when you can connect or expect a reply.

If you have a land-phone next to your desk, educate and inform people to call you on that in case anything is urgent and need to be attended.

#5 – Don’t lose the momentum

Sometimes while doing a task we lose focus and get distracted by ideas and thoughts that come to our mind, and we switch to other tasks, thoughts, and lose momentum. I call it the “creative distractions”.

#6 – If you are not doing it right, learn how to do it and re-schedule it

If you feel you are not doing it right, don’t complete the tasks just to mark it complete. Ask, research, take help and find ways to do the task in a better way and come back and complete it.

#7 – Delegate part of your tasks if you can

Sometimes it’s better to delegate your task to someone is competent and who can help you complete it. You both get productive and the task completion is better and faster.

#8 – Be flexible but don’t be lenient

For tasks which are of medium priority and there is no specific deadline and you want to improve it, take time, improvise it and re-do it. Be flexible.

However, don’t be lenient and settle for something which gives you a low quality or mediocre output.

#9 – Check your experience while doing a task, if you don’t feel like doing it you are not meant for it

Sometimes, you start a task and don’t feel like doing it. There may be many reasons behind it, so ask yourself and get to the root cause of the feeling and fix it.

Remember nothing is interesting if you are not interested.

#10 – Reward yourself for successfully doing a task

Set small rewards for your self. I follow the daily productivity tracker  (mentioned below) and say I complete 66% of tasks today, I give myself 66 reward points. At the end of the month, say I have accumulated 22000 points, I can translate that reward point to something, it can be a gift for myself, a new course for myself, a saving for my next career growth etc.

Now let’s get going:

So now, if you are clear on this take a couple of minutes and DOWNLOAD THIS MS EXCEL TOOL and start filling your daily tasks. List down all your tasks and mark Done when you complete.

The tool will show you the percentage achieved for each day. Next, key in the daily percentage to a monthly sheet (included in the above download) and track your monthly progress.

Cool! This tool is going to give you a measurable performance about your productivity and you know how to know whether you are on the right track or not.

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