Enemies of Productivity: How to Defeat them?
How to work productively? – This question is one of the most significant ones for most professionals. The modern worker is in constant movement, among a huge array of information and tasks with which the brain of a common man can not cope without help. What to do? Install time tracking with screenshots software and optimize your own activities.
Are you sure that all the work that you do is beneficial? If you are visited at least once a week by the thought that “this turbulent activity is in fact a waste of time,” then it’s time to analyze the working time.
Useful work is not counted quantitatively – held 10 meetings, answered 150 letters and talked with 30 clients. Productive work is, first of all, quality, result. Analyze working hours by viewing the reports from time tracking with screenshots and answer the question: does your work bring a real and measurable result? Of course, there is a “turnover”, from which, with all the desire, you can not refuse. But it should not take more than 15-20% of your time.
A competent analysis of working hours will easily show the main enemies of your productivity. And with the right approach, tell you how to defeat these enemies. As a rule, our main enemies are current affairs, which do not take up much energy, do not force our mind to strain and, therefore, we willingly give them preference when there is a choice: to undertake a serious task or to relax and just “flip through” the mail.
According to recent research, the main “enemies of productivity” among workers are only three, but they can take up to 80% of the time from their victims. Without analyzing the working time, however much the employee tries to learn the practice of time management, no matter how many new tools are introduced, everything will be useless.
So, we recognize the enemy in person. The main eaters of working time:
1. Working schedule
Many managers tend not to analyze work time and rely on “their own sense of time.” Human feelings are subjective, and time, as is known, is not “rubbery,” so there are often situations when the manager appoints as many working meetings a day as there is simply no time left for anything else.
Moreover, because of periodic delays meetings are postponed, stretched or simply canceled. Result: the manager is annoyed, angry with himself and experiencing stress mixed with a sense of guilt. Delays in work are catastrophic and daily. Usually a professional worker becomes distracted and unproductive.
The conclusion is one: to focus on the practices of the best businessmen: to analyze the working time in order to better manage it, to manage more in fewer hours.
2. Inability to say “no” to yourself and others, and then fulfill the promised
Most of the employed workers drive themselves into a corner: the shortage of their working hours is due to the lack of analysis of working time, attempts to “take over everything for themselves,” to be good for everyone, to be a superman.
However, due to the constant lack of time, time pressure and congestion, it is either very difficult or impossible to keep promises. A true professional should not allow his words to be perceived skeptically. Namely, this can happen if you give ill-considered promises, agree to help, and then do not do what you have said.
Carry out a regular analysis of working hours, which can happen only if you use time tracking with screenshots, and only take care of what you can do without harm to other tasks.
3. Communication with the outside world
Hundreds of e-mails remained unanswered, dozens of unread messages in all kinds of instant messengers, dozens of open tabs in the browser window – all this distracts us and does not allow to focus on really important tasks. You will again be helped by the analysis of working hours: how many hours a day do you spend on such communications? And how many should? Develop rules of communication with the outside world, think about hiring a personal assistant who will relieve you of routine and will give you the opportunity to do real, productive work.
Who is to blame and what to do?
To look for those guilty of their problems on the side is to be deeply mistaken. All problems – in the absence of analysis of working time, in the absence of priorities, the management system of work tasks.
The solution is obvious. Look at your life and work objectively, conduct an unbiased analysis of working time, delete all unnecessary and unproductive work from your working days, focus on the main thing and act!
Author SlavyanaPosted on Categories Productivity, Project management, Time management & Time Tracking