Posts Tagged ‘Increase Productivity’

Top 10 Tips to Increase Productivity in the Office

Sunday, April 27th, 2008

Productivity is very important for the growth and success of a company. Here are the top 10 tips to increase productivity in the office.

In any office setting, it is very important to find ways increasing productivity. Productivity is an essential in ushering in the growth and success of the company. Here are the top 10 tips to increase productivity in the office setting.

#1. Employ contingency management.

The key to overcoming procrastination lies on contingency management. Pick a mundane task that you just cannot pass on in a workday. Checking emails can be one of these tasks. You should then make the task contingent on working for roughly 30 minutes. After that period, you should stop checking mails and start working. Moreover, do not check your emails anymore, not until after work hours.

#2. Have a timer handy.

When you’re doing a certain task, you should practice timing yourself. Tell yourself that you going to spend just 30 minutes for a particular task, and proceed to timing yourself. This keeps you on your toes and motivates you to be more productive.

#3. Unschedule your weekly schedule.

The concept here is to fill your schedule with activities that are not work-related. Dedicate the remaining time to work-related activities. Schedule these activities for just 30 minutes at a time. Many 30-minute periods of focused and undisturbed work can go a long way.

#4. Use 2-folder email management.

Having too many folders for your emails is a waste of time. You have to spend time browsing through many folders to find a particular email. The smart thing to do is to use just 2 folders: Action and Archive. The Action folder is for emails that need working on. The Archive folder is for emails that contain tasks that have been completed already.

#5. Avoid perfectionism.

It’s fine to strive for the best. But if you strive to be constantly perfect in all your tasks, then you will surely obsess over every single detail of your work. This brings much waste of time as well. Thus, accept the fact that you just cannot be perfect at all times.

#6. Include detailed subject lines for your emails.

You will surely be sending emails to your colleagues. With detailed subject lines, your colleagues no longer have to open each email from you. They can just check the detailed subject line, and they will find what they’re looking for faster.

#7. Leave strategic voicemail messages.

Always leave your name and contact number at the start and finish of each message you leave. This way, the recipient won’t have to listen to the message all over again, just to catch your contact info.

#8. Hire a personal assistant.

Your personal assistant can do the menial tasks for you. You can then focus on the major tasks at hand. This helps increase your productivity as well.

#9. Dedicate peak hours for major tasks.

After a weekend off work, you are more energized during the first days of the week. This is actually a common observation. Thus, you should schedule the major tasks for the mornings of Mondays and Tuesdays.

#10. Do not bring work at home.

As much as possible, you should separate your professional life from your personal life. Bringing work to your home just stresses you out. It robs you of time away from the office. The following morning, your spirits will surely be dampened. You should then avoid this and get enough rest instead.

The Need to Measure and Increase Writing Productivity

Wednesday, January 30th, 2008

People, especially those whose jobs are writing-based, need to find a way to measure and increase writing productivity because this is the only way for them to continuously come up with top-quality written materials.

To people who primarily earn their living through writing, finding a way to measure and increase writing productivity is very essential.

Writers have different ways of making themselves more productive. Some methods may work on some writers but the same methods could backfire for other writers. Nevertheless, it is a general consensus that in order to increase one’s writing productivity, there is a need to give up or slow down in other activities. Identifying these activities can be done by closely analyzing one’s behavior and lifestyle patterns. Once these activities are eliminated in one’s writing hours, an increased writing productivity would be manifested. Even efficient multi-taskers admit that with lesser activities, higher work quality can be expected.

Usually, writing productivity is measured through the number of finished articles within a given period of time. The same could also be measured through the prompt submission of these literature materials. Decreased incidents of revision and rejection of submitted works is also proof that the material composed was of good quality. Ideally, writing should not be a problem especially if the writer or author is familiar and comfortable with what he is writing. The same should also be the case if the same individual always has the time and the place where he could think and ponder about the subject of his writing. One’s environment is very essential in improving one’s writing productivity. After all, you could hardly come up with a decent writing space if you find yourself in a situation where there is a kid shouting at the top of his lungs or a radio blaring loud rock music inside your room.

For several writers, having a conducive ambience for writing will help them keep their creative writing juices flowing. This may be done by keeping one’s workplace neat and tidy or by putting on pleasant background music. This could also be done by setting aside at least an hour each day as creativity time. Arrange for this uninterrupted time with your family members and make them understand that this time is allotted for your writing. This way, you will be guaranteed a stress-free time devoted entirely to thinking and completing your compositions. Understandably, within this time, distance yourself from your mobile phones. Make sure that you will have no distractions while you go about with your writing assignments. Changing one’s screen mode may also help improve one’s writing. This means that you would have to change the display settings of your screen so that you will not see the classical white background and black text screen setting. You can instead change it to any setting that you will find relaxing and less eye-straining.

Essentially, there is no black and white method to measure and increase writing productivity. This could be attributed to the fact that writers have different nature, temperament and preferences. The tips previously mentioned may or may not work on someone. What is necessary is that a writer should be able to identify whatever lifestyle pattern that he finds most comfortable and effective. Lastly, it is always imperative to find time to rest. After all, there is no measure as to what a well-rested mind could do.