Your time is a precious commodity and should be respected, particularly during busy seasons. Moira Dunne gives three tips on how best to utilise your time and maximise your productivity
It is hard to be productive in today’s busy work environment, especially in the lead-up to the holidays. Whether you are working hybrid or fully remote, it is important to get the best return from the hours you work.
Imagine finishing each workday with a sense of achievement, knowing that you have done everything on your list. For many people, that is the simplest definition of being productive: making a plan and then sticking to it. It helps us deliver important tasks, but it also contributes to our well-being.
If you are not happy with your workday, do something about it. Start by understanding where your time goes each day. In most busy work environments, there are many requests and urgent issues, causing us to spend a lot of time in reactive mode, responding to others instead of making progress toward our own goals.
To change to a more proactive way of working, you need to develop good habits. This helps you take control of your time and take charge of your workday.
Here are three tips to boost your productivity in the few weeks before everyone takes a much-earned break.
Tip 1: protect your time
To protect your time, it is important to have a plan for your own work.
Set out the key pieces of work you want to get done each week and the targets you absolutely must reach by Friday. Figure out what tasks will make you feel the most productive and accomplished by the end of the week and put them in motion.
This plan gives you a focus for each day. You will be motivated to complete your tasks to achieve your target by the end of the week.
Tip 2: say ‘when’, not ‘now’
Without a plan, it is hard to say no when someone makes a request, and people are often compelled to respond immediately. Your weekly plan will now help you quickly assess which work should take priority, particularly when it comes to new requests.
For work that is a lower priority, ask the requester when they need it. They may say they need it straight away, but the question can prompt them to assess their own timescale and will communicate that you don’t drop work to respond to new requests.
The best part of this response is that you are not saying no but instead negotiating a response time that suits your plan.
Tip 3: make progress on the big things
It can be hard to find time to work on bigger projects or goals, but this is our most important work. Sometimes we wait for a quiet week or a free block of time in our diary, but when those days do not come, the project gets pushed out.
Start using your weekly plan to achieve your long-term goals. Include actions to get started on a project. Set a target to complete a goal. Bit by bit, task by task, make progress each week so that when the deadline arrives, you have the work done.
Moira Dunne is Founder of beproductive.ie