In this modern age of working, it can be very hard to complete all of the tasks that face us on a daily basis. We all know how it feels to be under pressure, either from those above us, or via the demands of the businesses we run. With that in mind, we thought you may like to take a few minutes out of your day and absorb three tips that will increase your productivity and decrease your stress-levels!
1 – A tidy desk = a tidy brain!
Your desk is the place that the magic happens. You may spend time out of the office in meetings (or having one too many coffees!), but the humble desk is the foundation of your productivity. It may sound obvious, but a desk that resembles a land-fill site will not help you work effectively. Make sure you regularly clear your desk out, rearrange things so they can be at hand and clean it! The ‘lunch at desk’ culture we live in means desks can often resemble the floor of a bakery. Not only is this bad for you, it just adds to the mess that slows down your working brain! A regular reordering of your desk will make things flow better and keep you on track for a bumper day of work.
2 – Take on a monster task in the morning
Taking on a big task that you’ve perhaps not been looking forward to in the morning will allow you to really focus on the rest of the day without that nasty task niggling away at your brain! Leaving gruelling tasks (perhaps admin) later into the day just increased the chances of said task being pushed back to the next day – the next day can easily turn into the next week! Of course, there will be things such as getting back to emails that you may have to deal with before you take on that hairy monster of a task, but don’t leave it too late!
3 – Keep priority-based lists
The humble list is your best friend. Whether you prefer the traditional pen and paper approach, or an online system such as Wunderlist, a list will help you to organise your work and will also stop you thinking about what you need to do. We advise making a list last thing, that means you know what you have to tackle the next day, but will also help you relax at night. Splitting tasks into priority levels is a simple way to ensure you are tackling tasks in the best possible order. Perhaps you could decide which ‘hairy monster’ you’ll take on first thing the next day?
As a bonus, here’s a brilliant video from TED full of productivity tips:
So there you go folks, hopefully our tips will make your day that little bit easier. If you’d like to discuss how we can increase your business’s productivity, please do contact us!
Do you have any great tips to share with our readers? Please do share them in the comments section.
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Image credits – messy desk is via Denise Krebs on Flickr and used under creative commons.
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