10 Effective Ways to be Productive at Work

To be productive is to work smart, get the right thing and the most important thing done according to your plan and within a stipulated time frame in the most efficient way. However, there are other things to consider and avoid getting unproductive at the workplace:

1. Reduce procedures: To be productive is to simplify workflow. The trick is to avoid too much red tape to get a thing done like going to many departments and following many rules and getting approval from many people. It’s complicating to get a job done quickly.

2. Reduce meetings: Meetings are time-consuming. Try other more effective ways to get ideas, make decisions and discuss things without wasting everybody‘s time. The most important thing is to avoid meetings without a clear purpose.

The least productive people are usually the ones who are most in favor of holding meetings. ~Thomas Sowell

3. Reduce reports: Fewer reports mean more time for people to do the real job; workers work and salespeople sell.

4. Reduce paperwork: Examine existing forms and see if you can discard, reduce or combine a few forms into one so that less time is wasted on filling forms or other paperwork.

5. Follow the 80/20 rule: To get the most out of your business, concentrate on 20% of your customers who give you 80 % of the business. Spending more time on those people who matter the most to your revenue is the most productive thing to do.

6. Communicate more effectively: Be clear and concise in your written communication because you want to avoid misunderstanding and the need to clarify instead of getting a job done as instructed.

7. Impose deadlines: Parkinson’s Law says that ‘Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. It is important to have a deadline for every job so that it can be accomplished without undue delay.

8. Solicit ideas from workers: People on the job know what they are doing inside out. It is wise to seek suggestions from them to get things done more efficiently.

9. Personal productive habits: Some of the productive habits are:

• Plan ahead and carry a to-do list and be organized for the day
• Clear the clutter at the workplace.
• Take advantage of technology to do things faster and more accurately
• Doing one task at a time
• Be mindful at work
• Take breaks

10. Develop and train the workers: Invest more in workforce development because they are the ones who are responsible for the productivity of the company. Provide training and upgrade their skills so that they can be more productive and grow in their career.

At the end of each day, it is also a productive habit to take a few minutes to ask yourself a few questions and find out what you have achieved for the day:

•Was it a productive day?
• What have I learnt today?
• What were the challenges?
• How can I do better tomorrow?