Power Up Your Productivity – How to Work Smarter, Not Harder!

It really doesn’t matter what business sector you work within, whether you are working from the 25th floor of a London high rise office or whether you work from home (which we imagine is still the case for a large number of UK employees). At some point, there comes the fear that the only way to balance work, life, success and everything in between is to obtain some form of qualification in professional juggling. 

 

Most of us now have jobs which are as diverse as we are, with many tasks of varying levels requiring completion at any one time. Whilst you are, of course, skilled and proficient at all of these tasks and are no doubt very busy, the real question is are you being as productive as you could be? 

 

Last time we checked, there is no qualification in professional juggling and trust us when we say that absolutely no-one is born with a natural flair for productivity! However, time management and productivity are skills that can be honed and tweaked continuously throughout our personal and professional lives to help us all stay cool, calm and collected when the to-do list seems never-ending. 

 

Here are a few of our personal favourite tips that can really help to refine and finesse the way in which you work. 

 

 

Not surprisingly, having a dedicated work space that is set up just for you is one of the easiest ways to improve your productivity. Of course, it is nice to work from comfy sofas, snuggly beds and snack laden dining tables but these really aren’t going to help you long term. For all the intelligence we have, there are certain associations that our brains really struggle to unpick. By making your brain constantly try to work out whether it’s time to work or relax, you’re ultimately just slowing yourself down. 

 

Of course you might not have the luxury of an entirely separate room but even just a small desk in the corner of an existing one is better than nothing. There are certainly many different ideas for small and cost savvy work spaces littered throughout the internet. Whatever you choose to do, the workplace you create should make you feel comfortable and happy. Accessorise your space to your tastes and make it somewhere you want to be rather than somewhere you dread. Most importantly of all, keep it tidy! Clutter and mess is just another thing to distract your mind from the task at hand, a quick tidy at the end of each day will keep it fresh and ready for work. 

 

 

It’s no secret that making notes helps us not only to remember but also keeps our minds clear allowing us to focus on individual tasks. So why try and operate your day ad-hoc with thoughts of tasks and deadlines cluttering your brain? By beginning each day with a clear plan on what tasks you will be undertaking and what time you will be allocating to each, it means you can dedicate 100% of your attention to each one in due course. 

 

There are so many methods and tools for doing this, from simply scheduling your tasks in your email/calendar to full blown task managing apps and software that you simply cannot fail. Planning can be done to cover whatever timeframe you need from one week right the way to one year ahead and thankfully, this isn’t just limited to work items, you can introduce personal tasks into the mix too, allowing you to fully manage that coveted work life balance. 

 

 

For any of you that work from home you’ll be familiar with the misconception held by a lot of people that we all work in our pyjamas or slouchy clothes all day and, whilst to them, this is seen as a luxury opportunity we are all too aware of the drawbacks of doing so. Flitting back to that pesky brain association issue, when we wear our comfy relaxing/sleeping clothes, oddly enough our brains tell us that it is time to do just that. 

 

Now, by no means are we saying that you should be donning on full business attire with high heels and a face so full of makeup it would make a drag queen blush, but there is something to be said for wearing something that inspires you. The clothes that we wear have a tremendous effect on the way we feel and in turn the way we feel has a similar sized effect on the way we work. So throw on those jeans that make you feel confident, the top that makes you feel sophisticated, and the jewellery that makes you happy because all of those things will be reflected in the quality of work you produce. 

 

 

Ask yourself this…What is my time really worth? 

 

So many of us waste valuable time doing invaluable tasks each day that could be done more quickly or efficiently by automation. For many people there is the fear that either the process will go wrong or that by automating items you are somehow failing in your duties as a business owner. If this is you then we’re sorry to say but you aren’t maximising your time. 

 

From email and social media scheduling to accounting packages and web bots – there are so many tools out there that can reduce the amount of tasks on your daily to-do list vastly. Just one hour of social media each day could potentially have been 5 hours extra work spent on more valuable or profitable ventures. If automated solutions aren’t your cup of tea then you can always look at outsourcing the daily tasks to a virtual assistant in order to free up your mental space and physical time.