Productivity Resolutions To Simplify Your Workday All Year Long
Put your brain on
autopilot, make lists at the end of the day, and other simple tips and tricks
can help you have a more productive 2017.
Most New Year's resolutions don’t survive long enough to see
February. There are myriad reasons why our January 1 ambitions disappear, and
many abandon ship as soon as they realize just how difficult the journey will
be.
But having a more productive 2017 doesn’t require any
life-changing revelations or complete lifestyle overhauls. Minor changes to
routines, small adjustments to working habits, and a little bit more focus on a
few oft-ignored areas are not only simple ways to improve workplace performance
in the coming year, but can also help build habits that are more likely to survive
the entire year.
Here are 10 extremely simple hacks, tricks, and habit changes that
will lead to a more productive 2017.
Albert Einstein is often quoted as saying, "If a cluttered
desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a
sign?" While a desk that makes things difficult to find can be a
productivity killer, an empty desk can work against your motivation and
creativity.
"Keeping too much other
clutter around distracts me from getting things done," admits Michael
Pryor, the CEO of Trello, a project management and collaboration
software provider. Pryor instead recommends keeping no more than three items on
your desk at a time, adding that his features only a photo of his family and
his laptop.
Whatever permanent desk decorations
you choose, however, the key is to ensure that all the other stuff that piles
up is removed at the end of each workday. "When you start the workday with
a clean desk, you have fewer distractions and you can focus on the work at
hand," explains Janine Adams, a certified professional organizer and owner
of Peace of Mind
Organizing in St. Louis, Missouri.
For those who are accustomed to having their day meticulously
scheduled, it’s important to carve out a portion of the day and dedicate it to
the unschedulable, according to Pryor, who recommends leaving a 30-minute window
open each day.
"I try not to overschedule myself," he says.
"Sometimes the best moments of creativity happen while I’m passing by
someone’s office or having an informal, unplanned lunch."
Bridging one day’s productivity over to the next is often a
challenge, which is why many spend the first part of their day figuring out
where they left off the night before. You can save yourself a bit of time and
early-morning mental capacity by instead making a short to-do list at the end
of each day, says Adams.
"A really helpful part of your end-of-the-day routine can be
to jot down the three or four most important tasks you need to get done
tomorrow," she says. "If they’re in your face when you get to work,
you can hop right to them before competing priorities rear their heads."
In fact, the humble to-do list is
Girls Who Code founder Reshma Saujani's favorite productivity hack. She tells Fast Company that
those lists include "what I want to accomplish this week, when do I want
to get it done, how do I want to get it done."
Everyone has a time of day when they’re most productive, and it
doesn’t necessarily fall between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Pryor defines it as the period when he’s "getting through the
most work without sticking to a strict schedule."
Whether you’re a morning person, a night owl, or someone who’s
only fully awake after their first cup of coffee, it’s important to find your
optimal productivity time and make the most of it.
"For instance, if you get more done in the morning than the
afternoon, try starting work earlier in the day on a busy day," says
Adams. "That makes your morning longer, giving you more optimal work
time."
We can’t all be firing on all cylinders all the time, and when
those sluggish moments inevitably arrive, it’s good to be prepared with a to-do
list packed with low mental-capacity activities.
"You can't be at 100% all of
the time, so you want to have stuff that you can do when your brain is kind of
fried but you still need to be working," says Lisa Zaslow, an
organizational productivity expert and founder of Gotham Organizers. "That's
the time to clear out your inbox, enter contacts into your database, or make
follow-up calls."
Many high-performing athletes are
known for quirky pregame rituals and superstitions: Think Michael Phelp’s
preswim hoodie and headphones moments, Michael Jordan’s lucky shorts, or Tiger
Woods’s red Nike shirt. Taking a moment to follow a routine before entering a
high-pressure situation has been proven effective,
and not just for professional athletes.
"It’s about having a few simple steps that you can repeat
consistently so that you know, 'Now I'm going into focus mode'," says
Zaslow, explaining that these rituals can range from clearing off your desk to
breaking out a lucky pen to striking a power pose. "Having these
consistent steps can decrease anxiety and give you a sense of control in a
situation where you might not have a ton of control, and studies show it
actually does increase performance," she adds.
Some of the world’s most productive
people, including Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, and Barack Obama, were known
for wearing the same outfit every single day, and for
good reason.
"You'll see I wear only gray
or blue suits," Obama once told Vanity Fair. "I'm
trying to pare down decisions. I don't want to make decisions about what I’m
eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make."
Though it may sound boring, putting decisions like what to eat and
what to wear on autopilot can help significantly improve productivity.
"Productivity is a function of your brain energy and the
actual time you spend on stuff, and so often the mental space slows us down
more than the actual work," says Zaslow. "Picking a couple of things,
either in your personal or business life, where you basically just set 'em and
forget 'em, saves a lot of time."
They say that perfect is the enemy of the good, and while we
should all strive to do our best work, being a perfectionist can be very
unproductive. Zaslow explains that some important projects may require the
extra time and attention, but too often we fall into the trap of wasting
significant time on minor details.
"Not for every single project, but if you're trying to find a
perfect word in an email, nobody really cares," she says. Zaslow says she
even employed this tactic when designing her company’s website. "The goal
that I set for myself was to be 80% happy with it, because I knew I would just
never be 100% happy with it. If you're not wasting time on that last 20%, you
can just end projects and move on to the next."
JARED LINDZON
https://www.fastcompany.com
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