Tips and Reasons

During economic recessions and downturns, one word is most often heard: ‘Layoffs.’ Companies downsize to reduce costs. However, it is in their best interest to retain the most productive employees during these difficult times. Whether your job involves door to door sales, calling or receiving calls, packing, emailing, writing code, or even delivering snail mail, the tips I give below should help you in increasing your productivity and becoming a valuable asset for your company.

1.) Be on Time

This is the first and the most crucial step to improving your productivity. If you come to work on time, you give yourself the maximum possible time to complete your tasks. The more time you have the more work gets done. You do not tend to rush, when you have plenty of time. This ensures that the quality of your work is maintained.

‘Punctuality is the soul of business.’ ~ Thomas C. Haliburton

2.) Know Your Work

Knowing what you need to do and when saves a lot of time. I’ve seen two types of people at my workplace. In the event of a problem coming up, the first groups runs helter-skelter for help and to find out how to solve that problem. The other group had spent their free time reading internal resources on the products or service they work on. This way, the second group already knew what they needed to do. I find such people almost every time in the top performers list. Therefore, it is important to know your company’s policies and procedures really well, or at least know where to go for information. If you know your resources well, you can save a good amount of time everyday.

3.) Plan Your Day Ahead

When you come in to work, its great to make a list of the things you plan to do for that day. Arrange them in an order that best suits your schedule. Keep meetings, breaks, lunch, etc. in mind while you do this. Write them down on a marker board (if your company gives you one), or on post it notes or even a notebook. Put a tick mark next to a task, once you complete it. Its not a requirement, but I just love the feeling of putting a tick mark next to a task. Its assures you that you are making progress, and works positively in your mind.

4.) Learn From Others

If you are new, or are struggling to hit those numbers, a great way to overcome this is to watch others work. This reminds me of a story that I related during the group discussion I had for my first job interview. The story was about a young lumberjack (Sam) who was always beaten by an old one (Mac), in terms of numbers. Sam started working harder, skipping breaks and even lunch, but was never able to beat Mac. Mac always managed to cut down more trees that the young and stronger Sam. Frustrated, Sam had a talk with his manager who advised him to take a break for a day and just observe what the Mac was doing differently. Sam agreed, and the next day he just observed Mac from a distance. First, he noticed that Mac always selected trees close to the road, so he can save time in transporting them to the mill. Second, he sharpened his axe at regular intervals (which Sam never did). This gave him tremendous advantage over someone who was using only brute force to cut his way to big numbers.

I suggest observing how top performers work in your company. I don’t think any company would disallow their workers from doing so. Trust me, there are always short cuts and smart thinking behind those great numbers people show.

5.) Use Shortcuts

You should already have an idea about the importance of shortcuts from the previous point. This is really important, and, therefore, I am listing it as a separate point altogether. When ever you do work, think about how you can do this differently. Focus on ways you can do you work faster and easily. For example: If your job involves moving around in the city everyday, plan your routing. Use the shortest route to do the maximum possible work.

I once had to send emails to hundreds of different customers. Since the text of the email was the same, we decided on sending a bulk email. The problem started when we found out that those email addresses were not comma-separated. Comma-separating them was the only format in which the email client would accept them. “Manually separating them is the only way” is what someone said. However, upon doing a little research, I found out that Microsoft Excel has a formula that can be used to comma-separate a given list of words or email addresses. This way, I completed what would otherwise take around 30-minutes, in under one minute. I not only saved time, but also the pain and the agony any repetitive task can cause.

6.) Identify Repetitive Tasks

Once you have done a considerable amount of work, you will know which tasks are rare and which ones repeat themselves. Once you have identified the repetitive tasks, think of ways you can reduce your time spent on them. Think about ways to automate them.

At the macro level, if you work is computer related, you can have you company’s engineers create automated systems and shortcuts for you. This will allow you to have time to focus on different things, rather than spending time on things that a machine or software can do.

At the micro level, you can develop you own ways of tackling repetitive tasks. Do you find yourself typing the same text in many emails everyday? Instead, type it once and keep it saved where you can access the same text whenever you need it. Copy and pasting text is easier than typing the whole thing over and over again. Common sense, isn’t it?

7.) Control Your Breaks

Another reason why people tend to be less productive is the number of breaks they take. This is mostly seen in companies that do not regulate the number of breaks their employees take. If your company gives you the power to choose when you take breaks and for how long, use it responsibly. I am not suggesting that you stop taking breaks at work. As a matter of fact, I believe that breaks are necessary for better productivity. Its just that they should be in sync with your work, and not become a hindrance.

8.) Relax and Have Fun

The final tip is to relax while you work and enjoy what you do. You become less productive under pressure and stress. If you get stressed out, take a short break. If possible, go read a newspaper, or play a physical game. It will help you get your mind off of work. These short breaks and activities can refresh you and bring you back to your normal pace, improving your overall productivity.

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Start using these tips, and develop some of your own. The list does not end here. These are some that I could think of based on my exposure and work experience. All the best!

YHK

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