Business Tips
6/14/2022

Use Time Effectively to Boost Productivity

Because  actions  come  from  attitudes,  increasing  productivity  may  require  reshaping  some  of  the attitudes that now dictate how you use time. Consider these time use practices that affect productivity and see how attitudes are involved:


1. Concentrate on high priority activities.

The quickest and most effective route to increasing productivity  is  to  spend  time  on  tasks  that  advance  important  goals.  Make  certain  you  spend  your time on work that really matters; otherwise, you may be completely consumed by trivial details. Hours may be spent solving problems that can be solved by others. Respond  to  concerns  expressed  by  various team  members  through  empowering  them to solve their own problems. This approach saves you valuable time and gives others the opportunity to develop commitment, a sense of ownership, and skill to solve significant problems. Help others spend their  time  on  their  high  priority  activities and  concentrate  your time  and  effort  on high priority activities that lead to the achievement of your goals.


2. Exercise self-discipline.

Self-discipline enables people to stay focused on a task and work on it until it is complete. Establish your priorities and then refuse to let distractions, interruptions, or happenings of the moment destroy your concentration. Discipline yourself to give tasks only the amount of time and effort they truly deserve from you, or delegate them to other appropriate team members. Either alternative  requires  thoughtful  evaluation  and  consideration  –  and  conscientious  self-discipline. Perfectionists especially must learn to exert the self-discipline to delegate selected jobs to someone else  who may  not  do  the  job  quite  as  well  as  they  would  but  who  can  still  meet  essential  quality standards. How else will another learn to perform this job? In such cases, perfectionists must learn to accept  less  than  perfection  in  the  interest  of  increasing  the  contributions  of  others, creating  new opportunities, and maintaining overall effectiveness and productivity.


3. Be  persistent.  

Careful  planning  and  goal  setting,  determination  to  achieve,  and  recognizing  the benefits of reaching a goal are all vital to personal productivity. This combination of factors enables one to be persistent, and persistence is always characteristic of the successful individual. Many people eagerly take on new jobs, new responsibilities, and new assignments, starting with a great splash and making quick progress, but they soon lose momentum, never finishing the job. In contrast, productive people  set  definite  goals,  plan  carefully,  and  concentrate  their  attention  on  the  action  required  to meet  each  goal.  Persistent  individuals  keep  their  goal in  mind  and  work  tenaciously  toward  it  until
they savor the success of achieving it.


4. Get  started!  

The  best  way  to  guarantee  completion  of  a  project  is  to  get  started  on  it  –  now!  Two reasons account for failure to accomplish important jobs  – people  either never start, or they never finish. Both unproductive time patterns fall under the debilitating umbrella of procrastination. Several patterns  of  faulty  thinking  account  for  most  procrastination.  Following  these  guidelines  will  enable you to avoid these pitfalls:


- Begin on required work and continue without relying on “feeling like it.” Getting started is often the
most difficult part of a project; once begun, “inspiration” often follows. Thomas Edison, the famous
American inventor, put it well when he said, “Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent
perspiration.”


- Face the fact that some jobs will never be “easy” – now or later. Break the job down into logical steps
to make it more manageable at each stage. Get started on the job, working in a systematic method,
and you will enjoy a sense of mastery that enables you to complete the job!


- Strive  for  results  –  not  perfection.  Overemphasis  on  perfection  nearly  always  renders  negative
consequences – immobilizing fear of making mistakes, discouragement, and preoccupation with what
others  think  rather  than  genuine  productivity.  Productive  people  distinguish  between  what  is
important and what is not. They set aside a reasonable amount of time to accomplish a specific task;
then they stick to their deadline. They recognize some tasks simply are not important enough to lavish
too much time or effort on them. Even on genuinely significant projects truly productive individuals
simply strive for results – not perfection.