3 Notorious Productivity Killers and How to Fight Them

Gone are the days when people used to work a 9-5 job. These days, there is a fixed time by when you should reach your office but no such time for leaving it. Everyone is putting in as much time as possible just to get the work done, but somehow, time management simply eludes us.

To be efficient and productive, you need to learn ways so as to save time. Learning time management skills can come handy so that you are able to complete your work despite reducing the amount of time you spend in your office.

According to research conducted, the top three productivity killers are interruptions, procrastination and inaccurate plans that can foil your best attempts at getting work done on time.

If you wish to get home early, you need to know how to fight these productivity killers and halt them in their tracks. Read along to know tricks to learn time management by fighting off these notorious productivity killers.

Filter and prioritize interruptions

You will be surprised to know that on average people are interrupted every 8 minutes! Imagine how annoying and disrupting it can be, not only to the work at hand but also the thought process. You end up using more time after every interruption to regain your momentum.

This is because we end up losing our train of thought and thereby precious time. An easy way to tackle this issue of constant interruption at the workplace, you need to prioritize the incoming tasks into one of the four categories.

• Urgent and important tasks – These need to be dealt with pronto or as soon as possible.
• Urgent but not important tasks – Since they are not important, they can be scheduled for a later time.
• Not urgent but important tasks – These tasks can be delegated to someone else so that the work is done efficiently.
• Not urgent and not important tasks – If they are neither urgent nor important, why waste your or someone else’s time on them. Simply say no to the task and move on.

Find out and remove the reason of your procrastination

Have you been accused of procrastination? Or have you ever scrutinized your work and found that your productivity is hampered due to your behavior of putting tasks away for a later time?

Constant postponement of the task given to you or delaying something at hand can occur due to several reasons. Once you know what is causing you to procrastinate, you can easily eliminate the reason and improve your productivity. The most common reasons found for procrastination include.

1. If given a big task, you don’t know where to begin – If this is the issue you face, then instead of thinking of it as a huge task, consider it to be made up of several small tasks. This will not only reduce the burden on your mind but also make things more manageable.
2. The task seems boring to you – If the task does not excite you, don’t worry. Find something to inspire you and your team. Discussing the importance of the work to the organization or business is one of the ways to motivate yourself to go ahead with it.
3. Too tired to focus on the task – If lack of focus is your issue, then all you need to do is take a short break. This will not only take your mind off the stressful situation but also refresh your brain and provide it with the necessary energy to tackle anything, head-on.

Plan your work in two stages to get it done efficiently

Strategic planning can get much accomplished with limited resources and time in hand. You should plan your work in two stages.

• Stage 1 – Project managers should split the projects into phases with milestone delivery dates. There should be a fixed agenda regarding what should be accomplished by each milestone.
• Stage 2 – Discuss with the team on ways to plan the steps required to reach every milestone within the stipulated time. The combined knowledge and experience of the team can help you tackle all the roadblocks and challenges thrown in the way while utilizing the opportunities available.

To see yourself succeed in the future, you need to stay away from these productivity killers by taking preventive action today! Here’s an easy way to do that.

• 1^st step – Make an availability schedule and share it with colleagues to make them aware when you are free for any interruption.
• 2^nd step – Plan timely breaks for increased productivity. Enter them in your calendar so that you give your brain rest from time to time.
• 3^rd step – Fix a set time to handle all requests and interruptions instead of leaving the work at hand to tackle them as and when they come.
• 4^th step – Keep revising your to-do list. reschedule if required and break bigger projects into smaller and manageable tasks.

Infographic brought to you by Wrike online project collaboration tool.

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