PRODUCTIVITY – THE SECRET YOU’VE BEEN MISSING

Ever thought why sometimes we feel so frazzled, depleted and stressed? Because we don’t manage our work correctly, therefore, our energy. We don’t organize our day. That’s the secret to productivity we have been missing — mapping out our priorities.

• Prioritize Ruthlessly

Prioritization is directly linked to getting more out of the limited time that you’ve got each day. It can be a blessing to work out everything from productivity to time management to work-life balance.

Not able to prioritize your to-do?

Being productive isn’t about doing more; it is about doing what’s needed by focusing on the tasks in the right way—in other words, prioritizing.

When it comes to prioritizing, everyone has a way to do. Its the very first step whenever you are working over a project — know what your work is. Make a list of things along with the deadlines. When you do this, you will know ahead what is essential and what is not. Hence you’ll be able to divide your work into; today’s task, recurring tasks, and projects.

• • Which Tasks Are Necessary, Urgent, or Both

Necessary means “something that needs instant attention.” Most of us have trouble prioritizing our tasks as per necessity and urgency because it is difficult to distinguish.

You can use the Eisenhower Method of Prioritization, where you take a matrix-based solution to differentiate between urgent and necessary tasks. The four quadrants of the matrix are as follows

• Necessary & Urgent (Do it now)
• Necessary & Not Urgent (schedule a time for it)
• Not Necessary, but Urgent (who can do it)
• Neither Necessary nor Urgent (Delete it)

When you finish with this labelling, it will help you in decision-making, and you can focus on what matters to you. 

• • Create Your To-Do List

The importance of making a to-do list is to finish every project. To-do list is the best way to organize everything that you have to accomplished for the coming days.

This idea of creating a to-do list might be a common one. But if you don’t do it right, it won’t be helpful. Check whatever you have on your plate and smartly prioritize your tasks. Note it on the list before you plan to do it. This way your mind will remain organized when everything is written on your to-do list—thereby increasing your productivity.

The list can increase your productivity and output by 25% if you are dedicatedly working on it. When you plan your to-do list, your subconscious mind will know what to work on first and what to work later.

How to prioritize?

• Break down your list based on deadlines
• Break tasks down to manageable sub-tasks
• Use labels to prioritize, organize and differentiate tasks.
• Estimate time to define how much time each task should take
• Create recurring tasks
• Track time spent on tasks using timers or manually.

• Quick Communication

Irrespective to the size of the team, preparing priorities and communicating it to the team can cause misunderstandings, stress, and frustration. But when you are communicating clearly from the beginning until the end of a project, you can avoid troubling emotions.

Staying in the loop with the team will give an excellent chance to share how they’re feeling, what’s challenging them and what’s pulling them down.

• Time Management

A productive time planner will bring all your data in one place. When you come up with great ideas to put forward, you can prioritize tasks to make sure you get the job done faster.