Everybody wants to be productive. They may be working hard but they’re still not being as productive as they might like. So what gives? Why the lack of productivity? Does the problem lie with our circumstances? Or is it our methods that need some improvement?
As someone who used to work all the time but couldn’t get things done, I can understand your frustration. I always wanted to make a difference and establish myself. Through lots of struggles and hardships, I was able to identify the reasons behind my unproductivity. Today, I would like to share them with you so that they might be of use to you as well.
No Goals
The first and most important rule when trying to better yourself – goal setting. Most people make the mistake of not setting goals or pursuing the wrong goals from the start. If you don’t have a set goal, how will you improve your life? Without goals, your life will be aimless. That may seem like a nice and unstressful way to live but it will be subject to the whims and demands of others. This will leave you without a purpose in life.
No Right Goals
Have you decided what your goals are going to be? If yes then that’s great. Just make sure that they’re the right goals. If your goals are wrong then you’re most likely wasting your time.
But what are the right goals though? In my opinion, the right goals should be big, inspiring, specific, and time-bound. Just make sure that your set goals are for yourself and not what others want for you.
No Deadlines
Have you heard of Parkinson’s Law? It Is the adage that “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”. This implies that it doesn’t matter how hard the task is or how efficient our methods are, the actual time taken depends on the time that we allocate for it.
For example, if the task takes three hours and you’ve allocated six hours to it, then you’re probably going to finish it in six hours.
Trying to Multitask
It’s important to always improve yourself and do more but trying to do everything at the same time will inevitably get nothing done. This will eventually overwhelm and stress you to no end. Concentrate on your top tasks and aim to complete them first. Use the Pareto Principle or 80/20-rule and give importance to the 20% tasks that greatly influence your top goals.
No Schedule
There’s no point to any goal or deadline if you’re not following a schedule. Just making a to-do-list is not enough. You need to mark the events on your calendar as well. This will serve as a constant reminder and let you estimate how much time it takes you to finish certain tasks.
Not Taking Advantage of Travel Time
Many of us use local transport to travel to and from work but waste our commute time by surfing the net or going through our social media feed. This time is precious so use it efficiently. Try reading a self-help book or taking a power nap during the commute. Be productive during this time and use it to set the tone for the day.
No Conductive Work Environment
Is your work environment good? Are there lots of distractions around it? On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your work environment? Most of us work in an average environment i.e. 3 to 5. Noisy coworkers, bad table height, disorganized workplaces, etc. all make for a bad work environment.
Wasting Time on YouTube
Like social media, YouTube channels can waste a lot of our time as well. Even half an hour can go by when watching an interesting video. Unsubscribe from all of your favorite channels. You’ll soon realize that most of them were not worth your time anyway.
There are some channels that you’ll intentionally visit to watch their latest video. These are the ones that actually hold your interest.
Not Tracking Your Time
When you’re working on a task, it’s easy to lose track of time and spend unnecessary hours on a relatively unimportant task. Sure you could try looking at the clock a couple of times but that’s not very reliable as you can easily forget to check it after a while. Useemployee monitoring software to make deadlines, improve productivity, and maintain a work-life balance.
Contributed by https://stafftimerapp.com/
