Productivity Busters
No one can be productive every minute of every day. The average employee
actually only works approximately 6 hours of every 8 hour day - the rest is
taken up with breaks, chatting with co-workers, grabbing a cup of coffee,
travelling to and from meetings, etc. However, it is very easy to waste a
great deal of time during the day, and find yourself rushing at the last
minute or missing deadlines.
Common productivity busters are identified below, along with suggestions on
dealing with them:
1. Chatting with co-workers. While you should not undervalue the
importance of getting along with co-workers, it is easy to focus on the
social aspects of your job rather than the tasks at hand. Not only is
chatting not productive, it also looks bad, especially if it is disruptive
of other people's work. Learn how to say "I would love to chat, but I have
to get back to work now."
2. Working late/weekends: Tasks grow to fill the time allotted, so don't
let a task spill over past quitting time or into the weekend. A common
procrastination technique is to not do any real work during the day, and
then "catch up" after 5 p.m. or on weekends. While this might actually be a
valid strategy to employ once in a while if you find it difficult to get work
done during the day (due to meetings, telephone calls and other
distractions), it can be a bad habit to get into. In general, you will find
that you are not more productive - your per hour productivity will most
likely decrease, as well as the quality of your work, since you will be
tired and more likely to burn out. And waiting until after everyone has
gone home to get work done can mean that other people will not be around to
give you crucial feedback and information.
3. Don't forget to alternate work with breaks: nothing will hold your
attention 100% of the time, and staring at your computer screen doesn't
count as work. Break your work into 15 minute chunks, alternating with
smaller tasks or something fun like personal e-mail.
4. Disorganization: if you cannot find your notes from an important
meeting, don't know where you filed the previous version of a document, or
need to call someone and don't have the number, you will waste a good deal
of time every day. Whne this happens, figure out ways you could have saved that
time if you had an organizational system in place. Build time into your
weekly schedule to organize yourself.
5. Email, IM, surfing the Web: Do not kid yourself. If you are holding a
conversation with your spouse about your upcoming vacation on IM, you are
not giving the document you are editing your full attention. Multitasking
is possible if each task only takes a small percentage of your attention,
but just because the Powerpoint presentation is open on your desktop
doesn't mean you are actually working on it.
6. Perfectionism: Not every thing you do must be perfect. If
you find yourself spending hours laboring over an e-mail to a co-worker, or
revising and revising the layout of a draft document, you may be spending
far too much energy on inconsequential details. While over-delivering to a
client is terrific, you don't want to give away your
company's work for free. So if you have promised an outline, deliver an
outline, not the final product.
7. Accurately assess how long something will take: It is easy to
underestimate how long a task will take to complete.
8. Learn what distracts you: some people are
good in the morning and relish the few hours before everyone arrives.
Others hate mornings and would rather come in later and work past 5 p.m. for
some quiet time. Some people enjoy listening to their favorite CDs while
working, others find it too distracting. Find out what works for you and
make sure that your co-workers and boss understand that you are trying to
work in the most productive manner for you.
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