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03/03/2015 5 ways to improve your productivity at work Rediff.com http://www.rediff.com/getahead/report/career5waystoimproveyourproductivityatwork/20150303.htm?print=true 1/2 Print this article 5 ways to improve your productivity at work March 03, 2015 12:44 IST The challenge for the modern day professional is an everexpanding ‘todo’ list and an increase in time spent on work at and away from office. The answer may lie in improving your productivity getting more done in less time. That’s easier said than done though. Here are 5 workhabits you should consider adopting if you want to do more with less, time that is! 1. Do not call Venus Williams said ‘I focus on my goals and I try to ignore the rest.’ That is sound advice. Consider the sheer number of interruptions in our day ranging from email, phone calls, instant and phone messages and that doesn’t even count colleagues trying to get you to join their coffee break. Studies have shown that we may be interrupted as often as 73 times in a typical work day and that it may take as long as 2025 minutes after each break to get back to peak concentration. Clearly the first thing to do is turn off the distractions put that phone on silent, close that email window and put out that ‘do not disturb’ sign. Putting the task at hand at the forefront of the consciousness and letting it occupy all the focus and mental bandwidth is what we call being mindful about work. 2. Bust the multitasking myth Be honest! How many of you think ‘multitasking’ is one of your strengths? We’ve all tried working on emails while on a conference call or checking our messages while in a meeting but neuroscience tells us this is not multitasking the brain just switches from one task to the other. The bad news is that there is a significant loss of efficiency each way due to this switching. Stanford professor Clifford Nash puts it very bluntly ‘‘Multitaskers are terrible at every single aspect of multitasking. They’re terrible at ignoring irrelevant information, they’re terrible at keeping information in their head nicely and neatly organised, and they’re terrible at switching from one task to another’. The message is very clear do one thing at a time and do it well. 3. The plan truth Time management author Alan Lakein had famously said that failing to plan was the same as planning to fail. This suggests a way to approach the work day in a way designed to yield more output. Start the day by breaking it into 4 or 5 chunks of 90 or so minutes each that’s about the limit of concentrated effort the mind can take. Build in appropriate breaks and time off. Short bursts of concentrated effort are the way to go to get more done. 4. Join the club

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03/03/2015 5 ways to improve your productivity at work  Rediff.com

http://www.rediff.com/getahead/report/career5waystoimproveyourproductivityatwork/20150303.htm?print=true 1/2

Print this article

5 ways to improve your productivity at workMarch 03, 2015 12:44 IST

The challenge for the modern day professional is an everexpanding ‘todo’ list and anincrease  in  time  spent  on  work  at  and  away  from  office.  The  answer  may  lie  inimproving your productivity  getting more done in less time. That’s easier said thandone though. Here are 5 workhabits you should consider adopting if you want to domore with less, time that is!

1. Do not call

Venus Williams said  ‘I  focus on my goals and  I  try  to  ignore  the  rest.’  That  is  soundadvice. Consider the sheer number of interruptions in our day ranging from email, phonecalls,  instant and phone messages and  that doesn’t even count colleagues  trying  to getyou to join their coffee break. Studies have shown that we may be interrupted as often as73 times  in a  typical work day and that  it may take as  long as 2025 minutes after eachbreak to get back to peak concentration.

Clearly the first thing to do is turn off the distractions  put that phone on silent, close thatemail window and put out that ‘do not disturb’ sign.

Putting the task at hand at the forefront of the consciousness and letting it occupy all thefocus and mental bandwidth is what we call being mindful about work.

2. Bust the multitasking myth

Be honest! How many of you think ‘multitasking’ is one of your strengths? We’ve all triedworking on emails while on a conference call or checking our messages while in a meetingbut neuroscience tells us this is not multitasking  the brain just switches from one task tothe other.

The bad news is that there is a significant loss of efficiency each way due to this switching.Stanford professor Clifford Nash puts it very bluntly ‘‘Multitaskers are terrible at every single aspect of multitasking. They’re terrible at ignoring irrelevant information,they’re terrible at keeping information in their head nicely and neatly organised, and they’re terrible at switching from one task to another’.

The message is very clear  do one thing at a time and do it well.

3. The plan truth

Time management author Alan Lakein had famously said that failing to plan was the same as planning to fail. This suggests a way to approach the work day in a waydesigned to yield more output. Start the day by breaking it into 4 or 5 chunks of 90 or so minutes each  that’s about the limit of concentrated effort the mind can take.

Build in appropriate breaks and time off. Short bursts of concentrated effort are the way to go to get more done.

4. Join the club

Page 2: 5 Ways to Improve Your Productivity at Work - Rediff

03/03/2015 5 ways to improve your productivity at work  Rediff.com

http://www.rediff.com/getahead/report/career5waystoimproveyourproductivityatwork/20150303.htm?print=true 2/2

We have seen how the mind switches from one task to the other and also suggested to break the work day into manageable chunks. A natural extension emerges the suggestion is that in those chunks of concentrated work try to group activities that call for similar action or that can reduce the need for context switching.

An example is doing similar tasks like report preparation or addressing emails in clumps. 

5. The path to selfquantification

To know where one has to go, it is first imperative to know where one stands to start with. Selfquantification is a move to take a dispassionate view of one’s own workhabits to identify those that are causing time or effort to be wasted.

This also allows one to identify exactly what effort is being put into each task and the amount of time being spent on tasks that may not be core. Once you know what isnot working the logical next step is to be mindful of those habits and to slowly reduce their influence.   

Let me close with one more quote  Paul Meyer said ‘Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, andfocussed effort.’

Truer words may never have been spoken about the state of personal effort and achievement in the workplace today!

Photograph: hatalmas/Creative Commons

The author is AVP Sales  America, Sapience Analytics

Khiv Singh