Tips for Increased Productivity

Most of us are trying to find more time during the day. You can stop looking; we all get the same 24 hours days. What matters is how we use our time. Really the habits we form, the systems we use to process our many pieces of paper, the priorities we choose to honor.

Here are ten easy tips to implement. Pick two to try implementing. And then try to two more.

1. Register with www.damchoice.org to reduce junk mail and spam.
2. Schedule specific amounts of time to review and dispense with your mail, voice mail and email.
3. Have a shredder and recycle bin near where you process mail.
4. Use the same planner for home and office. One life=one planner
5. Group related activities together (phone calls, email, errands).
6. Schedule more time for tasks than you think it will take.
7. Recycle as much correspondence as possible but shred any correspondence with your name or address on it.
8. Don’t write an email when a telephone call will be shorter.
9. Always carry a small pad, smartphone, or iPad to record notes and capture ideas.
10. Use task lighting and analog clocks.

Here are ten harder tips to implement that are worth the effort. Pick one to make on; some are harder than others.

1. Shift your thinking so that your master to-do list becomes a list of options which includes your have-tos, should-dos and want-tos. Give yourself credit for everything you do.
2. Recognize you can’t do everything. Work on the 20% of the activities that produce 80% of your results.
3. Schedule appointments with yourself to complete priority work or do something enjoyable but honor that appointment as you would any other appointment.
4. Write a personal mission statement and goals for all areas of your life. This can be a long process, take care to do it well.
5. Back-up your computer on an external drive and cloud service.
6. Set deadlines on all tasks that you delegate.
7. Don’t keep shuffling papers; handle each item only once whenever possible. Do it, recycle it, file it, delegate it or schedule a time to do it later.
8. Be time conscious rather than a perfectionist. Let the amount of time spent on a task be proportionate to the value of the outcome.
9. Say No, more often. Have as much respect for your own time as you have for other people’s time.
10. Have meetings start on time, end on time and have a timed agenda.