How to be more productive at work? Try meditation, donât be afraid to say âno,â and avoid starting your day by reading emails.
Did you set a New Yearâs resolution to advance in your job and work more efficiently than ever before? If so, thatâs highly commendable. Now comes the challenge: actually putting that plan into action. Hereâs how you can do it.
Stay Positive
While some Nordic countries have been experimenting with a six-hour workday for some time, in the Czech Republic, traditional eight-hour workdays still dominate. Even so, it can happen that you canât get everything done in those eight hours as planned. Suddenly, your boss might interrupt with an urgent task, seemingly impossible to complete, and you start thinking about how to avoid it. Thatâs the wrong approach.
Instead of looking for excuses, focus on ways to complete your bossâs request as efficiently as possible. If the task is large, break it down into smaller steps and tackle them one by one. Most importantly, stay positive – if you start with resistance, it will likely slow you down.
Learn from Others
Going your own way can be original, but itâs often slow. To adopt new habits quickly, look for inspiration from others. Learn from people you consider successful and whose advice you trust, whether someone in your company or a globally recognized figure. Speaking of the famous, do you know what rules they follow to stay productive?
Try Meditation
Work is important, it earns you a living, but donât let it consume you. If you canât make time for yourself, youâll eventually pay the price. How you relax is personal. If sports arenât your thing, try something else. For example, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates swears by meditation. It helps him organize his thoughts and focus better, and unlike jogging, it takes very little time. Gates meditates about twice or three times a week for no more than 10 minutes at a time.
Donât Be Afraid to Say âNoâ
The late Steve Jobs believed that the key to productivity is learning to say âno.â Without this skill, you cannot fully focus on what matters most.
Warren Buffett, another American billionaire, agreed, saying: âThe difference between successful people and truly successful people is that the truly successful say ânoâ to almost everything.â
Avoid Emails When Not Necessary
Reading incoming emails can eat up a huge portion of your day. You canât eliminate it completely, you need to stay informed, but you can limit it to only the most important messages. Not sure how? Follow the advice of LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner.
Weinerâs simple but effective strategy: the fewer emails you send, the fewer you receive. If itâs not necessary to reply, donât. This rule has reportedly worked very well for him.
Cool Down Before Responding
Even though emails are a minor part of your main work, they can ruin your mood for hours. To prevent this, follow the principle used by former Facebook spokesperson Randi Zuckerberg: never start reading emails within 20 minutes of waking up, and if an email makes you angry, close it and wait until your emotions subside before responding.
Leaving Meetings Early Isnât Rude
Another fairly significant factor that can âstealâ a lot of your time is constant meetings, briefings, and appointments. Their number increases the higher your position in the company. Elon Musk, founder of the space company SpaceX and CEO of Tesla, had to deal with this problem in the past. Over time, he adopted a relatively simple solution: any meeting that does not provide added value is unnecessary. He therefore advises his employees that, once they reach this conclusion, they should simply leave the meeting early. According to him, this is by no means rude, as time is extremely valuable in todayâs fast-paced world.
Make Decisions with 70% of the Information
If you need to make a decision as part of your role, make it as quickly as possible. This is the principle followed by Amazonâs CEO and the worldâs richest man, Jeff Bezos. According to him, it is possible to give a clear directive even when you have only 70 percent of all the information you would ideally like to have. But what if it later turns out that the decision was wrong? According to Bezos, it doesnât really matter. He believes that most decisions can be reversed, and therefore adjusted. Of course, you shouldnât delay too long in making the necessary corrections.
Invest in Education and Personal Development
Whether you choose short courses or a full management program, education is always a good way to acquire new habits and skills, including in the area of efficiency. Even while completing study obligations, you learn to be effective, meet deadlines, and set the right priorities. Moreover, you do this under the guidance of experienced instructors, with the opportunity to be inspired not only by them but also by your fellow students.
Sources:
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/11/productivity-tips-from-elon-musk-jeff-bezos-steve-jobs-and-more.html
https://zeny.e15.cz/clanek/v-praci/6-cest-jak-byt-v-praci-efektivnejsi
