How to work efficiently: Working smarter, not just longer

Productivity is arguably the most useful input to any successful venture whether studying, building a career or running a business, even if you have all the tools for success. If you can’t deploy the right resources at the right time, what are your chances of success? In this article, I will give a few tips that will make some real productivity improvements. 

For the most part, as millennials we fulfil multiple roles at once - speaking for myself I was once a full-time student and business owner, all whilst working part-time. It was essential then and even now to be productive to ensure that my time spent fulfilling each commitment was worthwhile. 

Before diving into my tips for productivity, let’s define it: 

Cambridge Dictionary defines productivity as, the rate at which a person, company, or country does useful work.

As mentioned above, productivity refers to the progress made in executing a task in an allocated time - here are some tips that I have found useful in being productive when I don't have much time to complete tasks

Stop multitasking 

For years, I convinced myself that multitasking was the best way to get through my to-do list when in reality I could do multiple things at once, but at the detriment of quality or speed. Think about it - how productive can you really be splitting your attention in two? Unless the task is passive i.e. folding laundry whilst listening to the radio, avoid multitasking. Most of the time, you are much better off prioritising your tasks and completing them one by one to prevent time-wasting. 

Create an optimal work environment, organise your task

Having an organised workspace with the right tools/resources improves your chances of productivity; before starting your task, get organised and ensure you have everything you need to complete the task. For example, if you were about to cook a meal, you would set up your work station, bring together your ingredients, then start cooking - preventing a situation where you have forgotten something essential.   

Use timers 

For a number of years, I have been using timers to boost my productivity since it created pressure to complete a task within a timeframe and sometimes prevented me from getting distracted. I set a 25-minute timer for solid working followed by a 5-minute break (the pomodoro technique).

There are many websites offering online timers, such as PomoFocus: https://pomofocus.io/

Goal setting 

When organising your workload it can be useful to set reasonable goals and use tools such as a productivity journal or productivity app like Todoist for tracking your tasks. I have been using it for three years and have created a range of lists such as University, Errands, Business and Appointments to keep on top of my workload. It has replaced my traditional paper to-do lists since I can access and update it from anywhere i.e. on my laptop, through the mobile app

Hopefully, these tips are useful to your productivity and you have taken something useful from this article.