It’s important to be productive, especially if you need to do a lot of things.
Want to know how to stay on top of the game?
Here are some effective productivity tips for you.
Do your most important work first
By scheduling your most important task of the day first, you set the tone for the rest of the day, and your business will move forward with incredible speed.
Check e-mail on a schedule
If you aren’t going to touch things twice, you can’t allow e-mail to be a constant interruption. You should check e-mail on a schedule, taking advantage of features that prioritize messages by sender.
Set alerts for your most important vendors and best customers, and save the rest until the scheduled time. You could even set up an autoresponder that lets senders know when you’ll be checking your e-mail again.
Employ time-blocking
Having a to-do list is not a bad thing in itself. But why do so many people create a huge to-do list and never accomplish the items on it?
Simply take your to-do list and give each item a place on your calendar. it doesn’t matter if you use a physical calendar or an online one; simply block out time to work through each item on your list.
Then, when you are in your time-block, don’t allow yourself to get distracted. Shut off your phone, don’t check your email (unless you are in your “check email time” block) and just get it done.
Never touch things twice
Never touch things twice. That’s it. Never put anything in a holding pattern, because touching things twice is a huge time-waster.
Don’t save an email or a phone call to deal with later. As soon as something gets your attention you should act on it, delegate it, or delete it.
Avoid multitasking
To make my system work, you’re also going to have to avoid multitasking. It’s a real productivity killer. Research conducted at Stanford University confirms that multitasking is less productive than doing a single thing at a time.
The researchers found that people who are regularly bombarded with several streams of electronic information cannot pay attention, recall information or switch from one job to another as well as those who complete one task at a time.
Multitasking reduces your efficiency and performance because your brain can only focus on one thing at a time. When you try to do two things at once, your brain lacks the capacity to perform both tasks successfully.
Never touching things twice means only touching one thing at a time.
