Time Management Blog

How’s your productivity lately?

Information overload is a real problem that we have to deal with. We check our emails every five seconds. Our mobile phones beep like sirens every five minutes. The internet calls out to us like the sea and meetings are called almost every week. Whew! How can we ever catch up with everything?

The result? Backlogs pile up at the office. Bosses shouting orders at us to finish things ASAP! Don’t you ever wish we are still living in the pre-mobile phone era?

Productivity suffers as a result of too much information that we have to deal with. Here are five tips on increasing productivity in this age of information overload.

1. Wake up early. Mornings are magical. When you see the darkness rolled away by the light, you can almost smell the dew. If you’re not the sentimental type, you can always start your day right away and start banging away at your keyboard or do your morning rituals briefly before working.

2. Write down the tasks for the day. Go get your Smartphone or your old fashioned organizer and list down the things you need to do for the day. It doesn’t have to be very elaborate as long as you can list down everything. I usually write down everything because if I don’t, I risk forgetting about them.

3. Prioritize your to-do list. When you have listed down your tasks, arrange them according to significance. Put routine tasks at the bottom of the list because they are the ones requiring less thinking and attention. Prioritize urgent matters, followed by the important ones, and the routine tasks come last.

4. Work on one task after another. Whoever popularized multi-tasking should be punished. Just kidding. There’s a limit to what you can do effectively. To maximize your attention span and your work flow. Do one thing after another. This way, you are less likely to be distracted by other work.

5. Keep your mobile phone away from you and do not sign on to online Instant Messengers. Unless you are on call, keep your mobile away from you. Likewise, if instant messengers are not really necessary in doing your job, you might as well not sign in. SMS and instant messengers are two of the top distractions at work. If you don’t want to be disturbed by them. Just keep them off your desk.

Your job is important to you. Delivering your work output everyday is crucial. By increasing your productivity, you are contributing to the success of your company.