Tips for Achieving Incredible Output Throughout The Day

Let’s face it: At a time when there is so much to do and so little time, everyone is looking to make the most of their day. What everyone wants is to save more time and have more time to themselves while delivering optimal output at work or in business.

Whether that’s getting more done at work, sticking to a regular exercise routine, or dealing with the demanding nitty-gritties of pushing a start-up company forward—we all want to be more efficient.

Other than the conventional to-do list and manic multitasking, are there other ways that can truly make a difference in the way you work and the level of productivity you achieve at the end of the day?

Don’t call for meetings and don’t attend meetings

Meetings are one of the biggest time wasters. For some people, entrepreneurs and employees alike, meetings can consume up to 10 hours of their workweek. This is obviously time that could be put into good use to get things done.

Whether you spend too much time attending in-house meetings or meeting other people as part of your business, it could be time to get rid of these meetings unless they are absolutely necessary.

Many companies are realizing the amount of time weekly meetings are costing them and are completely doing away with them unless there is an important agenda to be discussed. The same applies to one-on-one meeting; use other forms of communication to interact and only meet up with someone when there is a clear agenda.

Are you busy or just lazy?

Are you usually surprised when the morning or afternoon just passes you by without having achieved anything in particular?

Under the guise of ‘busyness’, many people indulge in meaningless activities instead of doing what really needs to be done.

For starters, stop spending hours replying to each email that comes into your inbox, turn down meetings that are truly not important, cut down the amount of time you spend online on social media and news sites and truly focus on what matters.

It’s not easy admitting that you are being lazy while pretending to be busy. But, eliminating the unnecessary things from your work day can help you increase productivity by 20% and could also lower your work hours.

Work alone unless collaboration is necessary

There is a strong case for collaboration and teamwork. However, it is easy to waste a lot of time collaborating on a project that one person can do. Decision making within a team can take time and the constant inflow of ideas can stall the forward progress of a project.

Collaboration is necessary but when brainstorming meetings consume the better part of the day, there is only so much that can be done.

Even if you are working on a team project, design the project in a way that will allow individual team members to work on their own 80% of the time and collaborate with the others in the remaining 20% of the time.

Make a phone call instead of emailing

According to a recent study, 20% of the time, people are using email correctly as a quick form of communication. The rest 80% of the time is wasted on useless communication that can easily be conducted over the phone or face to face.

If an email communication exceeds more than three replies, you will save more time finishing off the conversation with a phone call. It really helps to schedule different times of the day to check emails instead of incessantly checking your inbox for new mail throughout the day—a big time-suck in itself.

Productivity

What if you could work fewer hours and still increase your productivity? That would be a dream-come-true for most business owners and workers. It is possible to work less and get more done if you are willing to eliminate the myriad distractions that plague your workday.