Increasing your personal productivity is easy when you know how. To get off on the right foot, take note of these 7 common mistakes you must avoid:
1. Thinking you will remember everything
If you are someone who trusts their memory 100%, you are lucky, but your mind may fail all the same. Trying to remember all your pending tasks, lots of data, dates and times, will only hurt your efficiency and will, eventually, make you feel more stressed.
Free your mind of information and make use of task lists, which will help you prioritize and manage your progress day by day.
2. Not knowing where to start
Most of us are more efficient early in the day, but that peak of productivity is very often wasted because we do not know where to start. Avoid wasting time and set as a goal to start the day with your most important tasks; that is key to increasing productivity and efficiency.
An easy way to achieve this particular goal is to work the day before on your To-Day List for the next day. Remember: time is money.
3. Not setting deadlines
Every task must have a deadline. Without a time frame, it is likely that the completion of the task or goal will be delayed or extended in time unnecessarily.
Whenever you are assigned a task, ask what the deadline is. Similarly, if it is you who is delegating a task to a team member, make sure you specify clearly what the completion time is.
4. Attending unproductive meetings
An unproductive meeting is one in which you do not know what issues are to be treated (nonexistent agenda) or where you ignore what the goals are. The result is an unprepared meeting that will only serve to waste time, and increasing productivity will be impossible for you.
You might be interested in knowing about these 10 situations when a meeting is not necessary to make the most of your time.
5. Ignoring your priority program
The most common mistake of all is to interrupt what we are doing to address a new issue, which may or may not be more important. It does not matter if you receive a phone call, if you get a last minute email or if someone comes to ask you something: going on with your priorities means improving productivity.
The first step to keep true to your priority program (your task list) is learning how to say ‘no’ and leave for later those tasks which can wait (most of them).
6. Writing emails without knowing what you are going to say
Take your time before writing an email. A few seconds are enough to clarify your ideas and write a clear, concise and direct email that will help both its writer and its reader. We all know that the email is a daily and necessary tool; use it to improve your personal productivity and it will not be a burden to anyone.
7. Not resting properly
Respecting rest times to recharge your batteries is not only important, but it may be the key to improving our efficiency and combat our stress. For our rest to be actual rest, you must ensure that the disconnection is complete and, as far as possible, change your environment (for example, go for a walk). Do not be fooled: social networks are not the best solution for your rest.
You may also like: Increase Your Productivity: 6 Keys To Make The Most Of Lunchtime
What other common mistakes undermine your personal productivity?
