It has long been known that slack and lazy people get tired much more than fit and motivated ones. It is also known that the effectiveness of an organized people is much higher. They are more satisfied with their work. As modern life requires ever greater achievements, and we are in a constant hurry, drowning in a flood of information, in such circumstances, the person is hard to focus, so that his/her efficiency drops. The person seemed torn apart and forced to solve several problems at once. He/she acts chaotically and disorganized, so even making a little effort, rarely succeeds and is disappointed in own life.
Basic rules of work efficiency improvement:
- I see the goal – do not see obstacles … Many people are wasting time and energy just because they do not clarify a purpose. And they always do something; they are busy and even more tired than if involved directly in reaching their goal. If you do not know what you want – so you do not reach it. You may console yourself that without the goal “every wind is favorable”, but when the course and the occasional wind will break your ship on the rocks, you will immediately want to turn back time and sail to the other side.
- Focus on the essentials. At the end of the day write down what needs to be done tomorrow. Begin the list with the most important and urgent items. And do not back down until you finish things in order. Accordingly, at the end of the list unimportant and non-urgent items should be. And even if you do not have time to do them, then maybe it’s for the better?
- Respect your and other people’s time. Not to spare oneself. Chatter, inexperience and irresponsibility haven’t made someone more authoritative and helped achieve the goal yet.
- Straight to the point! Leave the “time to swing” for amateurs. As an “entry into the job” you can do things that are not too complicated, do not take up much time, but still have to be done. Perform all preparatory work before.
- Set deadlines. Deadline should be realistic and clear. Do not allow yourself indulgences and postponements “until better times”. For example, Bodo Schaefer advised to carry out the plan for 72 hours. If you regularly do not perform any business, it is time to think about it, maybe you do not want to do it?
- Think about incentives. Each person is doing better what he wants. Therefore, we must convince ourselves that the case, which is “necessary” to do – is desired and nice to do. And the result will be perfect. This will make the work more efficient.
- Do not stick in telephone conversations. Before you make a call, consider what information you want to receive or send. So lead the conversation in these frameworks. You do not want to make optional blab from a business meeting, do you?
- Do you know how to say “no”? If not, then it’s time to learn. Otherwise, you will engage in business, you do not need and not interested in, but simply because it is inconvenient to refuse. If you’d like to help someone with uninteresting work – take this time only free of your duties and assess it as a rest from own work.
- Business before pleasure. Friends and colleagues who love to chat and tell jokes can improve your mood, but it will not help to focus on work. If you have something urgent to do – take a break from talking and down to business. And when all is done, you can return to the jokes. To be not tortured with conscience, consider it as short break in style of “activity changes”.
- Start early. If you come to work earlier in 15-20 minutes, it will give the opportunity to immediately prepare for the working day, and tune in to the good work.
- Working time – for work. If to think up, to plan work and to create working mood is made by you during the way to work – there will be much more time for the work itself.
- Decisiveness is the key to success. If you are drowning in doubts and hesitation before the start of work, it means that you either do not want to work, or you think that it is difficult to cope with, or the process is unpleasant for you. If you have already decided – do it! You do not want to be like that donkey in the fable, which died of starvation standing between two stacks of straw (just could not decide which straw is better), do you?
- Learn to listen. Be able to outline the core of information flow. School questions “who, where, when, how, and why?” will help to not be distracted by unnecessary details.
- Quietly listen to criticism: most likely, there is a share (or the lion’s share) of the truth. If to remove lacks in the process of “work discussion”, than fewer mistakes will be got in the end.
- Template is not the only option. Break the patterns, if you are sure that you will do better, qualitatively and more efficiently. It is very useful to know the experience of other people; it will help to avoid mistakes in the future. Just keep in mind that in case of failure, the responsibility will fall on you – are you ready?
- During the rest – rest. If you spend all night sitting in a smoky bar with friends or at home on the couch, without having a free moment from the TV, how well do you recharge your batteries? Most people after such a “rest” will need a whole day to recover. Conceiving plans for the weekend, ask yourself how it will affect the health and performance. No one calls to refuse to meet with friends, but to sit out until 4 a.m. in a pub is not the best way to prove your friendship.
Work a lot and work qualitatively – these are two very different things. Do not try to do more work to the detriment of its quality: minimum you will be unhappy with the results and this will put off to work in the same direction, the maximum you can make many mistakes so that it will be easier to start over than to alter. And when you learn to work carefully, quickly and efficiently, you will be surprised how many “extra gestures” you made in the workplace. Wish you success in your work!
