Do you sometime feel as though you have spent the whole day being incredibly busy without actually achieving anything, here are some of the solutions to  improve on our daily results at work and to ensure that you are not just busy, but effective.

Know Yourself

When are you at your best, mornings or afternoons, everyone has time during the day when they are sleepy and slow (for most people it’s after lunch), so the best thing to do is to try to plan top priority tasks for times when you are feeling more alert, and tackle more routine jobs, like answering emails, when you are less creative. Another thing to bear in mind is that the heavier the lunch you eat, the sleepier you are going to be while your body concentrates on digesting the food.

Keep a to do list

Whatever tasks you have to do, write them down; having them there in black and white will give you a better overview. Put an asterisk next to the most important tasks, or highlight them in another way. Differentiate between urgent and important tasks and those which you can complete over a longer time period. As you complete tasks, cross them off the list. This is extremely motivating and will give you a real sense of achievement.

Fill the time you have

Choose the task which suits the time slot you have available. For example spare half an hour in the morning and another in the afternoon is perfect to check your emails, whereas it wouldn’t be enough to start a long report. You don’t have to answer all your emails. Delete the spam and the ones that just say, thanks answer the easy ones and keep the more challenging messages for when you have more time to answer properly.

One thing at a time

Focusing properly means saying no to multitasking. It’s a fact that it can take up to 40% longer to finish jobs if you do several things at once. Not only will the quality suffer, but you will only do bits of all of them, and therefore never have the satisfaction of being able to cross anything off your to do list which is why it won’t get any shorter. Assign yourself a task on your list according to how much time you have and then work on it until its finished cross it off your to do list and move on to the next. You will find you are much less stressed.

Beat procrastination

Some people fail to get larger tasks done because they only start them at the last moment and then miss the deadline every time. If you are one of these people ask yourself why it happens could it be that the more important the task is, the less able you are to start it maybe you are worried that your work won’t be of a high-enough standard maybe the job involves a lot of research and preparation and you just can’t face the hours of hard work. Whatever the reason, one great way to overcome your procrastination is to break the task down into smaller chunks, and then to tackle these, one at a time.

Manage distractions

Distraction is probably the main cause of most employees ‘poor time management. And there can be several reasons for this from messaging chats, phone calls, to colleagues talking loudly in the room. You can tackle this problem, first of all make the app you are working on full screen, so you cannot see any other windows. Then turn off all notification noises chats and emails anything else that may disturb you. Check the time and decide how long you want to work before your next break. Now start working allow yourself to check email and phone sms only when you have finished what you planned to do

Taking breaks

Finally it’s important that you take regular breaks in the day, particularly if you are tackling a demanding task. Your work will definitely be better and you will reduce your stress levels. Don’t start chatting with a colleague or checking your emails during this short break, it will only distract you. Just go get a cup of coffee or refresh by moving around and then get back to work.

Start managing your time better and you won’t just be busy at work, but really effective. Start now don’t wait for tomorrow

  managing time, Time, Time management