Ways to boost your productivity at work
If you haven’t heard, Digible has moved to a 4-day work week, which started the first week in July 2021. This progressive step will no doubt continue to foster a positive work environment for our employees, but, as research shows, improve productivity and performance. Sounds counter-intuitive, right? With 8 fewer hours to GSD, how can you still get it all done?? Here are some of the best ways to optimize your day and boost productivity at work.
Could that meeting actually be an email?
Calendar management is key to maintaining a productive week and a lot of hours go towards meetings that can often be summed up in an email. Though meetings are intended to be a place for collaboration and productivity, a recent survey finds that 35% of employees waste 2-5 hours per day on unproductive meetings and calls. Not only are meetings taking up valuable time, but it is also estimated that employees spend up to 4 hours a week just prepping for status updates. Consider reserving meetings for collaboration and brainstorming only and utilize emails for those status updates and PowerPoint presentations.
You can’t actually multitask
Multitasking is not for everyone – actually, it’s not for anyone really; roughly only 2% of the population can truly multitask and jumping between tasks has shown a 40% reduction in productivity. Eliminate the urge to multitask by setting a timer for 10-30 minutes for the task you are trying to complete. Once that task is done, you are ready to move to the next.
Automate your workflow
In today’s technological world, workflow automations are no longer a luxury, they are a necessity. Evaluate your current processes by finding the mundane tasks that need little to no brainpower to see where you can create automations to cut down on the time it takes to complete them. Some examples include automating reports to run on a sequence, automating your email inbox to auto-organize certain contacts into folders, or automating your outreach workflows. There are hundreds of automation tools available on the market in order to make repetitive tasks more manageable.
Take Breaks!
Studies have shown that taking one break per hour helps to improve performance at work, increase mental well-being, and boost creativity. A study done by a University of Illinois psychology professor, Alejandro Lleras, showed that “Constant stimulation is registered by our brains as unimportant to the point that the brain erases it from our awareness.” Lleras concludes that the brain is built to detect and respond to change, and the act of activating and deactivating your goals allows you to stay focused. So get up, get out, and then get back to it!
