Workplace productivity has always been linked with business success and profitability. Though many companies invest a great deal of money and effort into their infrastructure and employee benefits, they still struggle to improve productivity.
Whether it’s offering flexible working hours or a stress-free environment, any company can substantially enhance its office productivity with the right approach. Not just the environment, having all minute things in order like office stationeries, a secure recording of collected data using spiral bound book printing will also help in making the work of employees easy and hassle-free. If you want to do the same, here are seven effective tips for improving office productivity.
1. Set time limits for each task
Scheduled tasks with time limits are more likely to get finished in time. When you assign the time limits to your tasks, you program your mind to complete that task within that time limit. Your mind pushes you towards increasing your work speed to reach the goals. You are more likely to finish before even before the time limit is reached.
Setting the time limits also helps you understand how long you can stay focused on the task. For example, if you assign two hours to finish a task and finish it in one and a half hours, you know that the task needs only one and a half hours. From the next time, you can allot that remaining half-hour to some other task.
2. Take more breaks
The human body has similar functionality as an engine. When an engine keeps constantly running for hours, it will heat up and break down before reaching your destination. In the same way, when you work on one task for longer hours, your brains start losing focus. Taking frequent breaks helps your brain and body to reset the stress and take a fresh start. That’s why you feel fresher after grabbing a coffee break or taking a power nap. Taking a few minutes of break has been proven to keep your energy levels high.
3. Avoid frequent meetings
Though meetings can be productive if planned appropriately, meetings become a big waste of time in most cases. A meeting without a clear agenda doesn’t serve any purpose apart from consuming the time of all the attendees. It’s best to set short and rapid standing meetings, so you won’t waste time waiting for all the attendees,
Fast track meetings help the attendees to save a lot of time as the agenda, time, and venue of the meeting are set before the meeting. It is also good to avoid daily meetings. If you are a team leader or manager, you can host a meeting at the beginning of the week and let the team members know their tasks and responsibilities for the week. You can also set the deadlines so the team members can finish their work on time. This way, you can save a lot of time and boost productivity too.
4. Follow the “two minutes rule.”
Experts recommend utilizing the short free time to perform the tasks quickly within a few minutes. If you can get small breaks between your work sessions, you can use that time to deal with smaller tasks. If the task needs just two minutes to complete, do it right away instead of postponing it later.
This two-minute rule can be very beneficial to complete minor tasks that can quickly pile up and consume a lot of your time. It’s best to finish such tasks right there, and then, so you not only get more time to complete other tasks but also get the satisfaction of completing a task.
5. Avoid multitasking
As much as multitasking is overrated, you cannot get much work done when you multitask. Rather than focusing on one task at hand, allotting your time, energy, and focus to different tasks will only waste your time with no finished task at hand.
It’s best to avoid multitasking and focus on one task at a time. Of course, you can prepare for multiple tasks at once, but it is best to work on one task at a time. That way, you get more work done while saving a lot of time.
6. Get the right office supplies.
Office supplies allow your staff to finish their work on time. The functionality offered by the office supplies like pens, notebooks, document holders, binders helps you to organize your work while completing the work on time.
Instead of stapling the enormous paperwork or using paper clips, you can use spiral bound book printing to secure all the essential paperwork at one place. The sturdy spiral coil ensures you have the necessary strength to hold many pages without any worry. That way, you can quickly turn the pages and save time dealing with scattered paperwork.
7. Turn smartphone notifications off.
Smartphone notifications from social media and messaging apps can easily distract you from work. If you constantly listen to these notification sounds, you start imagining that you heard the sound even when your phone doesn’t ring. The best way to deal with this is to mute your notifications so that you will surely know that you didn’t receive any notifications and continue with your work.
Workplace productivity improves with the right strategies, resources. Even a simple change can work wonders for increasing workplace productivity.