© 2015 Next Level Up. All rights reserved.

Do More in Less Time: Best Practices for Increasing Productivity

How can you eliminate unproductive habits and

cultivate productive practices, to get more of the right things done – and still maintain your

sanity? Read on for tips on increasing productivity in your

business. The task list is a to-do list, but it’s a little more than that. It’s a to-do list of things to get done, but it also needs to have who is going to do it and the time by which it’s going to be done. Screening and prioritizing enables you to see what needs to be done and what doesn’t and what work is unnecessary. What does and does not need immediate attention. What you will do yourself and what you will delegate. So if you’re going to improve your productivity, you can’t simply react to every demand on your time as it comes to your attention. You need to set up a process, a system, for screening and prioritizing your work and your primary tool for this is your task list. Ask yourself, which should I do first, second, third and so on? What are the priorities? How am I going to maximize my productivity? Batching is simply doing similar tasks all at one time rather than randomly as they happen. If you look over all your mail at the same time, you review your invoices, rather than one at a time as they come in. Make all your phone calls at a particular time. Try to schedule all of your out of office meetings for one block of time rather than running out for one and then back to the office, then running out for another. It’s just batching. It’s simple. It makes sense. It’s just squeezing the busy, unproductive time out of your activities.

© 2015 Next Level Up. All rights reserved.

Scheduling and setting deadlines – these often go hand and hand with batching. You batch tasks and you schedule a time to do them. Scheduling is simply planning. Chunking down some tasks are intimidating. They’re so big, so complex, that your mind can’t take them all in at once. So the answer here is pretty simple. In the same way that a business is a system of systems. Little subsystems within the larger systems, a big project is really a bunch of smaller tasks bundled into one big task. Just break the big one into smaller ones and do them one at a time, or assign them to others, and monitor the progress. What you’re actually doing is designing a system to do the big task and you can do it the same way you design the business systems you use in various parts of

your business. The main thing is to break the project down into smaller tasks, each one with its own specific objective, or required result, and each one manageable. None of them complex or intimidating. By doing this, you set yourself up a series of successes as each smaller task is completed. So the drudgery and anxiety disappear to be replaced by confidence and

optimism. Going with the flow when things aren’t ideal. I don’t mean take it easy and let others determine what you do. That sometimes happens when the unexpected happens, or the unexpected doesn’t happen. It’s really an opportunity to do something else. You work as hard and smart as you can, when you can. But when forces delay you, or prevent you from completing a task, use the opportunity to take a break or do something else. If you’re waiting for a response from someone who’s not available, take your lunch break while you wait, use the time to work on something else, or put in a few important phone calls. Being in two places at once, if you have things that have to be done that can be done outside of the office, bring them with you. When you know that you might have

© 2015 Next Level Up. All rights reserved.

some idle time during the day. If you know you’re going to have to sit in the waiting room for an appointment, or if you’re on a plane, use the time to complete the tasks you can take with you. Also know your own personal daily rhythms and take advantage of them. Look for the part of the day that you’re the most energetic, you’re the most alert, and schedule the most demanding tasks for that time. Save easier, less demanding tasks for your less productive times of the day. Set aside a time when you know is the best time for you to be focusing on the strategic thinking work. This is going with the flow.