How to Be More Productive at Work

Your weekly productivity heavily depends on your focus and how you allocate your time. To increase productivity, you need to find better ways of completing tasks. Working smarter, not harder, is often the key to accomplishing more in any given week according to Entrepreneur.

Here are five tips from Entrepreneur for increasing your productivity at work:

1. Plan less, do more. You need to plan your week in advance, but spending too much time in the planning stage robs you of working hours. You don’t need to plan every step required to complete your tasks. This is a form of procrastination, and it needs to be avoided. Remember that you will have to account for your to-do list at the end of the week and spending hours planning will not check anything off of that list. Limit the time you spend in meetings discussing work rather than doing it. Create a time budget to track the time you spend meeting and planning. Seeing it in print can help motivate you to spend your time more wisely.
2. Learn to say “no”. It is difficult to control your schedule when you are constantly saying “yes” to requests, especially when they yield little or no result. Take control of your schedule and maintain your focus.
3. Do away with perfectionism. It only makes tasks take longer, reducing your productivity. Don’t do your other responsibilities a disservice by spending too much time on one item on your list. Use your time wisely, and aim to get things done.
4. Clear your head. Don’t depend on your memory. There are many ways to record things. There is an ever-increasing number of apps for note-taking. Make note of the things that are cluttering your mind by using an app or a notebook. It becomes easier to keep track of what you have to do and prioritize those things when you can refer to a physical list.
5. Track your accomplishments. At the end of each week, review your to do list. Identify the tasks your completed as well as those left undone. If you didn’t complete your to-do list, determine the reason. Learn from the mistakes you made and prepare for the week ahead.