In this digital world, dependency on professional tools is prevalent. But, what do you lose while relying on these tools? Productivity. Yes, the increased dependency on technical tools can restrict your creative mind in the organization. Your ability to brainstorm for a project, and work on your weak areas can get hampered by it. Further, leading to decreasing your overall workplace productivity.
Keeping this in mind, a report by Forbes says there is an increase of 27% in “excellent” performance ratings with employees who are highly engaged in the workplace.
Talking about improving your workplace productivity or on an individual level, one must not entirely depend on productivity tools that are widely available nowadays.
Going one step deeper into this topic, it is right to say that increasing productivity isn’t a hack. Yes! You heard it right. There are no hacks. However, you can develop new techniques that can play a part in improving your productivity without depending on tools. Whether you are working from the office or home, learning these strategies can make you more productive.
Know These 5 Effective Strategies for Increasing Your Productivity
-
Introspect
The first step to improving your productivity is to introspect. Identifying your unique strengths and weaknesses can help you understand the impact of both on your work. Once you have self-awareness about your shortcomings and positive aspects, you believe to align goals for future tasks in a way to enhance performance.
For better understanding, reflection models (crowjack dotcom) come to play an essential part. One can choose the best approach from various reflection models. These models help in knowing one’s knowledge, past experiences, and beliefs. Further, by relating new knowledge to your previous understanding, you can learn innovative strategies to crack the code and improve or fix it in the future.
Along with that, focusing on the L&D in those specific areas gives a chance for improvement. The best to recognize lies in the key element of no one-size-fits-all theory. Invest in yourself and improve your practices by consciously thinking. This involves past experience, what is currently being done, and what is needed to do in the future. Ultimately, this will boost your productivity without depending on any tool or technology.
-
Eliminate Time Killers
Harris conducted a poll on behalf of New CareerBuilder on 2,175 employees to understand the different factors of employee time thieves. The top factors were cell phones/texting with 52 percent followed by internet surfing with 44 percent.
It is a noticeable fact that multiple things act as distractions leading to consuming time and making you unproductive. For instance, jumping from one meeting to another, conference meetings involving non-business conversations, or a battle with bulk emails involving spam emails.
To explain further, there is a difference between being at work and working in the office. The business environment involves tasks that can act as a time killer. One research says that 33% of people spend 1-2 hours checking their emails.
Understand your tasks that involve productivity killers. The moment you realize those tasks that are unproductive can surely throw a ball in your court and will make you more productive and sane at the workplace. Remember, there is no 100% set rule to block out all distractions. Yet, distractions are avoidable. Count your time on the completion of a task, and keep your routine stress-free.
-
Upgrade Skills
Companies always appreciate employees with upgraded skills. Linking upgrading skills with productivity can reduce your dependency on technology. It is no rocket science to improve your productivity skills.
An employee needs to be more careful in the organization for managing time and focusing on high-productivity tasks. On professional grounds, an increase in productivity can be influenced by many factors, such as respect, meaningfulness, and salary.
This further benefits the holistic development of the organization and employee satisfaction. Having said that, it can be intact by the McKinsey study. The study says employee satisfaction is significantly correlated with business enhancements. This includes higher profitability, reduced churn, and improved customer relationships.
Moving further, organizational development and employee satisfaction increase performance levels. This leads to upgrading soft and hard skills as well. To explain, time management skills can assist you in organizing your tasks that need much attention. Nobody is born with time management skills. However, one can learn skills to boost productivity.
Not only time management skills but also soft skills can enhance your performance at work. Soft skills can help increase the understanding of inter-departmental tasks. Along with that, other tasks include
- organizational skills,
- planning skills,
- decision-making abilities, and
- problem-solving skills.
Upgrading all these skills can be beneficial for you and your company.
-
Seek Feedback
Business grows best when employees work with a clear vision. The performance is increased when there is clarity in mind. Therefore, it is better to seek feedback to excel in your career. There are tools like paraphrasing tools or proofreading tools that hamper your productivity. However, once you start working on your own while showing less dependency on those tools, it will provide you with actual results.
Having said that, you would be seeking feedback for the weak areas that need improvement. Feedback is the fastest route to improving productivity. This way you can focus on your efforts, correct them, and achieve your goals on time.
It is a two-way street where your performance helps you as well as your organization. An increase in the exchange of feedback provides deeper insight and better clarity of work. Remember, positive feedback helps in adapting to the environment, improving performance, and reaching better decisions for the success of the company.
-
Set Deadlines
There is no such possibility that states the fact that taking a long hour to achieve a task leads to perfection of work. On the contrary, the longer you take to complete the task the more your productivity will be hampered.
Achieving long-term or short-term goals is equally important within the time frame. Having deadlines can act as a great asset to understanding the importance of your time and work. Finding yourself frazzled and stressed at work? It’s time to set deadlines. This is one of the best ways to manage your tasks and complete everything on time. The question is, how to meet a deadline?
First, evaluate what is required to complete the task. Second, get your hands on the right resources. Third, think of the potential problems that can impact your performance, and lastly, plan your deadlines accordingly to achieve your goal without any external support of tools and technology. Keep in mind, missing deadlines will impact your productivity and there is a chance that you will lose track of work in the organization. It is better to take responsibility, avoid making excuses and focus on meeting deadlines.
Conclusion:
To conclude, understand that every minute you spend working is to be treated as gold. Business experts claim that you must know productivity techniques to run any business. Of course, that can save you time and effort. It can assist in doing your job in less time.
Moreover, high productivity is a key indicator of a healthy business and work culture. Improving productivity without depending on any tool or technique can add up to profitability, and improve customer service. Along with that, it will lead to highly motivated employees, lower production costs, and better business relationships.
By eliminating time thieves, upscaling your skills, setting deadlines, and having positive feedback, all these elements add up to being more productive. You can implement commonsense tools that can reduce your dependency on different tools. To explain, making to-do lists, taking in-between breaks, and reducing distractions can be a big win to improve your productivity.
Once you’ve understood the importance of productivity without relying on tools, you will implement it to increase valuable business resources. In the continuity of the point, make sure you optimize emailing and meetings, encourage self-awareness and improve office communication. Trying the techniques mentioned in this article will improve your business productivity and performance without depending on tools.
The post 5 Ways to Improve Productivity Without Depending on Tools appeared first on ReadWrite.
