As a company dedicated to business process improvement, at Xeratek Document Solutions we take our work seriously. We’re always looking for solutions to help our clients become more productive and efficient, and ultimately help their businesses grow. With our years of experience we’ve recognised that people still struggle with the concept of working smart, and thought we’d share out top five tips:
- Take breaks
Get up from your desk and move – whether it’s downstairs and out to a shop or café, or around the corner to the coffee machine, or even just a stroll round the office, don’t stay fixed in the same position all day – you’ll be more productive, energized and creative if you give yourself some time out.
- Segment your work
Work in 90-minute chunks of time; plan your to-do list into this calendar and stick to it. During those periods of time, don’t allow yourself to be distracted by emails or phone calls – treat it as a meeting – and use the time between to catch up and move around (as per point 1).
- Prioritise and limit the to-do list
Don’t set yourself a never-ending list of tasks and aim to do as many as possible – looking at a seemingly endless list of chores will only make you feel despondent and uninspired. Make a list of three main activities for the day to be completed (fit these into the calendar for the day as per point 2).
- Organise yourself
Ensure your desk has everything you could need within reach so that you will not get distracted in the middle of one of your time chunks by having to get up to find more stationary or information. Ensure things are labeled and filed correctly (you can check out our post on the best ways of doing this here) so that you don’t waste time looking for documents, and ensure that everything is digitized and easier to find rather than looking for hard copy documents (which also clutter your workspace).
- Be flexible
It’s said that the best laid plans often go to waste, don’t let this happen to yours! However, be aware that situations can change very quickly and you need to be able to accommodate these changes. Allow time in your workday for these types of issues (by giving yourself three main activities rather than four in a day, as per point 3) If you get everything completed and nothing unusual has happened in the day, you will have time to get ahead of yourself. If something does crop up, you haven’t lost anything and will still finish your day feeling accomplished.
Try these out and see if they help you, and feel free to share your own tips on our Facebook or LinkedIn pages!
