22 Top Tips for Increasing Your Productivity & Work Performance

Friday, February 17, 2023

Increasing productivity is all about maximizing your time so you can get the most out of your workday. As the world becomes increasingly fast-paced and demanding, it’s also become increasingly essential to find ways to increase productivity and work performance for many reasons.

How learning productivity strategies can help you

It helps you demonstrate your value and differentiate yourself from the competition
It increases your chances of being promoted as someone who can be relied on
It helps you get more done in less time so you can allocate parts of your time to focus on other aspects of your life
It increases your earning potential
It helps you feel a personal sense of pride, fulfillment, and satisfaction

Whether you're an employee or a business owner, the following tips can help you maximize your output and achieve your productivity goals every day.

22 tips to be more productive at work

Know when you’re most productive

At its core, productivity is really about energy management. No matter how much you try, your energy and focus level simply won’t be the same throughout the day. If you want to take advantage of your productive peaks, you need to know when they usually happen during the day.

Nicole Diker from Lifehacker suggests a simple test to help you find your most productive time of the day.

Step 1: Identify various points during the day to write a six-word story.

Here are some examples of a six-word story:

Baby shoes, never worn.

“Together,” they whispered. Only one jumped.

It’s behind you! Hurry before it…

Step 2: After completing one story, take note of how long it took you to write it. Include notes that will help you identify patterns later on such as: “This just popped into my brain!” or “This took me a lot of effort.”
Step 3: Keep doing this exercise for at least three days.
Step 4: After three days, you should already have an idea of when you’re most productive (or creative). Look for patterns in your notes. Do ideas easily come to you in the morning? Did you notice that you can hardly think at 3 pm? These observations will help you determine your most productive time of the day.

Another method is simply to take note of your focus and energy levels at different points during the day for two straight weeks. Use a reminder app to help you keep your data consistent. After two weeks, consolidate your data and notice the resulting trends.

After you’ve determined your most productive time of the day, try to schedule your most analytical or creative tasks at this time. That way, you have more chances of getting high-value work done.

Identify Your Time Thieves

Social media is one of the biggest time thieves. Think of all those times you mindlessly picked up your phone and opened Instagram or TikTok, thinking you’d only look for 5 minutes only to realize that a full hour has passed.

If you’re not careful, time thieves can eat up your time and rob you of a good day’s work. So it’s important to pinpoint them before they steal even more days or months of your time.

Time thieves are not limited to social media. Other common time thieves include:

Any team meetings or interactions with no clear agenda or purpose
Constantly checking emails or text messages
Saying Yes to everything

Time thieves drain your energy and concentration, fracturing your focus and resulting in many unproductive days. To thwart these familiar time swindlers, you need to know which ones are causing havoc on your productivity.

How to identify your time thieves

Step 1: Print out a copy of your calendar for the next two weeks. Identify which meetings and other activities really require your presence and which ones don’t.
Step 2: For two weeks, religiously time your activities. This will help you identify the gaps between your productive hours and the low-output activities that take up so much of your time.

Once you’ve determined your time thieves, make a conscious effort of preventing them from continuously sabotaging your productivity efforts.

For example, if you found that you lose so much time answering emails, try to set a schedule solely for checking and answering them during the day. You can also let your teammates know when they can expect a response.

Set goals and plan them out

Goal-setting is a great way to ensure that you get high-value output from your time and effort. When you deliberately set goals, you’re taking charge of where you dedicate your energy and focus during a specific period of time.

Goal setting requires you to:

1. Have a goal
2. Set a deadline for it
3. Map out the steps you need to do to achieve 1 and 2

As you can see, it’s not enough to have a target — you should also have an action plan for it.

It’s up to you to set a goal for the year, month, or week. For example, you can set a goal of publishing 4 blog articles on your website per month. From there, you can break down this monthly goal into a weekly goal e.g. publishing one blog article per week. Next, you can break this weekly goal further into a weekly To-Do list as outlined below.

Monday: Do a keyword research

Tuesday: Start writing the article outline

Wednesday: Write the article

Thursday: Edit the article and have it approved

Friday: Schedule the article for publishing

Overall, goal setting can bring numerous benefits to your productivity.

Clarity: Having clear, specific, and defined goals provides a sense of direction and purpose, making it easier to stay focused and avoid distractions.
Motivation: Setting goals helps to create a sense of challenge and accomplishment, providing motivation to continue working towards them.
Accountability: If you share your goals with an accountability partner, they can help you stay accountable. This accountability can provide you with the extra push you need to stay on track and achieve success.
Improved Time Management: By setting specific goals, you can prioritize your time and resources more effectively, avoiding the waste of time on activities that do not align with your goals.
Increased Self-Confidence: Accomplishing goals can increase self-confidence and create a positive feedback loop of setting and achieving more challenging goals.
Better Decision Making: Setting goals can also improve your decision-making by helping you align your choices and actions with your priorities.
Improved Performance: Having clear goals can help you focus your efforts and your performance, leading to better results and greater productivity.

Automate repetitive tasks

Use technology to your advantage by automating where possible. A surprising number of daily tasks can be wiped off of your calendar by delegating them to apps and software.

Here is a list of things you can automate right now for better productivity.

Scheduling tasks and appointments
Sending invoices
Posting on social media
Following up with collaborators or clients
Sorting and responding to emails
Proofreading your work
Scouring the news
Backing up data
Filling out online forms
Writing proposals

There are plenty of free-to-use apps for any of the tasks listed above. Some have multiple functionalities such as TaskSpur, a goal-setting app that automates your tasks and helps you manage and track your goal progress.

Explore your options, test them, and see which ones suit you best.

Write a realistic to-do list

Writing to-do lists can be one of the most continuously motivating activities you can do for long-term productivity. But it can also easily be one of the most frustrating if you’re not careful.

Don’t make the mistake of trying to do everything at once. Remember that your time and energy are limited resources that ebb and flow throughout the day. So be conservative about what you put in your To Do list.

Here are some quick tips on how to write realistic to-do lists.

Prioritize tasks: Start by listing all of the tasks you need to complete, then prioritize them based on urgency and importance. This will help you focus on the most important tasks first and avoid getting bogged down by less important tasks.
Be specific: Instead of writing a general task like "Work on the project," write a specific task like "Write the first draft of the project report." Specific tasks are easier to complete and help you stay focused.
Set realistic deadlines: Make sure that you have enough time to complete each task and that you set a realistic deadline for each task. If a task is particularly time-consuming, consider breaking it down into smaller tasks with shorter deadlines.
Include breaks: It's important to take breaks to avoid burnout and stay refreshed. Add breaks to your to-do list so you can recharge and stay focused throughout the day.
Use a calendar: Consider using a calendar to keep track of your to-do list and deadlines. This will help you stay on track and ensure that you don't miss any important tasks or deadlines.
Be flexible: Be flexible and allow yourself to adjust your to-do list as needed. If a task takes longer than expected, or if you need to add a new task, that's okay. The goal is to complete your tasks, not to stick rigidly to a to-do list.
Reserve room for imperfection: Not all days are the same. There are days that your body might crave rest. Allow yourself to take a breather when it happens. Understanding that you are human will help you avoid the guilt that can sometimes creep on you, especially on unproductive days.
Always start again: So many people are afraid of breaking streaks that in the end, they break under pressure. It’s not the breaking of the streak you should be afraid of. In fact, every time you break one is an opportunity to train your brain to be resilient. Every time you’ve broken a streak, make it a habit to pick it back up again. It’s not perfection that establishes a good habit but consistency.

Ticking off items on your list feels good but if you put in too much and end up not finishing everything at the end of the day, the small failures can build up to give you the impression that you never really get things done.

So keep your To Do list short, simple, and within your means. You can start with two or three items every day for two weeks. At the end of this period, assess if it’s within your ability to add a few more things to your schedule.

Set deadlines

Deadlines add a sense of urgency to any goal or task. This constraint will help you effectively plan your time and resources to ensure it gets done.

Moreover, deadlines help you identify which among your tasks you should work on first. This will give you an idea of how you should manage your time so everything is completed right on schedule.

Having a deadline does not necessarily deter procrastination but it will help you see the bigger picture and realistically see where you should put your focus on.

Track the time you spend on tasks (and aim to limit it)

Think about time tracking as a mini-deadline. It provides a positive pressure to urge you to do what needs to be done. But most importantly, it gives you a good idea of just how much each task takes you to do. Timing your tasks also helps you identify your most common time wasters so that you can do something about them.

Don't compromise your sleep

Sleep serves as your body’s repair mechanism, so not sleeping well will naturally take a toll on your energy and focus which you cannot afford if you’re looking to be productive in the long term.

Protect your sleeping schedule at all costs. Prioritize rest and sleep whenever you can.

It also helps to take power naps during the day. Power naps are proven to help you reinvigorate your focus, especially in the afternoon after your lunch break. A 20 to 30 minute power nap is ideal.

Learn Keyboard Shortcuts

If you’re not using any keyboard shortcuts, you’re missing a whole world of modern convenience.

Here are some keyboard shortcuts you need to master right now.

Useful WINDOWS keyboard shortcuts

CTRL + F: Search for text
CTRL + Click / Shift + Click: Select multiple items
CTRL +A: Select all items
Shift + Arrow: Highlight text
CTRL + Shift + V: Paste as plain text
Alt + F4: Close any Windows app
Shift + F7: Thesaurus lookup in Word
CTRL + SHIFT + T: Restore closed browser tab
Windows Key + L: Lock your PC
Windows Key + M: Minimize all windows
Shift + Space: Select a row in Excel
CTRL + D: Bookmark a webpage
F2: Rename files
CTRL + P: Print out
F5 / CTRL + R: Refresh webpage
Ctrl+S: Save
Alt+Tab: Switch between open tabs
Ctrl+Z: Undo
Ctrl+Y: Redo
Ctrl+C: Copy
Ctrl+X: Cut
Ctrl+V: Paste
Ctrl+W: Close

Useful MAC keyboard shortcuts

F1 and F2: Decreases and increases screen brightness, respectively
F3: Opens Mission Control
F4: Opens Launchpad
F5 and F6: Decreases and increases keyboard brightness, respectively
F10: Mutes sound
F11 and F12: Increases and decreases the sound volume
Option-Command-Esc: Forces an open app to close
Command-Option-M: Minimizes all windows
Command-Control-Space bar: Opens the character viewer where you can choose emojis and symbols
Control-Command-F: Puts the selected app in full screen
Control-Command-Q: Locks the screen
Command-Control-D: Defines the highlighted word

Most of the basic keyboard shortcuts for Mac are similar to Windows. Simply replace the Windows key with Mac's Command key.

Go on an Information Diet

Ever wonder why you always feel so tired at the end of the day when you didn’t do anything physical and were only on your phone?

Browsing social media or your RSS feed can be very entertaining but it also saps all your brainpower and energy. Not to mention it massively lowers your attention span and trains your brain to be reactive instead of focusing on one thing.

If you want to hone your focus and concentration, try to limit your information intake, especially your social media diet. You will see a huge difference in your energy levels and peace of mind after going on a social media detox for just a few weeks.

Exercise

The mind and body are intertwined in mysterious ways. Treating the body well, in this case, getting it to work and move, will do a world of good to your mental health and focus.

At the end of the day, if you’re not in good health, being productive doesn't matter. Good health is your capital, just like your attention, time, and effort. So treat your body well.

Plan meals in advance

Speaking of treating your body well, nutrition is what’s so often sacrificed in the name of productivity. But just like living a sedentary lifestyle, not eating well is counterintuitive to your goal of being productive.

You cannot concentrate on an empty stomach and poor nutrition often leads to more sick days. So if you want to be more productive indefinitely, invest in a proper diet.

As you already know, work can get in the way of making a nice home-cooked meal. This is where advanced meal planning will help.

Follow the 2-minute rule

The two-minute rule states that whatever it is you’re going to do, you need to start it within the next two minutes.

Just like setting a deadline for your bigger tasks, putting a due date on your start time adds a sense of urgency to it. More importantly, it helps eliminate the anxiety that many people feel when beginning a new task.

Don’t multitask

Doing multiple tasks at the same time can result in poor work quality. The brain does not work on two or three things simultaneously. Instead, it switches from one task to another rapidly, helping you divide your attention accordingly.

While it can be useful in certain contexts, multitasking is not advisable for doing creative or deep work. Creative and deep work requires unbroken attention and concentration on the task at hand to produce an output that is of the highest standard.

Remember: true productivity is not just about how much you can complete in any given period of time but also how well you do the work.

Don’t be a perfectionist

Perfectionism is the enemy of productivity. If you itch over every little detail, you will never complete anything. It will also lead to a ton of frustrations and insecurities about your skill and capabilities.

To be productive, you need to embrace the error-laden pathway to improvement. Understand that nothing is ever complete and that the best you can do is to do things to the best of your ability and put it out there so that feedback can help you grow and be better.

Perfectionism leaves no room for mistakes and therefore, no room to grow.

Don’t skip meals

Not hungry at breakfast? Take a cookie anyway. Just because you’re not craving food doesn’t mean you shouldn’t feed yourself.

Your body needs food to function regardless of whether or not you feel famished. And if you’re looking forward to a day of being productive, giving your body the fuel it needs is a non-negotiable fact. Get the nourishment you need to have the energy you need to complete the day’s tasks.

Say “No”

Saying Yes to every meeting invite, every opportunity to gossip, and every temptation to browse social media for just five minutes will eventually ruin your schedule.

So much of your productivity depends on your ability to discipline yourself. If you cannot control your whims, circumstances will decide your day — and by extension, your life — for you.

Train yourself to say “No” and remain loyal to your To Dos.

Take your break

Taking breaks keeps you sane. It helps you maintain your work performance, prevent the build-up of stress, and diminish the need for a long recovery period after a hard day’s work.

Keep your breaks sacred as you do your rest periods. In fact, it’s better if you embed them in your schedule to make sure they are religiously followed.

Design a space you love

It’s hard to be productive when you don’t like where you are, when the seat’s too hard, or where there’s not enough light to work with. Your workspace impacts your mood and overall well-being so making it conducive is an investment in your productivity.

Here are some tips on how to make your workspace great to work in.

Choose a quiet area with adequate lighting and temperature control.
Invest in a comfortable and ergonomic chair and desk to reduce physical strain.
Declutter your workspace to minimize distractions and improve focus.
Use task lighting and incorporate plants for a calming effect.
Keep everything you need within arm's reach to minimize interruptions.
Set up a filing system to organize papers and documents.
Minimize background noise with headphones or a white noise machine.
Add personal touches that inspire you, such as photos or art.
Use tools to block out digital distractions such as social media and notifications.
Prioritize cleanliness, which can enhance your overall mood and focus.

Do the hardest thing first

Get the most difficult task out of the way first thing. Also known as the “eat the frog” principle, the goal of this strategy is to make sure you produce high-value output at the end of the day.

Prioritizing a hard task also gives you more time during the day to work on that task. Not to mention that finishing a hard task is incredibly motivating. It will give you the confidence and the encouragement to finish everything on your To Do list.

Work in time blocks

Although it can be easily confused as setting a schedule for a particular task, time blocking is a completely different time management strategy. Time blocking involves dedicating a specific stretch of time for one or a bundle of tasks.

For example, you can split your time into 20-minute blocks with a 5-minute interval in between for breaks. Within those 20 minutes, focus on nothing else but working on one task.

Many well-known CEOs like Elon Musk are popular proponents of this strategy.

Delegate

Delegating is not about getting rid of tasks you hate doing but giving them to someone else who has the time and skills to do them quicker and better.

Delegating is a useful strategy if you work with a team. If you’re an entrepreneur or a small business owner, you can delegate tasks like social media posting or content writing to an outsource staff so you can work on the forward-facing aspects of your business.

Wrapping it up

Productivity is not just about getting things done, but it is also about working smarter and living better. By implementing some of the tips discussed in this article, you can create a productive and fulfilling work routine that helps you accomplish your goals and enjoy a more balanced life.

Remember, everyone is different, and not all productivity tips will work for you. So, it is important to experiment with different strategies and find what works best for you. Whether it's implementing a new routine, taking breaks, or delegating tasks, there are always ways to optimize your productivity and live a more productive life.

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