Small steps for productivity boost

I am sure all organizations, small or big, services or product, software or hardware face productivity issues. The gravity of the situation or the scale of challenge varies, but it persists ubiquitously. I am sure a grocery store round the corner will be facing this issue too.

Look around you. From project management tools to task managers, to calenders – this market is flooded and is still booming. The reason – everybody wants to be productive.

Even though tools are perceived to increase productivity, but in reality tools are tools. They are aides for humans. It is actually on us and our predisposition to discipline ourselves that make us more productive.

Here, in this post, I am want to share some baby steps that can help enhance and better our disposition.

Communicate to people on how long you are working.

If you can plan a week ahead, then good. Otherwise, make sure you plan your day at least 2 days in advance.

Open your calenders.

Don’t use calendars only for booking meetings but also for scheduling your daily tasks. This way everybody in the team will know what are you busy with. If you are on Google Apps, use their Appointments feature to open free slots to your team.  This way fellow team members will know when you are free to take up other work or a meeting or just a discussion.

Set time lines for each activity.

This will push you to finish work in time also give you a sense of achievement. The more gratification you get, the more quicker you will become and hence more motivated to accomplish more tasks.

Don’t ping now and then.

Even though, sometimes it is necessary to just ping a teammate to clear your doubts or take an approval, avoid this habit. You may think such an activity will take just 2-3 minutes of each other’s time, but imagine how it will disrupt a  fellow team member’s concentration and chain of thoughts. You might not even get his full attention. Practice to compile all queries and tasks for  that person and schedule a time slot for a discussion. These could be multiple in a day.

At the end of the day, take stock.

Analyze reasons for being successful in finishing some tasks – repeat them tomorrow.  Find reasons for the ones which are pending – learn from them and find solutions.  Based on the analysis, re-plan your day for tomorrow.