Have you ever noticed that your concentration at work is disturbed, only to be unable to get “in the zone” a while later? You may have a tendency to procrastinate when assigned a major responsibility, rather than paying attention to it right away.
Productivity is not easy to come by. You need to channel your energy well and get ‘in the mood’ for it, focusing only on the task at hand.
Interruption, procrastination and inaccurate plans are the most damaging productivity killers out there.
You may not know it, but a coworker tapping your shoulder when you’re busy at work can force you to return to your pre-interruption attentive state for the rest of your workday. When a team member admits that he/she hasn’t put in his/her share of work on your collaborative project, and your delivery schedule suffers, it still takes a toll on your productivity.
However, there is still good news and you don’t have to lose hope.
You can find a way to bypass these productivity killers and still emerge as a productive person. How are you doing this? Find out below.
How to stop productivity killers from impacting your work
Productivity killers can wreak havoc on our work efforts as we no longer work a regular 9 to 5 work week. Most workplaces require their employees to complete their daily work assignment before they can log off from work. Once you let one of the notorious productivity killers mentioned above into your workspace, you extend your working hours and, by default, the time you spend in the office.
Try these tips to combat them:
1. Filter and prioritize the interruptions that come your way
According to research, we are all interrupted every 8 minutes. It makes us lose our train of thought and waste the time available to complete a job.
You can assign incoming interruptions based on their urgency and address them accordingly. You can classify these interruptions as Urgent and Important, Urgent but Not Important, Not Urgent but Important, and Not Urgent or Important, respectively. You can deal with the urgent and important task immediately, schedule the urgent but not important task for later, delegate the not urgent but important task to someone else and simply say not to do any additional incoming tasks that serve no purpose and just waste time waste.
2. Get to the root of why you’re procrastinating and cut it short
Perhaps the task seems overwhelming, boring, or exhausting. You can break the task down into smaller chunks, inspire yourself to work on it by reminding yourself of the value it brings, and take regular breaks to regain your productivity.
3. Plan projects in 2 phases
Let your project managers plan their project delivery in phases. Each phase must be delivered within a milestone date. Then, assemble your project team and map out how you plan to incrementally complete the project by these milestone dates.
Proactively fight productivity killers
The best way to tackle productivity killers is to proactively fend them off. Set up an availability schedule to prevent your colleagues from interrupting you when you’re busy. Create time for productivity breaks in your work calendar.
Schedule a time to accommodate potential interruptions and continue to reschedule tasks based on priority. You will soon notice that you have successfully revived your productivity at work.
Need more tips?
Check out this infographic from Wrike project planning tools:
