Maintaining productivity at work can be difficult at times but it’s key to keeping your business successful and running an efficient workplace. Although it can be hard to know where to begin, here are some tips to help motivate you to make the most of your workday:
- Prepare a To-Do list for the next day: Organize your upcoming tasks by priority to eliminate wasted time and be more efficient throughout the day. Several apps such as Trello or Google Tasks can help you go paperless when planning and even collaborate with others if needed.
- Get enough sleep: Early morning commutes, long workdays that cross over into home life and regular responsibilities reduce your chances of getting a full night’s sleep. Decreased sleep will have negative effects on your work performance and lessen your concentration, working memory and logical reasoning. The National Sleep Foundation suggests adults (26–64 years) need about 7–9 hours of sleep, and anything more or less is not recommended. They also recommend not using your smartphone or tablet before bed because the blue light results in delayed release of sleep-inducing melatonin, increased alertness and resetting of the body’s internal clock to a later schedule.
- Take regular breaks: Scheduled breaks, like leaving your desk to take a walk or to get some water, can actually help improve concentration and help maintain good work performance.
- Encourage independence and avoid micromanaging: Hovering over your employees all the time will not encourage productivity and it can actually hold your employees back from doing their best work. Spoon-feeding is another form of micromanaging that limits your employees’ independence to do their work – and you’re also needlessly increasing your own workload! Provide feedback and praise, but let your employees be accountable to take ownership of their work.
- Appreciate good work: Providing recognition for good work will go a long way. Celebrate your employee’s victories, no matter how small. Consider implementing a program where employees can nominate each other for exceptional work and recognizes winners with lunch outings or other prizes.
- Identify distractions in the workplace: Distractions will decrease your productivity, taking up an unnecessary amount of time. Eliminating or cutting back on common distractions such as web browsing, checking social media or yes, even office gossip will keep you focused on the tasks you’ve assigned yourself. The more you accomplish during the workday, the more likely you are to leave your work at the office and enjoy home life.
