Tag: Productivity

How To Be Productive

Achieving Goals, Success

Productivity is something I have struggled with in my professional life. Having Fibromyalgia means that you have less energy resources to hustle throughout the day. So I’ve tried to work smarter not harder and have started to find some traction. There are two key lessons that I have learned which I would like to share with you today.

Lesson 1: Just do it

I am a great planner and not a great doer. I spend time planning to do the work later and end up with too much to do and not enough time. I am learning to do tasks as they arrive without planning when to do them in the future. This gives me room to plan other tasks that have deadlines and defined start times, like calling a customer when they are available. Plan what needs to be planned and get the other things done as soon as they arrive.

Lesson 2: Ship it!

This lesson comes from the great Seth Godin. His advice is to not spend time wondering if the work is good enough or if it should be sent off, or ‘shipped’, but instead to ‘ship it’ as soon as it is completed and move onto the next thing. The thing to do is not to be too attached to the outcome. You do the work to the best of your ability and send it off, submit it or share it. This frees up head space and time to do more of your work.

Teams Need A Purpose

Achieving Goals, Happiness, Leadership, Success

In any organisation every team needs a Purpose. Often a company will have an overarching Purpose and/or Values, but if this is either not articulated well or made relevant to every team within the company, then productivity can drop off, as can retention of staff.

Everyone needs a reason to go to work, other than just to pay the bills. If our job gives meaning and purpose to our lives then we will be happier and will work harder for the company we work for. The assumption that staff will only work for a paycheck is a shortsighted view that many leaders have.

So, if you are a leader within your organisation, review how effective your company’s Purpose, Values or Principles are and work to ensure every member of staff feels that they are contributing towards them. This will increase levels of fulfilment and productivity, and will make them want to stay.