News & insights

How To Be More Productive At Work

By Fiona Frudd

Take advantage of your commute

If you have a train journey into work, or even a drive or walk, use the time to organise your thoughts and plan your to-do list for the day. If you can, you can check your emails so that when you sit at your desk you are ready to get started with the day ahead.

Work out when you are most productive

Some people find they are most productive as soon as they arrive at work while for others the afternoon is when they hit their productivity pace. Whenever yours is, make sure that is when you schedule in your most difficult tasks. Although it’s tempting to power through the easy tasks during these periods, save them for when you’re lacking in concentration.

Keep your desk tidy

Productivity is aided if we can grab the tools we need to complete our tasks as quickly as possible. If the paper you need to read is somewhere under the huge pile on the end of your desk, it’ll take you time to find it or print out another copy, slowing you down. Regular clear outs of anything are also great to make sure you have completed everything that needs to be done.

Add some greenery to your desk

We all know the health benefits of the great outdoors, so why not bring the outside in and put a plant on your desk? Research shows there are several productivity benefits to having a plant on your desk, including the fact it brings clean air to the space around you.

Say no to meetings if you can

Meetings are the biggest time drain for many people, with most of us leaving meetings feeling like little has been achieved. If you do have to have a meeting, try conducting it standing up! Being on your feet makes people stay engaged for longer, but also makes the meetings much shorter and more effective.

Organise video meetings

These are hugely popular and allows for attendees to eliminate travelling time. These are easy to organise via a service such as Zoom.

Only open your emails at certain times of the day

Although email is a great way of communicating quickly with people it is also a massive dampener on productivity. A recent study showed that it takes 16 minutes to re-focus upon what you were doing after handling an incoming mail and with the average worker checking their emails 36 times an hour(!), it’s easy to see why some people struggle to get anything done. Be strict and only look at your emails every couple of hours, setting aside a short period to deal with what is in there.

Write a to-do list the night before

Ending each working day with a review of where you are up to and writing your to-do list for the following day is a great way to keep on track with what you need to do and ensure you are as productive as can be the next day.

Stop working and take regular breaks

Not only should you make sure you take regular breaks throughout the working day, you should also make sure that you take regular breaks from working. So many people cram their annual leave into one short period either over the summer or when their leave year is ending. The key is to spread out your holiday allowance to allow yourself some time to re-charge.

If you are still struggling with your productivity, then maybe it’s time to look for a new challenge elsewhere. If you feel it’s time to move on into a new role, get in touch with us today.

Fiona Frudd
Fiona Frudd
Head of Marketing