Monday, we all hate to love it.
Monday is usually the least productive day of the week. You are still hung over from the weekend musings, you have struggled to wake up in the morning, and by the time you leave the house, you are already running late. Coupled with the Monday traffic, your day has just gotten worse before it even begins. So, you just sit in the bus or a matatu, twiddle your thumbs or scroll your phone for no apparent reason and if you are like me, try to finish that awesome novel you had started reading during the weekend. That is, if you are in a matatu.
If you are driving, it is even worse for you. You have to be alert so you don’t cause an accident. Monday sucks and sometimes it might affect your work productivity for the whole week. It might affect your job delivery and you might get fired. Okay, let’s not go that far. We don’t want that to happen just because you had a lousy Monday. So, what can we do to increase efficiency and hence our productivity at work?
Avoid multitasking.
You will find that if you do many things at the same time, you will get little accomplished. Do one thing at a time and track your progress. It works better that way and you will be happy with yourself at the end of the day.
Take advantage of your free time
Use your free time to do the minute tasks like replying to one urgent emails and calls. That way, you will spend less of your work time on the phone and actually get some work done.
Have deadlines for your tasks
Have a preserved timeline to finish a task. Create a timetable for every task and make sure you follow it to the letter. Doing this teaches you time management and ensures you have more accomplished in a day.
No one is perfect
Perfection is an illusion. No work will ever be perfect so try as much as possible to do it to the best of your ability. There will always be someone who is better than you in something. It doesn’t mean that you are bad at it, it just means you do your work with zero chills.
Keep off distractions
Keep phones on silent when you are in the workplace. Distractions are one of the killers of time at the workplace. having your phone ringing left, right and center do not only distract you from your task, bit also distracts your colleagues. It can be very annoying especially if you have weird ringtones.
Delegate tasks
You might be a jack of all trades but don’t do everything by yourself. Delegate tasks to your colleagues. Not only will it be finished faster, it will be quality work since whoever will be doing it is has to experience in that field.
Have a to-do list
Have a clearly defined to do list that you tick off at the end of every task. It helps you track everything
Say no to meaningless meetings
Now, these are the worst when it comes to productivity. They waste time and drain workers energy. Check if you can have these meetings online. If not have standing meetings where you go through the agenda very fast.
Take regular breaks
Don’t do everything at once, develop breaks after every major task to orient yourself and help you refresh your mind for the next task.
Well, what else can I say except, have a productive week!