Organizing Your Work Tasks – 6 Tips

Introduction

Highly productive workers organizing your work tasks

Organizing work tasks is vital to being productive.  It is the foundation for better planning and executing your workday. This requires you to create a system where you can easily find what you need when you need it. It also necessitates arranging and scheduling time for the tasks that are most important to you. It’s true that organizing work tasks can go a long way in helping you achieve your goals.

6 Tips for Organizing Your Work Tasks

There are several ways you can go about organizing your work tasks and responsibilities to improve productivity, and we’ve included 6 tips below to help you get started:

  1. Set Goals
  2. Create Daily Task To-Do Lists
  3. Use a Planner
  4. Track Your Progress
  5. Declutter Your Email
  6. Keep a Well-arranged Work Environment
1. Set goals

Set goals when organizing work tasks

Setting achievable objectives for your workday will help you stay focused and productive. When you set specific goals with steps and a timeframe for completing them, it’s easier to organize your work into manageable tasks. Be sure to create and prioritize both your short-term and long-term goals to keep yourself on track!

Why?

Respond Effectively to Change

You must keep an open mind for surprises.  Events change and that dictates modifications to your goals.  This is a fluid exercise where you must review your goals periodically.  That frequency depends on your business and market and how swiftly changes occur (and their significance).

2. Create Daily Task To-Do Lists

to-do lists for organizing your work tasks

Task lists are different from goal lists. Goals represent how much you desire to attain and the timeframe when you want to attain it.  On the other hand, tasks are the steps you need to perform to arrive at that desired result.

To keep up productivity throughout your workday, try using a Task To-Do list or Daily Planner. To-do lists are simple yet highly effective lists that can help you maintain focus throughout the workday. Detail written significant or urgent activities on your Daily To-Do list and organize them by priority.

For instance, you could place what you must complete before the close of business for the day at the top of your list.  Document tasks that can be completed the next workday at the bottom of your list.

3. Use a Planner

Another of the ways you can go about organizing your work tasks is through use of a Planner.   A formal Planner is a first-rate tool (a small book) to evaluate the efficiency of your work schedule. You can use a Planner to track your daily, weekly, and monthly goals and activities. You’re more likely to achieve your objectives and recall important details when you keep a record of what has been done and what is coming up in the future.

There are many types of Planners (also called Diaries by our ‘friends across the pond’). Some Planners have a space for every day, while others are weekly or monthly. Think about what kind of Planner would best suit you and your work. If you work on your computer often, you could also consider using a digital planner or app.

I use 2 Planners.  I have a dated Weekly Planner that documents work at a higher level.

Then I have a Daily Planner that breaks the week into 5 separate days and details the individual tasks for each workday with attention to more specificity for accomplishments I judge can be finished each given day.

4. Track Your Progress

Tracking your progress is an effective approach to ensure you are attaining your goals in the timeframe you planned. It is also an excellent approach to maintain your motivation.  when you recognize the amount of progress you’ve already realized it’s much easier to continue toward completion. You can also use progress tracking to help you figure out what times of the day and week you are the most productive and schedule your high priority tasks for those times in the future.

5. Declutter Your Email

If you’re like most workers, your inbox is clogged with emails. Cleaning up, arranging, and sorting your mails keeps them structured and makes it easier to locate important messages.

Create labeled folders in your email to manage all your messages and filters to automatically organize new emails into their proper folders. Labeling emails helps you stay on top of replies and keeps important and related documents together in one location.

6. Keep a Well-Arranged Work Environment

organizing your work tasks starts with clean workspace

The final one of the 6 tips for organizing your work tasks is keeping a well-organized work environment. You should be able to find quickly and easily everything you need and want in an organized workspace. This helps your workflow be more consistent. Replacing tools and documents into their proper place, keeping personal items separate from work materials, and straightening your work area every afternoon are all examples of keeping a well-arranged environment. An organized workstation makes staying productive much easier.

Effect of Disorganization

Clutter in your workstation distracts your thought processes and diverts your attention from your important activities. Remove any thing from your workspace that you don’t use on a regular basis. Tidy up your work area at the end of each day and declutter once a week to keep things well-arranged and organized.

organizing your work tasks focus and productivity

Summary

We offered 6 tips for organizing your work tasks gleaned from our experience with highly productive workers.  Your goal for being more organized is to help you better plan your day and work more productively. When you’re able to focus on your high priority tasks and complete them on-time, you feel better about yourself, and your work and your job becomes more satisfying. There are several tips listed here that will help you get started with becoming more organized and productive.

Start out trying one or two at a time and see how they work for you. Remember, there is no one right way to be organized. Incorporate which of the 6 tips of organizing your work tasks to see what works best for you.  That way you can achieve your goals and propel your workday to higher achievement.

Flexicrew Guidance

We are familiar with workers who are efficient at organizing work tasks. Many of them we have trained to do so to improve their job and career prospects.

If you need assistance finding individuals who possess such greater productivity qualities, contact one of our recruitment professionals Today.

5 Distractions Attack Productivity and Some Simple Remedies

Introduction

This article identifies which 5 distractions attack productivity at work every day. Unfortunately, distractions are common, and you find them in every aspect of your work lives. They range from text messages to emails and phone calls, to scheduled or pop-up meetings. All these unplanned interruptions can have a major impact on your productivity.

Years ago, my firm surveyed over two thousand workers across a dozen industries who identified distractions as the biggest money waste for their organization and the biggest impact to their productivity. That is why it is imperative you have a plan for keeping your workflow and productivity on track.

5 Distractions Attack Productivity

5 distractions attack productivity daily.  To help and encourage you, we review simple remedies for you to combat them:

  1. Email Blizzard
  2. Phone Interruptions
  3. Multitasking
  4. Too-Friendly Coworkers and Interrupting Associates
  5. Distractions from Personal Responsibilities
1.Email Blizzard or is it an Avalanche?

Yes, you probably receive a blizzard of emails. Many are unsought, if not outright spam. Yet, it is not just the constant barrage of emails coming in. it is also the unreasonable expectation that you should respond to those emails quickly on some other worker’s timetable.

Remedy

Try setting aside specific times during the day to check and respond to emails. You may also find it helpful to set boundaries with work-related emails, such as not responding after-hours or on the weekends.

2. Phone Interruptions

Phone distractions attack productivity at work

It takes a person’s mind an average of 23 minutes to get back on track after a distraction. And sadly, our phones ring every 12 minutes on average. So, it should not be a revelation that it is so difficult to remain focused!

Remedy

When you really need to focus on a project and give it your full attention, try silencing your phone and turning off unnecessary notifications. Just like with email, set specific times you will check your phone during the day. If you find yourself still tempted to check your phone during times when you must focus and concentrate, you may find it best to leave it in your locker or in your car, your coat or even in a completely different room if you work from home.

3. Multitasking

Multitasking distractions attack productivity on the job

Multitasking is also called task-switching. It has been recognized as one of the 5 distractions attack productivity. There is ample evidence multitasking significantly hinders productivity. This is usually a self-inflicted productivity wound. Not one brought about by others or outside events.

Remedy

Rather than trying to work on multiple things at once, the most productive workers focus on just one task at a time. If you have been a multitasker for a long time, you may find it challenging at first to work on just one thing. Introspection can be a notable way to retrain your brain to focus on the task at hand. Working from a prioritized list of tasks and taking short breaks throughout the day can also be effective ways to boost productivity.

4. Too-Friendly Coworkers and Interrupting Associates

Coworkers-interrupting-one-of-5-distractions-attack-productivity.

We all have coworkers in our workplace that unfortunately seem oblivious to the fact that we have our own agenda and tasks to accomplish. Whether it is a chatty coworker at the workplace or your over-friendly neighbor dropping by during the day when you work from home, they are one of the 5 distractions attack productivity.

Remedy

Setting boundaries will help you stay on track, avoid unnecessary distractions, and maintain your productivity. Be polite but firm, and if you want, offer an alternative time and/or place to get together.

5. Distractions from Personal Responsibilities

If you periodically or permanently work from home, it can be appealing to try and do personal tasks during your workday. This should be a No-No!

Why?

See #2 Phone Interruptions. Same applies here.

Working from home personal activities one of 5 distractions attack productivity

Remedy

It is best to set aside work hours for specifically focusing on work, and non-work hours for personal tasks. If you do choose to complete personal tasks during work hours, set aside blocks of time and use a timer to keep you focused and on-task. Avoid doing this too often however because it takes your mind time to regain focus after changing tasks and that time adds up!

Takeaway

we have outlined in this article common work interruptions like the 5 distractions attack productivity. They can be really disruptive to your work efforts and results. However, with some organization and mindfulness, you can overcome these interruptions and stay on task. Utilize the tips we have provided as follows to help you boost your productivity and avoid unnecessary distractions:

  • setting aside specific times for checking emails
  • allocate specific times responding to texts
  • focusing on one task at a time
  • taking breaks throughout the day
Flexicrew Support

Flexicrew has advised hundreds of HR recruiters and functional hiring managers on correct interviewing techniques and successful recruiting methods that lead to quality workers. That reduced the chance of their hiring easily distracted employees. Remember these 5 distractions attack productivity and you do not want to hire those who fall prey to them.

If you would like support in recruiting your next new hire, please contact one of our professional recruiters with many years’ experience in staffing. We will help you prevent your team from making a recruiting Oops or getting distracted themselves.

5 Daily Routines for Productivity

Introduction

Daily routines are a valuable tool if you are trying to increase your productivity. In this post, we suggest 5 daily routines for productivity. By taking the time to establish a daily routine, you can set yourself up for success. That ensures you are mentally prepared for the workday ahead. Surprisingly, one of the most fundamental aspects of a daily routine is setting aside time for self-care. By taking care of yourself first, you will be in a better position to take on the tasks of your workday.

daily routine for productivity for high achievers

5 Daily Routines for Productivity

Having any sort of routine will help improve productivity, but to really maximize your efforts, here are 5 daily routines for productivity you might want to add to your approach:

  1. Choose 3 Must-Do Tasks for the Day
  2. Lock-in and Stay Focused on Your Goals
  3. Self-Reflection Prepares for the Workday
  4. Schedule Frequent Breaks
  5. Reflect on Your Workday’s Successes
1.Choose 3 Must-Do Tasks for the Day

Daily Planner is one of the 5 daily routines for productivity

The first of our 5 daily routines for productivity is for you to choose 3 Must-Do tasks for your workday.

Setting your purpose and feel for your workday is a chief element of any productive morning ritual. Do you want to be focused or scattered? Are you going in with a plan or merely reacting to others’ actions?

Will you allow interruptions and distractions attack productivity? Is your workday schedule merely a house of cards that can drift or go up in smoke?

Ultimately the best method of being more productive throughout the workday is to control the way your workday unfolds. And one of the easiest ways to accomplish that to be sure is by starting off your day by defining your most important tasks. These are the top 3 must-do tasks you want to accomplish that day. Recording these must-do tasks at the beginning of the day in your Daily Planner will help give you a clear picture of what having a successful day will include and give you an immediate sense of purpose.

2. Lock-in and Stay Focused on Your Goals

Focus on goals another daily routine for productivity

Recording, visualizing, and reflecting on your goals, mindset, and objectives can bolster any worker’s backbone and make your performance better on work tasks. I once read a book on productivity, Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail, which paraphrases a Ben Franklin quote and is like a Winston Churchill saying. Both these leaders achieved their plans against strong adversity. I came away with the conclusion that written goals separate them from mere dreams and wishes because writing them is a subtle, subconscious commitment to action and achievement.

When you can reflect on what you have accomplished, you receive a boost in your self-confidence. Reflecting on your accomplishments helps you feel like you can accomplish more (and want to). Which in turn helps provide motivation and drive for future tasks.

3. Self-Reflection Prepares for the Workday

Reflection to deal with work is one of daily routines for productivity

You simply cannot always predict how your workday will roll out. For instance, you may get delayed in a traffic jam and miss an important meeting. Or you may have a sick family member that disrupts your day completely. However, including self-reflection in your daily routine for productivity helps you deal with challenges in a more effective and calm manner.

It is vital to start small if you are new to deep-seated reflection on your tasks. Being consistent is more important than intensity at the outset. Even simply sitting in a quiet place with your eyes closed for 2-3 minutes and focusing on your breath may be enough to get you started.

4. Schedule Frequent Breaks

take breaks - one of daily routines for productivity

This one of our 5 daily routines for productivity may seem contrary to accelerating your productivity.  Don’t you have to work harder and longer and skip lunch to be a high achiever?  Yet, if you continue to work when you need downtime, it sucks out your energy reserves to keep you going. You have certainly heard of working on adrenaline alone. But periodic breaks help your body release stress.  It helps clear your thinking and provides you with a boost of energy.  That enhances your productivity.

A reasonable approach is to take breaks when you need them. It is simply another of your daily routines for productivity. Listen to your body and schedule regular breaks away from your screen or your workspace at least every 90 minutes.

In fact, to make best use of these work breaks, take a walk outside to spend time in nature. There is evidence that breaks rapidly help rejuvenate and recharge your energy. When I worked in Los Angeles, if I ran into a tough problem or writer’s block. I sometime took a 20-minute drive along the Pacific coast and always came back refreshed and motivated.

5. Reflect on Your Workday’s Successes

The final one of our 5 daily routines for productivity is for you to reflect on your workday’s successes when you get back home.

At the end of the workday at home It is all too easy to wind down with Netflix to ‘relax.’ Unfortunately, the human mind does not cooperate. We are not wired that way. Instead, when we leave work issues unresolved, ideas and feelings linger and emerge at inconvenient moments (like when you are asleep or trying to get to sleep). You have probably heard the expression, ‘What wakes you up at 4 AM?”  For me, I occasionally wake up with ‘The Horrors.’

On the other hand, a personal debrief can help with alleviating work-related stress. It is especially helpful when you focus on your successes and the positive results you achieved that workday. This routine can even affect the way you perceive your workdays and prevents descending into negative thinking. This does not need to take long. You could simply list the three impressive results you accomplished or dealings you had during the day.

Wrap-up

Most workers do not realize that productivity is a skill you can learn by having daily routines for productivity. It is like how you would work on your fitness or learn a new language. You can also practice becoming more productive. Try adding two or three of the routines we shared above into your daily habits and see how they works for you. Afterwards, you just might surprise yourself by how much more productive you can become.

To hit your targets consistently practice daily routines for productivity

Interested in More Productivity

Looking for ways to achieve greater productivity?  You may be interested in our article, “5 Habits of Highly Productive Workers.” Or, “5 Enhanced Productivity Tools – Not What You Think.” Or contact us to discuss our 5 daily routines for productivity.  If 5 daily routines for productivity are not enough for you, check out our “25 Time Management Tips.”

Flexicrew Support

Flexicrew, founded in 2008, focuses on fast and flexible staffing solutions.

Flexicrew takes pride in the role we have played supporting our associates (and certainly our clients} for 14 years. We are particularly proud of our combined accomplishments in recent years. Our professional staff has positively supported our clients with quality workers, both permanent and contract employees, and strategic insights. We offer creative and customized talent services, valuable expertise, experience, and market knowledge in finding and hiring qualified candidates.

If you think you could use some staffing support to find and hire productive workers, contact us Today to discuss your requirements.

Nighttime Work Focus Actually Better than Days

Is your nighttime work focus actually better than daytime?  Biorhythms?  Habit?

Nighttime Work Focus

Introduction

We often face tasks while at work that we cannot complete during the day. If you have low level anxiety or suffer from perfectionism you may procrastinate your work through the day. But, this is not always a problem. Then when the deadline of night comes along, your body shoots out a little cortisol and you feel alive, clear-minded and focused. Then you may start to feel a little wired as the night goes on.

Some recent research has shown that you can get more work done at night.  However, you must still get enough sleep afterwards. For night owls, this is even more true.

There are two reasons why some people are more focused and can work more productively in the evening  They are: 1. because you are more relaxed and 2. there are less distractions.

This is true not just for night owls, but for most workers in general.

Nighttime work focus means more productivity

More Relaxed at Night

At the end of the day, most workers breathe an audible sigh of relief—the major tasks are done, and your mind is free until tomorrow. For some this means that their minds shut off for the evening, but for vampires it can provide a burst of motivation.

Greater relaxation at night yields focus and productivity for work

This is because we are more relaxed if there is less expected of us at that particular time. Chances are, your boss or coworkers won’t be calling you at midnight or 3 am.

Sense of Relaxation

There is also the sense of relaxation that comes with:

  • Lack of expectation for news or communication.
    • New laws, policies, or major updates are not likely to be released at night.
  • You don’t expect to make or receive phone calls from associates or your boss.
  • There will likely not be new work assignments designated in the late evening hours.

This lack of expectations allows your mind to relax and makes you better prepared to complete work tasks efficiently.

Fewer Distractions

There is much less going on in the evening than during the day, including:

  • Minimized contact with others
  • Less outside noises
  • Fewer tasks to complete

Nightowls work focus and productivity

When you are faced with limited external stimuli, your ability to focus improves drastically. People associate the day with activities such as commuting, fitness routines, school, and work, but our nights are generally considered open. The song “Night Time, My Time” comes to mind.

The truth is that during the day, there is stuff going on all around employees at work—its inevitable to get sucked in from time to time, which diminishes your ability to focus. At night, this is a non-issue.

Conclusion

The bottom line in all of this is that nighttime work focus begins mainly for night owls, as there are some diehard morning people who are most productive in the very early hours of the morning. However, for those night-dwellers, nighttime work focus is greatly improved because of being in a more relaxed state.  They face fewer distractions that could hinder concentration.  Yet, graveyard and night shifts are a rarity.  Approximately three-fourths of U.S. workers work day jobs.  They start their workday in the four-hour span between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m.

Yet. as remote work remains a “thing” in the future of work, employees can set their own schedule to parallel the times to work that match their most productive period.

Flexicrew Support

Does your organization need more 2nd or 3rd shift workers?  Flexicrew has willing, hard working shift candidates  available Right Now!  Contact Flexicrew Staffing today and we will quickly deliver those night owls with nighttime work focus your organization needs.

5 Tips to Supercharge your Productivity

Supercharge your Productivity

To supercharge your productivity is a major goal for many employers since more can get done if you are in a high-productivity environment. While this concept may seem simple, to fully understand what it means to supercharge productivity, the definition cannot be taken literally. You actually must have a strong grasp of this concept and fully use it to your company’s advantage.

Supercharge your productivity

To put it in simple terms: supercharged productivity means that you are putting out products more quickly or completing tasks at higher speed than before. Theoretically, it made sense – the more products your firm produces or services your employees complete, the more positive profits are generated, making supercharged productivity a priority for many businesses.

There are some things, however, that studies say cause your work productivity to be lower, such as unfavorable environment, distractions and plain old procrastination.

You cannot always control your environment, but the good news is you can control what you, yourself get done. Plus, you can learn from others to be even more productive. There are probably more direct ways to help your productivity increase such as a conducive environment or closing the Facebook tab on your browser, But these are small hacks that actually only do so much. There are more meaningful ways to be your best. And you can learn these skills by taking some cues from the world’s most successful people.

1. Have Big Goals in Mind

First, you can set big goals and then act to fully accomplish them. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is a master at this, making room each year for a new challenge, which he says allows him to “learn new things and grow outside my work at Facebook.” And it pays! He’s now fluent in Mandarin and is meeting new people all the time.

Looking at it backwards can help too, link Amazon’s Jeff Bezos does. He makes room for big goals by starting with the customer’s needs and working backward to build skills to get that work done faster. As Bezos said it, “We learn whatever skills we need to service the customer. We build whatever technology we need to service the customer.”

2. Give Each Day A Theme

Try copying CEO Jack Dorsey for this. When splitting his time between Square and Twitter, he stays productive by giving each day a theme.  Mondays for management, Tuesdays for product, etc. As he explains, “There is interruption all the time, but I can quickly deal with an interruption and then know that it’s Tuesday, I have product meetings, and I need to focus on product stuff.”

Another tip you can use is the “no-meeting Wednesdays” Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz believes that this gives him and his team a good amount of time each week for “focused, heads-down work.”

3. Set Limits

Set limits to supercharge your productivity

You can only spend so much time focusing on something. After that, it’s time to move on to the next important thing. For example, former Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn sets only allocates 1 and a half hours to on single-purpose, non-operational meetings, with half the time for presentation and the other half for discussions.

To supercharge your productivity another thing you can limit is the length of your emails. The Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg says she responds to every single work email, but she saves time by keeping the responses short. “I would rather give a short, quick, incomplete answer than wait and do it better,” she says.

4. Deep Work Zone

Focus, focus, focus. This is perhaps most important secret to supercharge your productivity. Bill Gates would set time for Deep Work, where he would allocate time each week to do his most challenging work without any distractions — no stopping, not even for sleep. Cal Newport, author of the book “Deep Work” said, “Deep work is important … not because distraction is evil, but because it enabled Bill Gates to start a billion-dollar industry in less than a semester.”

Supercharge your productivity

5. Streamline Decisions

Jeff Bezos makes a lot of decisions every day. Since this can be time-consuming, he’s developed a four-step process for navigating his business more quickly. First, One-size-fits-all decisions are a no-no. “Many decisions are reversible, two-way doors,” he writes in his letter to shareholders. “Those decisions can use a light-weight process.  ”Second, make the decision when you are at 70% of your intended information. “If you wait for 90%…you’re probably being slow,” he writes.

Third: disagree and commit. “This phrase will save a lot of time,” he writes. “If you have conviction on a particular direction even though there’s no consensus, it’s helpful to say, ‘Look, I know we disagree on this but will you gamble with me on it? Disagree and commit?’ By the time you’re at this point, no one can know the answer for sure, and you’ll probably get a quick yes.”

And fourth, address the real misalignments early and focus on them immediately. “Sometimes teams have different objectives and fundamentally different views,” he writes. “They are not aligned. No amount of discussion, no number of meetings will resolve that deep misalignment. Without escalation, the default dispute resolution mechanism for this scenario is exhaustion.”

Supercharge your productivity

Reach for More Career Growth with Personal Development

Do you feel like you’ve hit a wall when you reach for more career growth? Do you think you’ve accomplished everything you’re meant to achieve? Chances are the answer is no.  But if you answered yes, then it’s time to change your mindset.  Why?   Because the most important part of personal development is recognizing that you always have a potential to achieve if you proactively reach for more career growth.

Reach for more career growth through personal development

The Growth Mindset

If you don’t believe you constantly have room in your career to grow and develop, then you are the victim of a fixed mindset. People with a fixed mindset don’t focus on self-improvement.  And therefore, unsurprisingly, they don’t tend to succeed as often as those with a growth mindset. According to a number of studies on achievement, training in how to maintain a positive and growth mindset raises individuals’ results, and this is just based on telling someone that having a growth mindset helps!

To achieve and maintain a growth mindset it’s important to recognize that you don’t know everything about your current job. And that you always have room to improve. Even if you believe you’ve mastered your job function, find ways to expand on your knowledge.

The world is always changing so there are always new things to learn no matter what your area may be. For example, if you finished a class mastering a new language, maybe it’s time to take a trip to a country where they speak that language to put yourself to the test!

Reasons to Continue To Grow

While mastering an assignment may seem like a good end of growth goal, its actually better to set a goal to constantly continue to learn. This is because when we believe that we have no more room to grow, we often become complacent and we lose the positive reinforcement associated with continual achievement. Not only that but continuing to reach for more career growth provides us with a healthy dose of self-confidence as we persistently learn new elements of the job.

Constantly setting new or progressive goals keeps us on our toes and takes us out of our comfort zone. It makes us more self-aware.  That will help us recognize any additional areas in our job function which could use some improvement. Thinking that you’ve learned everything will only lead to feelings of monotony and boredom.  So don’t let anyone tell you that you don’t still have room to grow!

Reach for More Career Growth

If you’ve decided that you want to reap the benefits of a growth mindset, then you’re already halfway to reach for more career growth! Next, look at your job and find areas which you may need to improve. You don’t just have to think of it as improvement. Rather think of it as something you may want to revisit or refresh. For example, if you learned a language fluently in school, maybe it’s time you revisit your knowledge.  Try reading a book or watching a tv show in that language. You’ll be surprised by what you can learn!

Besides just deciding what you want to improve upon and how, also make sure you write your goals down. If you write down progressive goals without a clear end in mind (such as “practice Spanish every day”) make sure you provide frequent updates for yourself.  Or perhaps list milestones such as “practice Spanish every day for one year” and then after the one year, up it to two years, and so on. This will help you drive and remain on track even when your goals may seem endless.

If you’re constantly in a mindset ready to reach for more career growth, you’ll be surprised by what you discover.  And you will also surprised by what you achieve. And pretty soon you’ll find yourself on the road to leading a more successful and fulfilling career.

 

 

 

 

5 Signals You’re Wasting a Lot of Time on the Job

Are You Wasting a Lot of Time on the Job

Have you ever wondered if you are wasting a lot of time at work?  And not being as productive as you could be?  Here are five signs that you are wasting time even when you are at your workplace.

Wasting a lot of time at work

You Are too Comfortable

“ A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life. “ – Charles Darwin. Time is by far one of the most important resources we have in our lifetime. Therefore, to make the most of it, one would need to overcome the desire to give in to comfort. It’s crucial to ask yourself how long it has been since you last challenged yourself.  Either to learn something about your employer’s business or invested in your personal business growth. Being content is fairly okay.  But it’s critical not to confuse being content in your position with not proactively seeking a better position that may requires harder work . Mediocrity is often a poisonous pattern many workers fall into for a variety of causes. It may be because you are too afraid to succeed or are scared of failure. It may also be due to laziness to take time to discover what you really want in your career and go for it.

When employees don’t confront self-doubt or apathy and deal with it productively, they stay hesitant and uncommitted. This then breeds inertia. When a worker chooses inaction, everything in their career then also remains stagnant.  They lose their work connections, salary, supervisors, and co-workers’ opinions of them. And even their own health an suffer. Therefore, to avoid paying the price of too much comfort which is suffering, one has to decide to challenge themselves daily and commit to a personal growth plan.

You Have Settled for The Traditional 8 Am To 5 Pm Job

The 8 am to 5 pm job is nowadays considered traditional. This is because it is an old inefficient redundant way of surviving due to the dynamic way our world has been evolving. It is necessary to commit to this job in the short term since this will cover most of your living expenses. Moreover, this type of work can also be useful to help raise capital for investing in new active and passive alternative streams of income. Once those start to generate more stable income than your 8 am to 5 pm job generates, then you will have more reason to leave your current employment.  That allows you to spend your time in the new ventures.

These new sources of income are usually flexible and provide a better work environment than the former. This too will contribute to better mental health and helping you have more time to spend on what you are truly passionate about. If your favorite time for your 8 am to 5 pm job is when it’s time to leave every day, then it’s good to start considering and investing in having a different career path for the long run.

You Are Holding on to Toxic Work Relationships

These are relationships that seldom add value to your life. Many personnel hold on to toxic relationships even though they may be seeing consistent red flags. It can be either friendship, family, or workplace relationships. All three have the potential to waste your time if not given careful thought. These usually are relationships with no vision, no positive plans, no clarity. It’s when one person uses the other to selfishly fulfill their objectives instead of looking out for the best interests of the other.

In the context of romantic relationships, one definitely will be wasting their time when they invest in this type of partner; someone who usually says, “let’s just go with the flow.” This person be it male or female is clearly showing you they have no vision at all neither do they want commitment. Rarely does this person ever actually invest in a long-term commitment.

When someone’s words and actions often don’t align, it is self-destructive and a waste of time to keep closely interacting with such workers. Rather, take time to understand your true worth and move on to relationships that are productive and healthy.  Find co-workers who have career goals and try to meet their employer’s expectations.

You Do Not Know Your True Character and Purpose

This is the ultimate recipe for living a career of regret and disappointment. Everything created or made has a creator or designer. We discover who we really are and our purpose from our Maker. For example, I want to understand what an Apple phone is and how to fully utilize all its functions.  Therefore I need to get accurate knowledge from the Apple manufacturers or a manual. Otherwise, l may end up just knowing how to call, send messages and maybe use one or two apps.   But I wouldn’t know how to use the rest of the functions the phone has. I may even end up destroying the phone by trying to fix it the same way an android phone is fixed. Hence, to live a fulfilled life, let’s always refer back to the source of our lives for clarity and direction.

You Haven’t Had a Positive Awakening

Just what is a positive awakening or paradigm shift?  It is “An important change that happens when the usual way of thinking about or doing something is replaced by a new and different way.” Your thoughts create your reality. Having the same thoughts every day leads to having the same choices. Unfortunately, when choices are the same, that leads to the same behaviors. Work behaviors that are consistently the same produce the same experiences. And that leaves you as a less engaged and less satisfied employee. All in all, this then creates your personality. Your personality creates your personal reality.

Therefore, for you not to re-live your undesirable past, you must create a different reality through ‘learning.’ Daily learn and practice having new thoughts, new choices, new behaviors, new experiences, and new emotions.   That will certainly result in a new, improved personality.  That produces a new reality. Indeed that becomes the solution to stopping the vicious cycle of wasting a lot of time.

 

Pitfalls of Not Being Productive and How to Change

Non-Productive Results

Everyone has a day or two now and then when they aren’t as productive as they could have been. But if you find yourself constantly working but not being productive, this is likely to cause several lasting implications not only on your morale but your future work as well.

Non productive processes lose money

You May Experience Guilt

When you feel you aren’t productive, you may start to feel guilty about it. And this guilt is a vicious cycle. When you feel feelings of guilt, you are much less likely to be able to focus on a project to be productive. So even not being productive for a single day can impact your entire week.

 You’ll Lose Motivation

A huge aspect of motivation is the feeling of accomplishment. If you aren’t feeling productive in your work, you’re likely to miss out on the feeling of accomplishment, and then you won’t have any motivation to work. Like guilt, the lack of motivation is also a vicious cycle that is difficult to escape once initiated.

You’ll Leave A Trail Of Half-Finished Projects

If you aren’t accomplishing anything, you will probably leave a trail of unfinished projects in your wake. And this won’t just affect your morale, but it may make you look bad to your employer or coworkers who have to finish these projects you are constantly abandoning.

It Could Lead To Depression

Often, when employees are not productive, they feel they don’t have a purpose.  They could experience melancholy or depression. This is because workers often tie their emotional well-being in with their sense of accomplishment. And just like everything else on this list, once you’ve fallen into the pit of dejection of thinking you don’t have a purpose, it can be difficult to recover.

Although remaining productive is a difficult and challenging task, it is necessary to maintain your sense of emotional well-being. This is because without productivity, you’re likely to feel guilty, unmotivated, and maybe even depressed, and it’s likely those around you won’t feel too great about having to pick up your slack either.

The best way to avoid these pitfalls is to do your best to remain productive in your everyday work. And remember, even if one day you may not finish what you want, the next day is a new and productive day.

Stay Sane During COVID: Stay Grounded By Accepting Reality

It has been difficult to stay grounded during the pandemic.  By this point, your nerves are frayed, and your hands chapped from all the handwashing and sanitizing. It has been a lot.

Of course, that’s nothing compared to those who have fallen ill, passed away, or ‘recovered’ with lasting effects. The two are related, by doing the first things we are certain we can prevent the latter thing from occurring.

Stay grounded during pandemic

It’s certainly a good way to mitigate the risk. Lots of kids are at home, with many schools yet to return, a lot of people are working from home or laid off. We have not met our friends and family in-person for what seems like forever. For a time, the grocery shelves were wiped out and people were spending an hour in line in hopes of fulfilling their list.

Life has changed in a series of big and small ways due to COVID-19. The only highlight of this is that everyone else is going through it, too. We are all going through this same tumultuous event and we’re all in it together. At least, we should be.

There is nothing funny about a pandemic, but it’s important to stay grounded. As difficult as it seems, it’s important to accept reality and not catastrophize about what hasn’t yet happened. We all cope differently with horrible situations, and we all struggle with our locus of control.

The Acceptance of Reality

There are things you can do to exercise control in this situation. Focus on those things to reduce your risk. Firstly, it’s important that you sleep well, eat well, and move often. Those are basics of life that stand true in normal times and during a pandemic.

It’s also important that you pay attention to social distancing. If you’re allowed to have contact with others, then do so, but do it safely. That means wearing a mask, handwashing, and sanitizing often. A bit of anxiety can be productive if it is causing you to take proper precautions to prevent the spread of the virus. If we didn’t have a level of reasonable worry, then no one would take the appropriate measures to protect themselves and others.

There is unproductive anxiety, too. Where you allow it to spin out of control by imaging what would happen if you caught it, or your child caught it, or someone you know caught it. It’s happened to other people so it’s not ridiculous to imagine that someone close to you could catch a highly communicable disease.

You can counteract thoughts like that by focusing on the present. Remind yourself you are safe at home as you cook dinner, binge watch, play with your kids, or complete your workday.

You can think about it all day, but it won’t change anything, and it won’t make you feel better.

Staying Sane

What began as a tragic story on the news has become a very real threat to our world. In all likelihood, you know someone who has been touched by COVID-19, if not you personally. Stay grounded; you are not minimizing the pandemic or sticking your head in the sand. You are simply taking the necessary steps to protect your mental health and stay sane. Think of all the steps you have been taking to protect your physical health.

Now think about what steps you have taken to protect your emotional and mental health. With that in mind, what are you going to do to ensure you stay grounded by accepting the reality of the pandemic while avoiding worrying about things that have not happened.

7 Simple Ways Managers Can Offer Employees Appreciation

Research indicates most employees lack a feeling of appreciation or acknowledgement.  HR personnel, executive coaches and trainers hear that frequently from employees. So what is necessary to change that phenomenon?Employee Appreciation

Here are seven easy techniques to show employees appreciation and help them feel their work is valued.

1. Thank Them

A simple way to give workers recognition is to thank them verbally for their hard work or  for their performance above expectations. A simple word of encouragement can boost morale and it only takes about 15 seconds.  When you take time to write employees a hand-written note, it makes a big impression and is important to them.

2. Hand Out Small Rewards

You could give out $10 gift cards to supervisors that they could provide to their team members when they excel. Frankly, it may be only a simple gift card and it may only be for $10, but the perceived value is much higher.

3. Provide an Extracurricular Opportunity

When a worker performs at a very high level, give them an opportunity as a token of your appreciation. Express your appreciation for their high-level performance  and show your appreciation by sending them to a training program they wanted or allow them to attend an external conference where they will hear about new industry trends that will support their jobs.

4. Reflect Employees’ Goals

Get together with workers regularly and consistently to ask them their short-term and longer-term goals. Let them know that you, as their supervisor want to help them achieve those goals. They will appreciate your willingness to support their success.

5. Spread the Word to Co-Workers about a Worker’s Achievement

When an employee contributes outstanding performance, distribute a ‘congrats’ group text or email to anyone on the team or those outside the team who interact closely with that worker and include key executives. Discuss the employee’s achievement with others and thank him/her for their creativity and their hard work. Doing this illustrates that you value their result  and  stimulates praise and recognition from their associates.

6. Assign Them to a High-Profile Assignment

A simple approach to express appreciation is to assign a high performer to a high-profile project that illustrates confidence in their abilities and talent. This also gives them a chance to have a higher profile in the company. Make known that you designated them for the project because of how you’ve appreciated their high achievement.

7. Make Praise Specific

To recognize the achievement of workers, inform them specifically what it is you appreciate. Don’t praise their hard work.  Many employees work hard and put in overtime. Rather, express your appreciation for their accomplishment on a specific assignment. Point out how you liked that it was well organized and the implementation was well done and the results were outstanding.  This also makes them and associates want to repeat that behavior so they get praise and feel valued on the next project.

Need Help Finding Top Performers for your Team?

Call Flexicrew. As one of  the Southeast’s top staffing agencies, we have 14 years experience serving employers – and helping them find truly exceptional people. Contact us today to learn more!