How to Be Productive at Work: 10 Steps

Share This Post

Making the most out of the limited hours in a day is critical to staying productive. While there can be plenty of distractions that can divert your attention, keeping your focus is vital. Being able to complete all the tasks you’ve set brings you closer to accomplishing your goals. And understanding how to be productive at work is essential to achieving everything you’ve set out to.

The overall objective of achieving your goals relies on the smaller steps of attaining milestones, and this can only be done when you stay productive. Learning how to be productive at work doesn’t require training or colossal preparation. Instead, it needs your deliberate focus on managing your time to enact specific actions. Here are 10 ways you can maximize your time and increase productivity at work:

1. Focus on one task at a time

Having the ability to do numerous tasks can be a notable skill, but one can often face the challenge of having tasks uncompleted. In realizing how to be productive at work, you can focus on one particular task at a time, which can help productivity.

Focus leads to prioritization

When you focus on one task at a time, it helps you concentrate on finishing the task itself instead of wasting time trying to transition between tasks. Providing a focus on the task at hand gives you more motivation to complete the job properly before moving on to the next one. Prioritize your tasks according to importance so you can start on more pressing work and finish your day with less stressful ones.

Stop multitasking

Many people are dedicated to multitasking, taking on a few tasks at once because they seem easy or minor jobs to do. However, juggling tasks can cause disarray and can hinder your performance. In addition, multitasking can reduce efficiency and can even damage your brain. So if you don’t want to lose valuable time switching between tasks, or lower your IQ in the process, focus on one task at a time.

2. Set small goals

Goals can often seem overwhelming. More than 80 percent of people give up on goals they’ve set within the first few weeks. These goals seem intimidating because you haven’t broken them down into smaller tasks. When you’ve broken down your goals into smaller milestones, you’ll see that they’re absolutely within your reach and can be done. Figuring out how to be productive at work can lead you to more effective methods such as:

Identifying milestones

Your large goals can be broken down into milestones that can be used to identify your progress. These milestones make it easier for you to understand what tasks you need to accomplish to achieve your goals.

Determine your actionable tasks

As you’ve broken down your goals into smaller goals and milestones, you can now determine what actions to take to fulfill them. These smaller tasks are now under your control and within your reach, which leads to being more productive.

3. Conquer biggest tasks first

Tasks at work can be broken down according to priority, and facing the most challenging ones is recommended. The most important and most time-consuming jobs help you stay more focused and aids in attaining quicker progress. Doing your most important task first every day, when you’re most alert and energized, can be achieved with these steps:

Step 1: Spend your first 20-30 minutes of the day scanning your email and to-do list and responding to more urgent communication.
Step 2: Minimize your email and other windows to avoid other distractions. Allot two to three hours to focus on completing your most important task.
Step 3: Take a lunch break away from your desk if your heavy task spills past lunchtime. Leaving your workstation and recharging is vital to being productive when returning to work.
Step 4: Focus your post-lunch day on achieving your other remaining and ongoing tasks as well as other reactionary work that requires less mental stamina.

4. Remember to take breaks

While it may seem in contrast to the process of how to be productive at work, taking breaks is actually healthy. Scheduled breaks help improve your concentration and prevent decision fatigue. In addition, encouraging breaks, especially for heavy tasks, can be beneficial due to the following:

Taking breaks are healthy

Being at your desk and sitting the whole day can be rather unhealthy. Taking brief movement breaks is essential for your physical and emotional health. Find the time to get up from your chair to stretch, walk or do any activity that can encourage movement. For example, a simple five-minute walk every hour can do wonders for your health and well-being.

Breaks improve memory, productivity, and creativity

Taking breaks is good for your brain. A study by a team of neurologists in 2021 identified that memory benefits from breaks since the same neurons active in learning and working are strengthened by the time gap. Working for long durations can lead to exhaustion and stress. Taking the time for breaks can replenish the mind and your mental resources. Breaks not only improve your memory but also help you be more creative and productive.

Take breaks to avoid decision fatigue

Working through tasks throughout the day can be stressful and tiring. Frequently making decisions can wear down your reasoning ability and willpower, leading to mental fatigue. This “decision fatigue” leads down a path of simplistic decision-making and even procrastination, which isn’t productive at all. Instead, take the time for breathers that can replenish your mental agility.

Breaks are great energy boosters

Focusing all your attention on a given task can be draining, depleting your abilities towards the end of the day. This is why you need to allow your body to recover by taking quick rest breaks. For example, consider taking a 10-15 minute power nap, a proven way to revitalize your capacity to see the day through more effectively.

Taking breaks now serves your long-term goals

In achieving long-term goals, facing challenging tasks often leads to sustained attention. However, prolonged attention to a particular job can hinder performance and affect the effectiveness of achieving those goals. Imposing brief breaks can deactivate your mental stress, and reactivating your focus after a short period can help you achieve your goals better.

5. Follow self-Imposed deadlines

Stress is often considered a bad thing, but a manageable level of pressure can help acquire the focus you need to finish tasks. In figuring out how to be productive at work, a good strategy is implementing self-imposed deadlines. Open-ended projects or tasks can be fulfilled more efficiently when you set a deadline to complete them. To effectively self-impose a deadline, do the following:

Be productive as early as possible

Even when you’re not a morning person, being productive at the start of your day can lead to tasks being done efficiently and far quicker. Setting tasks for yourself to complete by the end of the day, and accomplishing them by noon, provides a fulfillment like no other. It also makes everything else on your list a lot more reachable and less stressful to do.

Do similar jobs back-to-back

Heavier tasks should be done at the start of your day when you’re at your peak level of productivity. Then, plan out tasks that are similar to each other later on, with notable deadlines that will keep your eyes on the clock. Similar jobs are easier to do since the mind thrives on repetition. Doing these simpler, more similar tasks back-to-back can also lead you to go on a roll, completing them with familiarity.

Avoid the final push

People often tend to initiate a long-duration task in the last moments before a deadline is met. This provides unnecessary stress and can lead to burning out—instead, scope and sequence jobs into smaller tasks with specific deadlines. Finishing a task earlier than expected is far better and more rewarding than not having met the deadline at all.

6. Abide by the “two-minute rule”

Each minute spent on the job is valuable to yourself and for your organization. This is why you need to make the most out of small opportunities to be most productive. Entrepreneur Steve Olenski recommends the “Two-Minute Rule.” This means tasks that can be completed in two minutes or less should be acted on immediately. Completing an assignment right away can take far less valuable time than having to come back to it later on. The concept of the “Two-Minute Rule” is based on:

If it takes less than two minutes, do it now. There are many times when people set themselves to do a task but end up putting it off for later. Instead of listening to that voice of uncertainty, complete the doable task now, and scratch one task off your list.
A new habit should take less than two minutes to create. Not every goal can be completed in 120 seconds, but goals can be made within that time. Once you set yourself to doing something, it becomes easier to continue doing it.

7. Plan your phone calls

One aspect of work that often becomes a distraction from valuable tasks is phone calls taken. Unfortunately, not everyone has a personal secretary to manage incoming calls when working on something. So instead, manage your phone calls yourself and see that the payoffs lead to huge boosts in your productivity.

When working on a priority task, consider turning your phone off so you can do the job with your full attention. Unless you’re expecting an important call, having the distraction taken away can be a vital action as you learn how to be productive at work. You can then start setting aside a structured time frame for all your planned outgoing calls. This provides a time for more effective conversations instead of wasting time trying to get in touch with people.

If the task you’re working on is manageable and doesn’t require your full attention, you can then leave your phone on for possible incoming calls. This also saves the effort from spending time returning missed communications. However, if you know that the call you’ve answered is a distraction, get yourself out of it right away.

8. Hold standing meetings instead

Meetings are standard practice at the workplace and tend to eat up valuable time. As you learn how to be productive at work, consider making meetings more efficient and productive. For example, you can track progress in sit-down meetings by dedicating a specific amount of time for essential topics to be discussed.

Another option is conducting standing meetings, which helps increase alertness and focus while keeping meetings concise. Similarly, you can also consider attending meetings via phone or web-based platforms. Again, this can increase the probability that the meeting won’t take too much of your time away from tasks you need to focus on.

9. Delegate tasks

Task delegation is an efficient way to increase productivity at work. If you have several tasks that need to get done, consider assigning them to members of your team. Download productivity and project management tools to help you in the delegation. This allows you to work on pressing projects that primarily require your expertise.

For example, coworkers can do simple tasks such as replying to emails or providing updates under your supervision while you focus on more pertinent tasks.

When you delegate correctly, you’ll find more time to focus on your work. Knowing how to delegate is vital to getting the job you’re giving out, to get done properly. Assign tasks to those you know who have the skills to get the job done, aside from trusting them to do it well.

10. Minimize interruptions

Brief interruptions tend to become significant distractions when compounded throughout the day. So in learning how to be productive at work, you’ll need to minimize these interruptions. From colleagues dropping by your desk for a quick consult to unexpected acquaintances pulling you away from the job that needs to get done, be mindful of the time you have.

Consider keeping your door closed or working from home, especially for particularly time-sensitive projects that require your utmost focus. Instead of putting in extra hours to make up for your lost moments, think about how you can work smarter during office hours.

Conclusion

There are many effective strategies to accomplishing how to be productive at work. Finding a good foundation that becomes your practice at work is a start to finding your productivity gaining a boost. The valuable thing to achieving this is starting the action and staying consistent. As you put in the work, you’ll be able to reap the benefits of your better habits with the proper practices.

Make Growing Your Business Fun Again

Are you tired of feeling like you’re growing your business all by yourself? Even Elon Musk sought guidance from Larry Page.

If you’re like many entrepreneurs, you may be stuck and don’t know where to turn to. Or you may be working on the wrong things (and may not even know it!).

Let us help you take back ownership of your business and achieve the success you deserve with our free Launchpad community for entrepreneurs just like yourself.

✅ Get free resources for you to scale up your business
✅ Support from 100s of other entrepreneurs just like yourself
✅ Access to our team of world-class coaches

Sign up today and start making progress! Oh, and did we mention that this is completely free? You just need to be an existing business owner because this is a specially curated community.