Batch similar tasks into a single grouping

You can group tasks like writing blogs and articles, making phone calls, sending email and other quick chores into a single batch. Dealing with all these activities in one session will save you time. In the same way, gather your quick tasks together. Schedule quick video meetings and calls in batches to fill time between meetings – contact time that you can wind up quickly.

Don’t multi-task

Nearly all the experts say not to multi-task. Prof. Nancy Napier says research shows that the brain doesn’t do tasks simultaneously. In fact, we are actually just switching tasks quickly – and there is a stop/start process taking place in the brain. Prof. Napier says that “rather than saving time, it costs time (even very small micro seconds). It’s less efficient, we make more mistakes, and over time, it can sap our energy.” It’s actually a no-brainer to think multi-tasking is effective 😊. What’s more: studies show how it lowers your IQ and hinders your creativity.

Moral of the story – focus on just one task; to improve your personal productivity, focus on one thing at a time.

If you say “But I have lots of busy tasks I need to finish! If I just focus on the big things, I won’t get to the bottom of my to-do list!” And that’s absolutely true…except you never complete your To-Do list anyway, so make sure it’s the busywork that’s lower on your priorities.

When you want to focus on important stuff, you need to give those key tasks your best time when you have the most energy and brainpower. If you feel overwhelmed, you should identify when you are the most productive. Then work during that time on your highest-priority tasks.

But on the other hand…

Experts suggest there is actually a way to effectively do two things at once. You just have to understand the specific requirement for this to succeed – and that requirement is you can only focus on one thing at a time.

If you’re going to do two things at once, they can’t compete for the same cognitive resources because your cognitive system can only handle one thing at a time. And so doing two things at once can succeed when you pair a focused task with an automatic task. For example, you can do this by holding a walking meeting or listening to a podcast while doing the dishes or while driving.

In these examples, the automatic task involves using your body. Most of the time, the movement of your body is governed by your automatic system, especially when you’re performing a task that’s familiar or routine.

Matthew Kent says you can know for certain if you’ve selected two tasks suitable for multitasking by asking yourself: Can you do both things at the exact same time while devoting adequate attention to each? If you are “switching” between one thing and another, you’re wasting your precious cognitive resources and would be better off doing the tasks separately. You should also stop trying to write and edit your work at the same time. Write your first draft, and then go into editing mode and clean it up. Kent also says:

Another useful question to ask: Do both tasks require language? If a task requires you to talk, listen, or write, your brain is engaged in controlled processing. Therefore, if you try to watch a show while writing up a report, both tasks will suffer.

And if you feel like you’re straining, he advises you to switch to a single task. Or simply take a break.

Learn and understand business jargon

Learn and speak tech jargon. Use your communication skills to listen and ask questions to help you become familiar with unique terminology and to translate information to your team members. Speaking in tech jargon demonstrates your willingness and ability to absorb new details quickly and stimulates productive conversations when coordinating with your IT team and product providers. This will improve your personal productivity.

Increase your technical knowledge

Ironically, many people have entered the communication profession believing they will need minimal math understanding. Wrong! Data and technical knowledge are central to many communication activities in this digital era. This knowledge will help you deal with digital work more efficiently, and to coordinate with your IT team more effectively, which is even more important when working remotely. What’s more – it will help your career as others recognize your tech understanding.

Establish a daily ”closing-down” routine

These routines help you change from work mode to personal time. To end your day (and prepare for the next), you can:

• Close loops, such as responding to an important email.
• Note your three most satisfying achievements the day.
• Plan tomorrow’s workday.

Communicate more with your boss

If you feel overwhelmed by work, you need to create time to communicate with your boss. It can be tempting to downplay how overwhelmed you may be feeling or what you are struggling with, or to try to cover up things that haven’t been completed. But that ultimately creates more problems. The best way to get back on track is to seek time with your manager to discuss your current projects and your overall workload. Often, feelings of being overwhelmed are due to miscommunication and the assumption that all work is urgent. Create time in your schedule to communicate regularly with your boss about priorities, current status and the best way forward from there. It is certainly an important way to improve your personal productivity in the workplace.

Don’t agree to team-up unnecessarily

When many people have been asked to do something, and despite knowing they should say no, they still agree to cooperate.  They commit and then later wonder why they are behind in their work. According to the authors of a 2021 Harvard Business Review article, “Collaboration overload is sinking productivity,” collaborative work — time spent on email, IM, phone, and video calls — has risen 50% or more over the past decade to consume 85% or more of most people’s work weeks. The the Covid-19 pandemic has caused this figure to jump even higher. These invisible demands are hurting organizations’ efforts to become more agile and innovative. And they can lead to individual career derailment, burnout, and declines in physical and mental well-being. But there’s a lot that organizations can do to equip their employees to work more. Depending on the extent of your influence in the organization, you can act on this if you are a team leader, and you can press for management to act on it:

Beware of these unhealthy triggers

You need to guard against:

• Identity and reputation triggers such as a desire to help others, a sense of fulfillment from accomplishments, a desire to be influential/recognized, or a concern about being seen as a good colleague and contributor.
• Anxiety and the need for control triggers such as fear of losing control over a project or outcome, a need for closure, dislike for ambiguity, and fear of missing out (FOMO).

What to do?

The authors of the HBR article recommend three key actions for team leaders and management to initiate. These actions can apply to all work modes – office, hybrid and remote:

1. Implement a “Free-Form Fridays” policy. Leave your calendar blocked from 2pm every Friday, to provide dedicated space to engage in “deep work,” catch-up on emails, and recharge.
2. Conduct more frequent pulse surveys focused on wellbeing and stress. These will reveal actions needed after listening to employees. One action taken as a result of these types of surveys was to arrange more frequent, visible reminders from senior leadership to employees about the importance of prioritizing only the most important work and focusing on self-care. As an example, many senior leaders turned to video messages and more frequent unscripted and authentic dialogue with their teams (and the rest of their employees), in which they emphasized the need for prioritization, self-care, and a test-and-learn mindset.
3. Introduce “Ways of Working” training and tools for business units with high levels of collaboration, stress, and negative mood. This type of intervention begins by briefing leaders on the state of collaboration and mood among employees, and starting discussions about how the organization might act differently. Then, group sessions can be held for each unit, teaching more effective practices and ways to guard against personally-driven overload generated by agreeing too often to requests for teaming up with other individuals and groups.

Learn to say “No”

Due to the hectic pace of your professional life, you can’t finish absolutely every task on your To-Do list within due time. So how about keeping tighter control over the number of new tasks you accept. There are more ways than you might think to do this. Here are some ways to keep the number of new tasks at a manageable level.

Lifestyle fundamentals

Sleep

Sleep is a key factor in maintaining good energy levels. Being sleep-deprived has been found to cause some major accidents in the workplace and on the road. Chronic lack of sleep is more than just frustrating. It can impact all areas of your life including physical and mental health. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that more than 35% of American adults aren’t getting enough sleep.

If you are not getting enough sleep, you should discuss with your physician. As a young PR consultant, I found the stress of work was causing me to wake up and worry every night around 3 am, which became rather debilitating, and led to some health problems in the long term. I worked in the PR firm for 6 years before becoming corporate affairs manager in a large company, which at least wasn’t as stressful on a daily basis.

Exercise

Research has found that a short walk at lunchtime and/or during the afternoon boosts productivity, so head out for a few minutes during the day. Doing some simple stretches during your break will help to increase your productivity.

Also, in my personal experience, I have had a lower back ache for many years, caused by playing sport at a high level in my younger days, which was diagnosed as disk degeneration. Short of temporary benefits of chiropractic, nothing has seemed to work very well. And deskwork doesn’t help when you have a long back. Then I accidently came across a wonderfully, simple back stretch on YouTube – the ‘cat-cow’ stretch on all fours (I think based on a couple of yoga stretches). Anna Maltby, the presenter says “If I were, for some reason, only allowed to do one-stretch for the rest of my life, I’m fairly certain I would pick cat-cow.” I agree!

Make best use of work-time energy

We all have a ‘body clock,’ which is our natural 24-hour sleep-wake cycle. And so we have peaks and slows in daily energy. Most people have peak alertness in the morning, reduced energy mid-afternoon, and a return of energy in the late afternoon. Structuring your main activities around the peaks of your body clock can help you attend to important tasks more productively. People’s brains are generally the most active about 2-4 hours after waking.  Therefore, check if you get a brain boost around that time, and prioritize that time of day for your most important deep thinking and tasks.

Final thought

Another of my articles discusses how you can be more productive immediately. You may gain some further useful ideas from the article, which will help you to improve your personal productivity.