Have A Productive Day: Achieve More At Work

Most of us want to achieve more at work. But how can you get more done at work on a daily basis? Do you sometimes feel you’re not as productive? You seem to have wasted a lot of time. Your list of things just gets longer, not shorter.

Do not feel overwhelmed by the amount of work that sits on your table. Here’s what you can do:

1. Go For The Lowest Hanging Fruit

The first trick to achieve more at work is to go for the lowest hanging fruit. What are the easy things to do first? Get them out of the way. Is it a simple e-mail asking for a off-the-shelf quotation? Then get that off the list. Sometimes people have a tendency to delay on simple tasks like that which eventually just piles up.

2. Determine Your Most Productive Action

What is the most productive action for the day you can do? Something that will help you in the biggest project you have at hand. The reason for this is because, big projects takes time. So, logically you need daily effort to see it through to complete. Dedicate a slot of your time each day to this action. You will see how small steps like this help complete a big task.

3. Do What’s Easiest On The List

Another way to achieve more at work is doing the easiest on the list. This is somewhat related to the earlier technique of “Lowest Hanging Fruit.”

The only difference is this is related to your big project. Do what is easiest on the big project to-do-list besides doing a most productive daily action on the big project.

4. Break Things Into Small Chunks

This is a common technique – break your workload into small chunks. If it’s a paper you’re writing, tackle a section at a time. If it’s a long section, then sub-section it. That way you will not be overwhelmed. Sometimes, when you’re overwhelmed there is a tendency to procrastinate. Write down a completion date for each section. When you keep yourself in check, you can achieve more.

5. Get Some Help

Getting help isn’t a bad thing; it doesn’t mean you do not know how to do your work. It’s just a smart move. There is no need to reinvent the wheel. You will also save precious time from not making mistakes that has been made before. You may be surprised how people would like to help. It helps position them as the “go to person.” Besides, you’re also opening the door to someone coming to you for help in the future.

6. Attack Your Hate To-Do List

Personally, I have the biggest problem with this. If you want to achieve more, learn to like tackling your ‘hate to-do’ list. I am sure all of us have a few items on our to-do list that we just drag our feet with. But there in lies the biggest point of achieving more at work.

If you can tackle a part of your “hate to-do list” each day, imagine how much work would have been done? I am starting to be at peace with this list now. Meaning I can look at it and say, “It needs to be done, might as well not cook up any excuse.”

To achieve more at work is easy. You just have to open your eyes and be frank with yourself – why are you not doing the things you need to do when we need to do it?