4 micsonceptions about productivity

Here’s a saying you are probably familiar with, “Don’t believe everything you see on TV.” Well same thing goes for what you read on the internet. You read articles about tricks and tips to boost productivity, but do these tips actually work? Here are 4 tips said to increase productivity that you should take with a grain of salt.

  1. Your mornings are when you are most productive

Which would be true if you are a morning person. Everyone is different, you could be a night owl and need mornings just for checking emails and simple tasks to ramp you up. Or maybe you get your surge right after lunch. The point is, everyone’s preferences are different so find the part of the day when you are in your groove to tackle your challenging and most time consuming tasks.

  1. Multi-tasking is a must

Have you ever really been more productive multi-tasking than focusing on one thing at a time? I didn’t think so. Switching between tasks requires you to switch your brain from thinking through one task to another and then back again which in the long run takes more time and can lead to confusion and frustration. Ditch the do-everything-at-once attitude for a checking-things-off-a-to-do-list routine to really save time, and if things have a tight deadline delegate tasks where you need to.

  1. Have meetings

Yes, meetings are important but more often than not they are too long and the frequency of the meeting may be unnecessary. The goal of a meeting should be to provide a brief update and to bring up any concerns or issues that may be delaying the project. If you have a meeting set for brainstorming how your team will tackle a project, have you and your team prepare ahead of time and then bring your ideas to the table. Otherwise, meetings can go off topic and take longer than they need to. The next time you are in a meeting, evaluate whether the meeting was actually beneficial or if you can change your weekly meeting to a bi-weekly meeting with an email check-in in between.

  1. Strive for perfection

Okay not exactly a tip you hear to boost your productivity, but it’s still a mindset most of us have. Perfection requires time and time is a luxury no one can afford especially if you are in a fast-paced business environment. Although you should always do your best and throw 100% effort into your work, making your work ‘perfect’ can put a halt on your workflow. If you and your team takes the time and makes the dozens of revisions necessary to try to even get close to perfection for one project, your other work will never get done. Instead, strive for good and keep producing.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.