Technology helps us do more than we’ve ever done before. Unfortunately, the more that we do, the more that is expected of us. That means the search for more productivity is endless, and therefore considerations on how to be most efficient in the way that you go about doing this is extremely important. Unfortunately, there is a limit on how productive people can be and there are definitely some situations that exacerbate this limit. This month, we thought we’d take a look at some of them:
Stop us if you’re familiar with this concept. You have so many ideas that none of them get implemented properly. This is an actual problem for most people; especially those whose job it is to come up with ideas. It all comes down to focus, right? If you focus your attention and effort on one thing at a time, and see it through until it is finished, you will find that you are much more productive than someone that gets excited by an idea, but gets bored working on that idea quickly.
There are times when a person is put up against a strict deadline that they do their best work and be their most productive and on point. Unfortunately, there is an inherent mistake in thinking that your best work will come up against a deadline every time. The truth is that waiting until the last moment to get critical work done often leads to operational delays, missed deadlines, and shoddy work.
Let’s be honest, there really is no such thing as multitasking. You can physically only do one thing at a time so when you “multitask” you’re actually just juggling tasks. Unless you are a clown, juggling isn’t doing anyone any good. Some tasks may get tedious and run over because your heart and attention aren’t completely into it, but interrupting that task with other tasks is probably just going to result in several tasks not being completed to the best of your ability.
Often, if a person does a great job on a task, they will justify slacking on the next task because for whatever reason, they believe that they’ve built up some goodwill by excelling at the other task. This is a curious behavior, but unfortunately you don’t get a reward of less scrutiny because you did one thing well. Most workers want to do their best, so this may not be pervasive throughout your business, but there are employees that will get salty if they aren’t lauded for their good work every time they put it in.
A lot of businesses ask a lot of their employees. This can cause a lot of stress and feelings of exhaustion. Employees that have a problematic work life tend to be so distracted and it definitely affects their productivity, the quality of their work, and the way they think about their entire lives (since a person’s work is a large part of their life).
Regardless of the reasons that your productivity is waning, you should know that it only takes a couple of small adjustments to get back into a state of productivity.
Sometimes, it’s simply a matter of making sure you equip your team with the right tools and resources so they can get their job done effectively. If you need help, you know who to call—the IT experts at First Column IT.
