Eat a live frog! Productivity tips for work A shift in attitude and few innovative tools can greatly improve your productivity levels at work. Read on for some incredible techniques that you can easily adapt into your daily schedule starting now. When Mark Twain spoke about “eating a live frog first thing every morning”he was talking about finishing off the most difficult task first thing in the morning. Most of us keep ignoring a pending taskdue to its dreary or futile nature. But, if we shift our focus from the nature of the task to its finaloutcome and the happiness and sense of satisfaction we receive,it will be the only inspiration we need to get going.
Set a time frame. Take small baby steps. •
List down all thepending tasks and pick one you feel like working on today.
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Decide in your mind that completing this particular task will give you the satisfaction of keeping up a promise.
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Find an accountability partner and share your determination with a friend, colleague or spouse, this will motivate you to keep your word.
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Set a time frame.
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Take small baby steps.
Completing a long pending task willfree you of that nagging sound at the back of your mind that tells you “you have pending stuff to finish.” When you are done with a task, check it off your list and pat yourself for keeping up the promise. Get started and soon enough you will realise that thetask itself has become a source of happiness.
The tomato is ticking – Do more in less time. Chaos is ever present in our inner and outer environment, the latter we have no control of, but we can create an oasis of calm in our inner environment. No we are not talking about meditation, but of the Pomodoro technique, a time management technique invented by Francesco Cirillo in the 1980’s. The Pomodoro technique involves the use of a tomato-
shaped timer that breaks down your work sessions into small intervals. These intervals were believed to refresh your mind and improve mental agility. If you have a busy job where you're expected to produce large quantities of output in a short span of time,the Pomodoro technique can help you hyper-focus on the work while takingsmall breaks that will help you relax and refocus.
Ready to get started? •
Choose a task to be completed.
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Set a timer to 25 minutes.(Download a StopWatch/Timer App)
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Work on the task until the timer stops.
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Add a check mark to a paper after the timer stops.
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Take a short break (3-5 minutes).
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Four short breaks make a set – Take alonger (15-30 minute)break.
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Restart from step 1
If you are distracted as it might be the case in the early stages, justwrite about it on a piece of paper and carry on with your work, this way you can get high quality work done in a short period time as your mind will be racing towards putting up its best before the timer goes off. The 5 to 20 minutes break is when you can check on your social media updates, go for a walk or catch up with colleagues.
Renew and expand your energy levels Soaring medical bills and increased levels of distraction are the repercussions of working overtime. Energy, which is the capacity to work, comes not only from the body, but also from our mental, spiritual and emotional energy. Recognizing the costs of energy-depleting behaviours and counterproductive habits will help you to better manage your energy reserves.
This is a basic fact: energy can be expanded and regularly renewed. But this is a fact we don’t give much thought to. It’s time to create or re-establish specific rituals and stick to your goals to unconsciously integrate them in your life. Only three thing matter. 1 – Begin. 2 – Keep going forward with small baby steps. 3 – Never give up. Even if you don’t find any immediate difference, once the wheels of change are set in motion you just have to stay committedand not give up. Read this Harvard Business Review article written by Tony Schwartz, author of “The Way We Are Working Isn’t Working” to learn more about effectively managing your physical, mental, emotional and spiritual energies.
Hire help. Stay focused. There are many innovative tools that can rightly be called time and energy saving tools as they help focus on important tasks at hand. Many top organisations in India have greatly benefited from outsourcing the challenging job recruitment process to dedicated recruitment agencies.This has helped them to focus more effectively on their core business processes. MeraJob.in, India’s No.1 Job Matching Portal expertly handles the mind-numbing task of matching jobs with right fit candidates. MeraJob’s innovative hiring solutions channelize candidates by pre-screening them according to your job requirements. This way you do not have to deal with irrelevant and uninterested candidates who have zero intent to join. Are you a job recruiter? Simplify your recruitment process with MeraJob’s prescreening and hiring solution and effectively manage your time and resources.