Article: How to take charge of your day & be the boss of your To-do list

Life @ Work

How to take charge of your day & be the boss of your To-do list

Roll up your sleeves and follow these tips to enhance your productivity and make the most of your life
How to take charge of your day & be the boss of your To-do list

A corporate schedule requires a daily routine.  You wake up at the same time each morning, follow your morning routine, get to work, wrap up meetings, complete some tasks, run errands, firefight, spend time with colleagues and then get home.  When work ends, why then do most of us feel that we have not accomplished enough?  There is no feeling of joy and satisfaction.  

Here is how to increase your productivity with intelligent planning and focused efforts.

Track your time 

Make the most of the time that you have at hand. Each one of us is handed the same number of hours each day.  While some people get a whole lot accomplished in this time, some others feel that the number of hours available to them is just not enough. You may be taking some extra time to accomplish tasks that require a shorter span. It is easy to waste time going through endless emails or talking on the phone.  Give yourself a deadline for each task and adhere to it.  

Omar Kilani, co-founder of the popular to-do list app Remember the Milk says that “you see how the tasks’ completion times accumulate and you can make realistic decisions about how much you can really fit into your day”. 

Get a headstart on your day at work 

Steve Jobs would begin his day at 06.00 am and try to get some work done before his kids woke up.  PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi wakes up as early as 04.00 am and is at work every day, no later than 07.00 am.  Find creative ways to beat the clock. You might want to get into work early; so that you can get a whole lot accomplished before your colleagues walk in and you get caught up in the whirlpool of meetings and other distractions.

Learn to say no 

This is one of the hardest things to accomplish in your day-to-day schedule. There are lots of things that eat into your valuable time. If you want to really increase your productivity levels, then you must stop doing things to please others. When you take on too much in order to help others, then your own work suffers.  You may end up missing deadlines that you might have set out for yourself. You should understand that there is nothing wrong in saying no sometimes.  

Make the most of your commute 

Most of us take a couple of hours to get to work and get back home. Use this time productively to schedule calls, answer emails or catch up on business news that might help you in your line of work. You could also plan your day at work or spend time in preparing a to-do list. Alternately, this time could be spent in de-stressing by reading a book, meditating or watching a movie that you have been longing to.

Follow the two-minute rule 

If a task can be accomplished in two minutes or less, then finish that task first. Get the small tasks done immediately, so that they do not snowball into too many tasks later.

Avoid multi-tasking 

Multi-tasking can result in lost time and productivity. Commit to a single task before moving onto the next project.

Become a Guru or the Master of your day, take charge and transform your life, both at work and outside.

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Topics: Life @ Work, Performance Management

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