9 Tips to Help Keep Your Work Day Productive and Efficient:
Tip #1 – Block time for your work – If you only have meetings, nothing will ever get done. Make sure you block out time for actual work. Block of time for your tough and important tasks early in the day while your energy level is at its highest.
Tip #2 – Decline Meetings without an Agenda – Keep your calendar free of time-wasting obligations by declining “bad meetings.” These are meeting requests with no agenda, no purpose, and sometimes not even a topic. If someone cannot tell you what they need to meet about, it is probably not going to be a useful investment of your time
Tip #3 – Don’t Allow Conflicts to Stand – You can’t be in 2 different places at the same time. However, it is not uncommon to end up with overlapping appointments in the heat of scheduling or accepting invitations. Make sure you resolve calendar conflicts as soon as you identify them. Otherwise, you will be asking for stress or causing frustration for the other parties.
Tip #4 – Eliminate Back-to-Back Appointments – Back-to-back meetings only ensure that you will be late to the second meeting. Give yourself at least 15 mins between meetings to collect your thoughts and commit any next actions to your system of record (Asana, Evernote, Outlook, etc).
Tip #5 – Protect your lunch time – Some individuals seem to forget that you have to eat at some point in your day. Others will neglect to consider the time zone difference. Protecting your health is more important and will help you be more productive.
Tip #6 – End on Time – Set a designated end time to your calendar day, whatever is appropriate for your workplace. Then make sure that you stop at that designated time. You will be amazed to find that work and meetings tend to end on time when you have a stop point.
Tip #7 – You Can Say No, Even If You Already Said Yes – Just because a meeting is on your calendar doesn’t mean you can’t change your mind later. It is your time, reclaim it if circumstances change. However, respect the other person’s time by ensuring that you give adequate notice of your changing plans.
Tip #8 – Avoid Recurring Meetings – Repeat meetings are usually repeat wastes of time. Avoid recurring meetings that are simply “check-in” or “status” updates. Rather, only schedule time when important decisions need to be addressed.
Tip # 9 – Take breaks – Studies have shown that you are most efficient when you take short breaks throughout the day. Try the Pomodoro technique of working for 25 mins, and then taking a break for 5 mins.
Your calendar doesn’t have to be a cluttered mess of back-to-back and overlapping appointments.
Avoid those unnecessary time-sucking meetings, make sure to say “No” when appropriate, and always make time for your work, lunch, and priorities.