Are you looking for productivity tips to help you get through work at the end of the week?

Do you want to have a productive Friday morning or afternoon?

Maybe you’ve found yourself in a situation just like this one…

You’re at work at 9:30 A.M. on a Friday morning.

You’ve had a tiring work week and you’re struggling to talk yourself into doing your work.

It’s not that you don’t want to get things done.

What’s the issue?

Your energy levels are low, and work seems about as appealing as a sitting next to a hot oven on humid summer’s day.

Yuck.

Is it even possible to be productive on a Friday? It sure is!

You just have to think strategically if you want to have a productive Friday that makes you feel accomplished.

In this post, you’ll find several productive things to do at work on Fridays.

Backup and update your computer.

When’s the last time you backed up and updated your computer?

If you haven’t done so in awhile, guess what? Now is the perfect time to do so.

First, you’ll want to grab an external hard drive and backup all of the information on your computer.

Second, once everything is backed up, you’ll want to take stock of the status of current operating systems, applications, and programs.

Which items need updating? Which items need reinstalling?

Make a brief list of items to tackle over the next hour or so.

If you’re really in the spring cleaning mood, then you can file away documents sitting on your computer’s desktop.

You can also take a moment to empty out your computer’s downloads folder, as well as recycling or trash bin.

Catch up on some reading.

Fridays are a great time to do some personal career development or research and development for your business.

Things are relatively quiet, so you can dive into your reading with little to no interruptions.

You’ve probably got several articles, websites, books, and magazines you’ve been meaning to read for past few weeks and months.

Now’s the time to read them!

Select one item to read. Make a plan to read for at least one hour.

When the hour is finished, review what you’ve read and see if you’re up for another round of reading.

What if you come across reading material that is now outdated or no longer relevant to you?

Simply delete or recycle the material, guilt-free.   

Prepare for next week’s meetings and appointments.

This exercise is more of a gentle planning exercise, but it is sure worth it’s weight in gold!

Begin by opening up your calendar or schedule and take a look at the appointments and meetings coming up in the next week.

What do you see? What’s on your calendar? Think about how you can prepare yourself for these upcoming gathering.

Attending a meeting next week?

Take a moment to jot down any pressing thoughts, questions, or ideas you’d like to discuss.

You can jot them directly down in your calendar, if you’d like.

If you’re hosting a meeting, you could draft an agenda, print out and collate meeting materials, or work on presentation slides.

Learn how to use office equipment.

Is your office a veritable ghost town on Fridays?

If so, then this is the perfect time to learn how to properly use office equipment.

All too often do office workers use equipment, but don’t know how to properly operate or make the most out of equipment features!

Think about the types of equipment you use at the office.

How’s your comfort level using the photocopier, scanner, conference room telephone, or fax machine?

Once you’ve identified the equipment you want to learn about, go online and search for instruction manuals, articles, or video tutorials for the equipment in question.

The information you learn today about basic office equipment could potentially save you hundreds of minutes in future!

Work on a rote office task.

Could your mind use a break from work?

This is a perfect time to tackle all those office chores you’ve put aside for past few weeks.

What types of routine or route office tasks exist in your workspace or office?

You could file that mass of documents sitting in your inbox, shred a stack of old confidential papers, or take stock of and reorder office supplies.

Others ideas are to organize and process the receipts from your last business trip, dust shelves, counters, and tables, and fix or replace a piece of broken office furniture.   

Write up your to-do list for Monday.

Plan for next week’s workload by preparing your to-do list for Monday.

Performing this task can help you feel less stress and anxiety come Monday morning.

Take a moment to review the status of your current work projects and tasks.

Select three tasks and write them down in your planner or to-do list application under next Monday’s date.

And just like that, you’ve prepared your to-do list for Monday!

How about you? Which of the above tasks are you going to tackle on a Friday? Join the conversation and leave a comment below!