Are you looking to get more done during the day?
Do you want to spend less time on your work?
Sometimes, the best way to get work done is to work smarter, not harder.
In this post, I offer three ways to be more productive…by doing less!
Create a template (or two).
You’d be amazed at how much time and effort a template can save you.
Just think: no more valuable minutes lost each and every time you perform the same task, be it writing a book review, getting a piece of wood for carving or preparing a contract.
Of course, there is some initial time investment to be made when you first prepare a template, but the benefits are truly worthwhile.
You’ll spend less time fussing over and figuring out layouts and formats, and the rest of your time getting things done.
Stop over-thinking simple tasks.
Are you making your work harder than it actually is? Once you let your mind wander and come up with all the different combinations of what you could, or should, or would not do in any given situation, things start to get a bit choppy, not to mention time-consuming. The less energy you put into procrastinating, the more energy you’ll have for your work.
Should writing a check take fifteen minutes? Probably not. How about returning a three-hole-puncher back to the office copy room? Three minutes, tops. Spend less time thinking about simple tasks and just do them.
Take an extended break.
When’s the last time you took a full weekend away from your work or studies? Now, I’m not talking about working half a day from home on Saturday, and then checking your email on Sunday, I’m talking about a fully unplugged, no digital devices or any type of work, break.
Nothing cures work fatigue better than distancing yourself from work completely. Your mind and body will be that much clearer, sharp and fresh. Chances are, you’ll get a lot more done when you return to work, than you have in days, or even weeks.
How about you? How do you approach being more productive by doing less? What tricks do you use? Join in the conversation and leave a comment below!
Some said efficiency is more important than productivity. Basically, to cut all unnecessary things always works.
However I mostly admire the ones who have mastered the grinding still. They switch off everything in order to focus & outperform their competitors. This isn’t always related by doing less. Even to scale something requires some serious work.
True, one does have to put in a bit of effort to either focus or streamline work habits. However, once you get all those other distractions out of the way, you can, in effect, do less (i.e. not multitask) and get more done.