5 Simple Things For a Productive Week

Having a productive week doesn't have to be a struggle. But, deciding whether your week was productive or not, depends largely on what you focus your energy and time on each and every day. Just because you were working long hours, doesn't mean you accomplished your goals and finished all your tasks. Working harder doesn't mean you were productive. But working smarted, does :) 


Find that smarter way, improve your productivity and get more things done in your work week.
This Monday, start your week with these 5 simple advice, and if they seem to work for you, use them every week!

Act on it. Don’t just make plans

Planning and putting things into perspective is important, but oved doing it can turn into a waste of precious time.

Instead of spending hours over your to-do and task management lists, and reviewing them, start completing the tasks on them! Just because you can delay doing something now, doesn’t mean you should actually postpone it, and remember, postponing won’t make the task disappear. So, do it now while you have free time on your hands. Check it off that to-do list. Also, think about how you spend your time in meetings. Do you stay longer than necessary? Are really all those meetings so important? Could they be shorter, could you could skip some of them and do some actual work?

Think of time as a limited resource, and use it wisely. Once you start valuing time more, and start keeping track on how much time you spend on planning and meetings, you will start doing more!

Learn to use the work “No”

“The difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say “no” to almost everything.” — Warren Buffet.
Saying yes is good if you want to impress your boss and coworkers. But it’s a killer of your own productivity. Finishing someone else’s job, or just assisting them, means changing your schedule and leaving your work to pile up. And you don’t want that. Learn to prioritize. And learn to recognize what needs to be done and when, and you aim to accomplish. Once you set your priorities straight, you will be in control of your schedule.
 
Don’t aim for perfection
Wanting to do things perfectly is great. But tiring and time consuming. Sometimes, even frustrating. Focusing your attention on one tasks and chasing perfection means pushing back all your other responsibilities. You will waste time, get annoyed if you fail to do it perfectly, and then you will try to do it over and over again in an endless loop. Even if you manage to complete the task perfectly (hardly likely) you will be so tired and aggravated than wouldn’t t be able to focus on the rest of the rest of the tasks you have.  
Almost perfect is just fine. Just finish the task, don’t pressure yourself, and don’t let other work suffer on account of a single task.

Be smart. Take notes
I bet you all heard it before – smart people write notes, and the silly ones try to remember everything. I bet you found this to be true and experienced a moment where you wished you took a note of something that seemed easy to remember or irrelevant at the time. Stop doing it. Stop relying so heavily on your memory, and put things down the old fashion way - on a piece of paper, or use one of the many available tasks management applications available for you smartphone and computer.
Taking notes can help see the bigger picture of what needs to be done, and comes in handy when making plans and setting your priorities.

Review. Measure. Reward yourself
Just before you turn your computer off, pack up and head home, take 5min to review your to-do lists, and compare them to what you had initially planned. Did you get more things done? How many tasks had to be postponed and why? Take note of all this, and use it when making next –week’s plan. Celebrate and reward yourself for a job well done. But remember what you did wrong too.
That way, you will keep track of what improves your productivity and what’s sets you back. Once you master that, you will be able to plan better, and do more!