How to be Productive at Work- Get things done even when you don't feel like doing so
Learning how to be productive at work, or more accurately, how to be more productive depends on your motivation, will-power and the system you use for doing things. The first two, motivation and will-power, are fickle. Sometimes you can feel full of zest and zeal about your work. At other times you’re sluggish and struggling. In short, they’re not reliable when it comes to doing what you decided to do get done. Set up and use a system, however, and you’re virtually guaranteed to boost your productivity, even (especially) when your motivation and will-power are lacking. If you want to know how to be more productive, try this simple two-step system to manage your time and your tasks. You’ll get more of what matters done. Here’s how to be productive even when you don’t feel like being so: Step One: Know what you’ve got to doYou don’t have to be excited about all (or any) of it, but at least know what your work actually consists of. At this point it’s tempting to sit down with a pen and paper and to make a long list of all the things you’ve got to do. This is useful for when a backlog of things to do has built up, in which case, you’ll probably need to know how to prioritize work according to urgency. But, as far as possible, work daily on all of your roles, goals, daily tasks and ongoing projects along with what comes in during one day. Unless it is genuinely same-day urgent, list everything that comes in today in your daily planner under tomorrow’s date. This will give you a list that consists of the following:
Bottom line? Finish each day knowing what you’re going to do tomorrow. Step Two: Do what you wantKnowing how to be productive when you don’t feel motivated or have the will power, hinges on reducing your internal resistance to the point that you actually do something. The best way to do that? Work on everything you must (i.e the list you defined above) for as long as you want to. The key here is that you overcome the inertia that quickly causes work to back up. This works well for roles and goals which are, as the time management matrix explains, important but not urgent. Even when you don’t feel like doing anything you can be more productive than you previously would have been by habitually doing a little daily. What about dealing with the seemingly never ending stream of daily tasks such as emails? You have to at least read them so you can delete or defer everything from today. Action those from the previous day and you’ll end up with an empty inbox. ConclusionEven on the days you’re in a mental slump, you can still get things done and improve your time management in the workplace. Just reduce the resistance you feel to what you’ve got to do and you’ll soon realize you know how to be productive even when you don’t feel like it.
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