Post written by Marlon Ribunal.
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How to deal with productivity killers? Just do whatever we need to do to achieve our productivity goals without letting up on the quality of our work. In any circumstances, that’s easier said than done. There are many reasons why dealing with productivity killers is not easy.
[ Recommended Book: "Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long" ]
We don’t only have to deal with work per se but also with the other things that go along with our job – the positive and negative things. And who can really blame us if we grumble about politics at our workplace? Politics is not the only disruption we get at work. And I want to reserve that topic for some other time. The hurdles that hurt our productivity the most are not those things that stem out of conflict from the outside – namely, co-workers and other entities.
Self-defeating behavior can greatly diminish our ability to produce or yield expected results. A seeming mundane task may become an insurmountable burden simply because of our lack of attention on details or focus. The conflict from within us is always the source of productivity dip.
[ Recommended Book: "Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long" ]
Here are the few productivity killers that we can identify in our workplace:
Procrastination
“Procrastination refers to the act of replacing high-priority actions with tasks of low-priority, and thus putting off important tasks to a later time.” That’s how we describe procrastination. Giving too much attention to less important things can give way to distraught productivity flow. Some may actually find working their to-do list from the bottom up (“less-important-to-important approach”) more productive than working it from top to bottom(trickle down or “important-to-less-important” approach). But that’s not always the best way to accomplish things.
Replacing high-priority tasks with the tasks that we don’t necessarily need at the moment can negatively affect our true priorities. Procrastination is intentionally neglecting priorities. How do we deal with procrastination as a productivity killer? An intentional act of getting ourselves on the right track can easily snap our senses back to our true priorities. It takes an intentional act to deter procrastination – it’s mind over matter.
Putting Things Off
We don’t only procrastinate our high-priority actions but we sometimes put them off entirely in favor of personal choices irrelevant to our productivity goals. “I don’t want to do this now because I still have a lot of time left in this deadline schedule” or simply “I still have time tomorrow.” How many times have we heard ourselves say this ?
Again, the problem here is the intentional act of putting oneself in the fold of complacency. Things can happen between now and when we need to have our productivity goals achieved (or when we need to turn in our job to our bosses on the deadline) . Accidents on the road, family emergencies, natural disaster, unexpected events – the list can go on and on. The things that can render us incapable of delivering what is expected of us could happen anytime. The right attitude would be “Do it NOW!”
Distractions
Unless you have your own office, dealing with distractions takes a lot of effort. We do not have control over some stuff in our workplace. In reality, we do not have control over most of the things that transpire in our work environment. Anything can become a source of distraction.
[ Recommended Book: "Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long" ]
Our brains are not wired to automatically eliminate the things that distract us. If your buddy knocks at your door or cubicle to ask your opinion about your favorites sports, your brain does not just shut to find a stopping point where you can get back after the meaningless discourse with your buddy ends. You can get distracted just by any thing . Are distractions costing you precious amount of productivity? Take a look at how you can take advantage of the Pareto Principle or 80/20 Rule for productivity.
Higher-Ups
If you are like most knowledge workers, most of your tasks are subject to other people’s decision. Those under the hierarchy of their organization are oftentimes at the mercy of the higher-ups. At least that is the case in some offices. If you are part of a team within a bigger team, the bigger team’s productivity goals may not necessarily align with your personal goals.
When your boss is killing your productivity, make sure you have an open line in which you can communicate your concerns and priorities with him or her. Your priorities and the teams’ priorities may sometimes come in conflict due to circumstances that are beyond your control. It is very important that parameters are clearly defined to put everything in order.
I know there are many other things than can kill our productivity in an instant. You may have experienced or are experiencing some in your workplace.
[ Recommended Book: "Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long" ]
What are the common things that disrupt or kill your productivity? Share your thoughts in the comment below!
It is very hard to stay focused for a lot of people when they are not constantly monitored. This especially true for the more and more people who work from home at least part time. You really have to learn to separate your work life from your personal life to make sure you stay focused and motivated when at work.
Many small factors can disrupt heavily productivity goals of any business and by controlling and eliminating these small factors can help us to restore our productivity goals.
Thanks for sharing such a nice post.
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Too many goals can also be a disruption. Identify the most important things then find ways to effectively focus on them. Keep an eye to the “unimportant” stuff on your side mirror. Once you tied the last open loop on the high-priority tasks, tackle the less-important stuff one by one. Rinse. Then repeat.
Procrastination is not all bad. When you have a lot of deadlines and you reach them all, chances are that the next round you need to perform better. After about 3 years you could have so much work that you need to start letting things fail, this serves two purposes, people panic and notice they need you, then when you fix the problem they really appreciate you, and they start looking at your workload and can make good decisions as to whether you need more support, which is great, because then you can start outsourcing the work you don’t like to do.
Hilly,
That’s right. Procrastination is not at all bad. Technically, it’s all about juggling around high-priority & low-priority actions. And outsourcing is a cool option to consider if workload goes out of hand.
I’m not a big fan of working in conditions that involve outside distractions. I prefer a quiet space when I am working.
Procrastination is another word for resistance.
Justin@Mazzastick recently posted…Are You Being Fairly Compensated For Your Work
Justin,
“Quiet space” is pretty much relevant. And you know that if you’re working in a cubicle farm, there is no such thing as a “quiet space”.
Hey Marlon,
This is definitely a topic a lot of people have especially when they decide to start working from home.
I would say that my only downfall would be spending too much time on certain projects. Knowing that it won’t be completed in one day, I should allot so much time to the project and then move onto something else. Instead, the next thing you know it’s 4 hours later and I should have just spent a few hours on it. Sometimes I’ll set a timer to remind myself while other times I just jump right in not even thinking. Live and learn I suppose.
Thanks for sharing these tips. Really good ones…
Adrienne
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Adrienne,
The amount of time we spend on project is determined by the amount of importance that project requires. When I say “importance”, I mean the urgency with which we need to accomplish it and its entire worth (value & benefits we get from the project). This is the reason why time management and resource allocation are always critical to any types of project.
By the way, on your time issues, did you consider the Pomodoro Technique? Have you implemented it before? What’s your take on this technique?
Marlon