6 Proven Strategies to Improve Your Productivity at Work

If you work in a busy role or company, you know that staying focused and efficient can feel like an uphill battle, with countless distractions vying for your attention and multiple priorities competing for your time.  However, by implementing the right strategies, you can transform your workday into one that feels manageable and achievable.  This blog outlines six proven strategies to enhance productivity at work, ultimately leading to better, more sustainable performance.

1.  Reducing Distractions for Better Focus

If you've ever had your well-planned day derailed by distractions, you know the impact they can have on your productivity.  Understanding and managing these distractions is crucial for maintaining focus and achieving your goals.

There are three main types of distractions:

• Digital Distractions: These include emails, social media, and notifications.
• Physical Distractions: These encompass office noise, work happening outside your home, colleagues, and home interruptions (e.g., pets).
• Mental Distractions: Stress, multitasking, tiredness, and wandering thoughts (e.g., worrying about issues or anticipating plans) are examples of cognitive distractions.

To combat these distractions, start by identifying the primary sources of interruption in your workday.  You can then choose a mix of short-term strategies, such as setting specific times for checking emails, and long-term habits, like taking regular breaks, to refresh your mind and restore your focus.

Reducing distractions can significantly improve how you approach solo work.  But what about working with others?   The next step is to ensure that the time you spend in meetings is just as productive.

2.  Scheduling Meaningful Meetings

Meetings are an essential part of workplace communication, but they can often feel unproductive or time-consuming.  To make meetings more meaningful and effective, you need to set them up for success from the beginning.

• Define the Purpose: Begin by clearly defining the meeting's purpose and ensuring that only necessary participants are invited.  This helps to keep the meeting focused and relevant.
• Establish Guidelines: Create clear meeting guidelines, such as having a clear agenda, setting time limits, and assigning roles like a facilitator or note-taker.
• Manage Pre- and Post-Meeting Work: Distribute the agenda in advance so participants can prepare, and follow up with detailed notes and action items to ensure accountability.

These steps lay the foundation for more efficient meetings that move work forward.  However, a meeting is only as good as the conversation that takes place, which is why being able to communicate well at work is a non-negotiable for productivity.

3.  Communicating with Impact

Effective communication is key to building strong working relationships and achieving team goals.  To communicate with impact, it's essential to structure your messages clearly and choose the best channels for delivery.

•  Be Present and Intentional: When communicating, be fully present and pause before sending your message.   Taking a few moments to review and refine your message can make all the difference.
• Focus on Purpose and Value: Every communication should have a clear purpose and add value, whether it's moving work forward, solving a problem, or building relationships.  Always ask yourself, 'What do I want to happen next?'
• Be Mindful of Communication Channels: Understand the purpose of different tools (e.g., email for longer-form communication with attachments, Teams for quick chats) and use them appropriately.
• Seek and Give Feedback:  Use feedback effectively by making it S.T.A.R. (Specific, Timely, Action-focused, Relevant).  This helps people understand what to "do more of" or "do differently"

These are just a few ways you can improve your communication skills to ensure better understanding among team members and allow work to flow more easily to completion.

4.  Overcoming Procrastination and Prioritising Tasks

Overcoming procrastination and effectively prioritising tasks are interconnected challenges that, if left unaddressed, lead to increased stress, missed opportunities, and a fragmented work life.

Procrastination, whether passive (continually delaying tasks) or active (believing you work better under pressure), results in unnecessary stress, reduced productivity, and lower quality work, often pushing important tasks into evenings and weekends.

Prioritisation, on the other hand, is about intentionally focusing on high-value work that "moves the needle," helping to manage workload, reduce overwhelm, and improve efficiency.

To begin addressing the challenge of overcoming procrastination and prioritising tasks, you can take three small yet impactful steps, focusing on mindset shifts and foundational practices:

• Challenge your perception of productivity and embrace imperfection: It's essential to recognise that no one is perfectly productive all the time.  The key is to take action anyway, even when you don't feel like it or are afraid of failure.  Acknowledging that it's okay not to be perfect or brilliant at something the very first time, especially when taking on new aspects of your role, is crucial.  This mindset helps reduce the fear of failure, which can lead to slowing down or stopping tasks altogether.
• Identify and commit to one "must-do" priority task daily: Focus on the singular "priority" rather than multiple "priorities".  A powerful method is to ask yourself, "If I do nothing else today, I will..." and commit to completing at least that one key task during your working day.  This approach helps manage attention and energy, even amidst distractions and interruptions, ensuring that you finish at least one significant item instead of starting many and completing few.
• Prioritise taking regular breaks: Breaks are foundational for maintaining focus, preventing mental fatigue, and reducing errors.  Even short pauses of 2 to 10 minutes can help you reset your mind and body.  A complete lunch break, ideally stepping away from your desk and getting some fresh air and movement, is also crucial for overall well-being and sustained performance.  Studies indicate that regular micro-breaks lead to better focus and fewer mistakes, combating fatigue that sets in after 20-30 minutes of sustained concentration.

5.  Managing Expectations Effectively

How you manage the expectations of others at work can be the difference between calm and chaos when work is busy.  How we manage expectations can be grouped into three buckets:

• Meeting Expectations: This is considered the ideal zone for most tasks.   It means delivering precisely what is needed, no more and no less.  When you meet expectations, work flows more smoothly, your well-being is protected, and trust is built with colleagues, managers, and clients.
• Exceeding Expectations: While this can be great,  it should be approached strategically and selectively.  Consistently going "above and beyond" without intentionality can lead to setting an unsustainable standard for yourself, risking overwork and potentially contributing to burnout. 
• Unrealistic Expectations: This is the "burnout zone".  It occurs when expectations are beyond what is genuinely possible given your available time, budget, or resources.   If you find yourself in this situation, it is essential to push back and reset those expectations before they lead to burnout.

Take these steps to manage expectations on your next assignment better:

• Understand Expectation Outcomes: Take the time upfront to confirm what "success" looks like and the different levels of outcome:  ideal, realistic, minimum, and unacceptable.  This helps you set achievable goals and communicate them effectively.
• Reset Expectations Periodically: Regularly reassess your progress and adjust your goals as needed to help you stay on track.
• Communicate with Others: Be transparent about your capabilities and limitations.  Encourage open communication to ensure everyone is on the same page and to create a supportive atmosphere.

6.  Building Resilience and Agility

Resilience and agility are essential qualities for navigating the complexities of modern work life.

Building resilience involves developing the ability to recover quickly from difficulties and adapting to changing circumstances.  Agility, in turn, is about adapting swiftly and effectively to changes.

Here are four ways tos upport these crucial skills:

1. Start by adopting a growth mindset.  When faced with unfinished goals, use the word "yet" (e.g., "I haven't finished this project yet") to transform a defeated mindset into one that emphasises potential and future opportunity.
2. Anticipate the Unexpected: Allow buffer time for unforeseen tasks or disruptions by planning for "I don't know what yet" in your schedule.
3. Strategic Workload Management: In busy periods, ask clarifying questions to yourself or others, such as "What if it could be easy?" to simplify tasks, "When will it be used?" to assess urgency, or "What comes next?" to ensure effort aligns with impact.  Don't be afraid to consider "What will happen if it doesn't get done at all?" to eliminate low-value tasks.
4. Ask for Help: Don't try to do it all alone.   Asking for support or delegating where possible is crucial for managing workload and maintaining well-being.

Improving productivity and well-being at work can be achieved by applying intentional strategies with consistent effort.  By reducing distractions, setting up meaningful meetings, communicating effectively, overcoming procrastination, managing expectations, and building resilience, you can create a work environment that supports both performance and well-being. 

Ready to take the next step?   The Better Workday Momentum Series is a 6-week programme that covers each of these strategies in detail.

Learn more about how you or your team can join Momentum here.