1.
Set Milestones
Setting milestones can help you achieve both personal and professional goals.
We have a natural tendency of shooting for the stars and establishing challenging goals.
It’s okay to be bold when setting goals to improve work performance. The problem is
that big projects can become overwhelming. By breaking those big personal and
professional projects into smaller sections, you’ll stay
motivated during each victory you achieve.
Setting individual success metrics to analyze your goal is also very helpful when it
comes to keeping morale and energy levels up. Keep track of your progress, allow
yourself to enjoy your success (as small as it may be) and share it with your team.
2. Organize, Plan and Prioritize
If it seems like I’ve mentioned this topic before, you’re right, I did. Several times,
actually. Organizing, prioritizing and planning your daily schedule is essential for
improving work performance.
Break down big projects into small tasks, establishing a due date and priority status for
each one .Combine the most urgent and essential tasks, taking into consideration how
much time it’ll take to finish each one and set your schedule for the next day.
When making your to-do list, be reasonable. Make sure you can do everything you set
yourself out to accomplish – it’s much better to establish realistic goals and
overachieve than the opposite.
Making a detailed plan in advance is also very useful for identifying which tasks you
can postpone (to free up time for more urgent, valuable tasks) and which ones you can
delegate without affecting the result. Never forget that in order to be able to prioritize
tasks, you must learn how to say no.
3. Stay Focused and Avoid Distractions
The most productive professionals in the world have named distraction
as productivity’s number one enemy. I’ve already written an entire article dedicated
to avoiding distractions at work, so I won’t dive deeply into this subject.
Never lose sight of your goals along with your journey. Every time you feel tempted to
waste some time checking out your Facebook feed or watching your favorite YouTube
channels, remember what’s at stake.
Sustainable continuous improvements are part of a slow evolutionary process. It
feeds off consistent progress. Make sure you remember that. Focus on taking one step
at a time and completing the previous task before starting a new one.
4. Manage Interruptions
Do you know how many times during the day you’re interrupted? Interruptions come in
many different sizes and shapes and learning how to avoid them is vital for improving
work performance.
It doesn’t matter whether you’ve been interrupted by a colleague coming to your table,
by your boss on a Slack chat, or by your family knocking at your home office’s door.
Interruptions are dangerous. They make you lose focus and waste time you’ve
previously allocated to a task, increasing the risk of running late.
5. Do one thing at a Time (Don’t Multi-task!)
Most people claim they’re experts at multi-tasking. They may think so, but the only thing
multitasking actually does is compromise the quality of the work.
I’m guilty of this, I’m always working on two or three tasks simultaneously, stopping
what I’m doing to help a colleague out. Even though it feels like multi-tasking allows you
to accomplish more, it actually does quite the opposite.
Whenever you start working at more than one thing at a time, take a step back
and determine which task is more important and focus entirely on it. Working on one
task at a time makes you faster, less stressed, and less prone to making mistakes.
6. Don’t Leave Things Unfinished
Another thing I’m guilty of, and it’s very likely a consequence of trying to multi-task.
Do you remember how many projects you’ve started only to abandon them shortly
after?
New Year’s resolutions, diets, a new sport…they’re all great for a while, and then they
start to slip straight back to your to-do list. Don’t let that happen. Make it a habit
of recording every project you complete and rewarding yourself for them.
7. Read Something New Every Day
Change is happening all the time, all around us. Reading is the best way to learn
about new tools, trends, and technologies in your company’s industry so that
we’re always updated and remain competitive.
That’s mostly why reading plays such an essential part in improving your work
performance.
Golden tip: try to read at least one relevant article regarding the industry you’re
inserted every day. (Count on our blog to help you!)
8. Communicate Effectively
Communication is a two-way street. Whenever you’re feeling uncertain about anything,
ask someone. Whether you’re a manager or not, make it your ultimate goal to establish
a consistent communication channel among your team members.
Evaluate your work performance on a frequent basis and keep your goals and
responsibilities in mind every time you have to make a decision.
Talk to your colleagues. Listen to what they have to say.
Find new and improved ways to achieve better results. Make sure everyone knows
their opinion matters.
9. Acknowledge Your Weak Spots
There’s no way for a person to be good in everything. We all have strengths and
weaknesses. The great thing about acknowledging your weak spots is identifying easy
improvement opportunities.
Getting better at something you’re already pretty good at is a lot more challenging than
improving something you’re not satisfied with. Even though you can always improve at
everything, focus on identifying the things lowering your work performance, and
remember: stay restless.
Don’t settle for “quite alright” when you can achieve “awesome.” Read, learn, listen. Do
whatever you can to be the best version of yourself, every day.
10. Take a Break When you Need One
Admitting you need a break is not a weakness, it just means you’re aware of your
limitations, and you’re wise enough to admit it. You don’t need to be at your peak
productivity each day, but if you feel like you’ve reached your limit, stop.
Stress and burnout levels are increasing at alarming rates. It will do you no good to
keep pushing after you’ve reached your limit. Your productivity levels will suffer from it.
You’ll get even more stressed for underperforming and so on. This is a vicious cycle
you don’t want to get trapped into.
Rest time is just as important to your professional development as any other aspect I’ve
mentioned before. Go away for a weekend, change your scenery, and always
remember to keep a healthy work-life balance.
