Being more efficient at work is not just about getting more done. It’s about focusing your energy on the tasks that matter and discarding those that don’t.The single biggest waste of time in any work day is meetings. We have all been to meetings where we don’t speak or don’t add any value. Most of us will have been to meetings and not even known why we were there. If you want to be more efficient at work you have to stop enabling this behaviour. Your inbox is one of the biggest barriers to you becoming more efficient at work. An out of control inbox makes it impossible to know which tasks will add value and which is junk. You need to head this off! Put at least 30 minutes aside in your diary each day for admin tasks. If you manage a large team you may need more, or it may even take up all your day, but for the rest of us 30 – 60 minutes a day will be fine.

Boost Your Efficiency At Work

<img width="1024" height="1024" alt="more efficient at work" src="https://i0.wp.com/spurplanners.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/How-To-Be-More-Efficient-At-Work.png?fit=1024%2C1024&amp;ssl=1" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/spurplanners.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/How-To-Be-More-Efficient-At-Work.png?w=1080&amp;ssl=1 1080w, https://i0.wp.com/spurplanners.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/How-To-Be-More-Efficient-At-Work.png?resize=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/spurplanners.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/How-To-Be-More-Efficient-At-Work.png?resize=1024%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/spurplanners.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/How-To-Be-More-Efficient-At-Work.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/spurplanners.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/How-To-Be-More-Efficient-At-Work.png?resize=768%2C768&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/spurplanners.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/How-To-Be-More-Efficient-At-Work.png?resize=600%2C600&amp;ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/spurplanners.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/How-To-Be-More-Efficient-At-Work.png?resize=100%2C100&amp;ssl=1 100w">Being more efficient at work has long been a quest of many people. With the end in sight for Covid restrictions for many there are concerns at how we will adapt going back into an office again. Working from home has created a strange hybrid environment where work and everyday life have become mixed. This is fine while we have been tucked away at home with our Zoom cameras turned off. As we venture back into the office we need to have our plans ready to once again be more efficient at work and shed the bad habits from working at home.<div>"It's not always that we need to do more, but rather we need to focus on less."</div><div>Nathan W. Morris</div><h2>Plan Your Day ….. For You.</h2>The common first piece of advice to be more efficient at work is to plan your day in advance. This is absolutely sound. You need to go one step further though. Plan your day to work for you. Most of us will have managers who demand things, and staff who need things and our days can quickly become focused on their needs. If you want to be more efficient at work you have to shift the focus on to your work.Of course you can’t ignore people in your team or company but don’t fall into the trap of thinking that by serving others constantly you are doing well. You will be judged on what you produce so always have that in your mind. This is how you can plan your day;<h3>Protect Your Productive Time</h3>We might all be at work for 7 hours+ each day but we are only truly productive for a period of that, around 2.8 hours according to <a href="https://blog.rescuetime.com/work-life-balance-study-2019/" dir="ltr">rescuetime.com</a>. You must make the most of this productive time for you!In his book ‘When’, Daniel Pink found that for most people this productive time is earlier in the day with many of us losing energy and concentration the more the work day goes on. To be&nbsp; more efficient at work you need to know when your productive time is. For a few days try doing your most difficult task of the day at different times and see which works best for you. It may be one long period such as first thing in the morning, or split over two or three periods of the day. When you know what they are, book them out of your calendar and only relinquish them for meetings that are more important to you than the task you would be doing. Note the focus on ‘important to you’. Just because somebody else labels a meeting ‘urgent must attend’ does not mean it is urgent for you. You need to make the judgement call.This is focused time for you to complete your most important tasks. What is important to you will depend on the job you do. Remember though that it could be a task for you or it could be a task for another that will also help you and the wider company.As we move back into the office, booking your time out may not be enough to deter some people who will seek you out at your desk and interrupt your focused time. Don’t be afraid to move to a quiet (or hidden) part of the office so you are less visible. This may seem sneaky but for most people, being a bit harder to find for an hour or two will not spell the imminent downfall of the company you work for.Being more efficient at work is not just about getting more done. It’s about focusing your energy on the tasks that matter and discarding those that don’t.<h3>Meetings</h3>The single biggest waste of time in any work day is meetings. We have all been to meetings where we don’t speak or don’t add any value. Most of us will have been to meetings and not even known why we were there. If you want to be more efficient at work you have to stop enabling this behaviour.If you don’t believe you need to be at a meeting, ask the organiser why you are invited. If you aren’t happy with the response, tell them and decline it. If a meeting goes in your diary that only needs a quick conversation to sort out, try to do it in your admin part of your day (more on this in a minute). Even better, if a meeting just needs to be an email, send that email, decline the meeting and get back to your own tasks.Not all meetings are bad. Some add great value and knowing which these are is a skill. Like any skill you need to practice it. Never be afraid to question why you have been invited if it isn’t immediately clear.<h3>Emails</h3>In 2018 the average worker sent and received 190 messages a day according to <a href="https://www.dovico.com/blog/2018/03/06/time-management-facts-figures/" dir="ltr">Dovico.com</a>. While instant messages may be speeding up the back and forth of messages we all still have that moment of dread as we see our inbox load up each day.Your inbox is one of the biggest barriers to you becoming more efficient at work. An out of control inbox makes it impossible to know which tasks will add value and which is junk. You need to head this off!Three quick tips to keep your inbox under control are too;<UL><LI>Set up redirects for any mailboxes that send you regular circulars that add value but are not urgent. These might be company wide emails, market updates etc.. Send these to a ‘Reading’ folder and you can then read them when you have Admin time (more in a minute on that).</LI><LI>Set up a second re-direct for anything you are CC’d into. The CC was probably a good idea originally but now just amounts to people covering all the bases. Not sure if someone needs to know something, CC them in. Most of the time you don’t really need to know so send it to a ‘CC’ folder. You won’t need to look at it unless somebody chases you.</LI><LI>Instead of engaging in back and forth emails that take time and distract you, wait until you have a gap in your diary and either ring the person or go see them if you are both in the same place. Talking resolves most issues quicker and you can always follow up with a final confirmation email if needed.</LI></UL><h3>Admin</h3>Put at least 30 minutes aside in your diary each day for admin tasks. If you manage a large team you may need more, or it may even take up all your day, but for the rest of us 30 – 60 minutes a day will be fine.These will be recurring tasks that don’t require much concentration but just need to be done. These might be chasing up actions, market reading, staff management and support etc.. Plan this for periods of low productivity so you don’t eat into your high productivity time. A usual time is that post lunch slump many of us have.<h2>The New Structure Of Your Day</h2>Having an ideal structure to your work day is vital to being more efficient at work. If you follow the above it could look something like the below, though this will depend on your job and periods of productivity.9am to 10am – Productive period, do not disturb10am to 12pm – Emails and meetings12pm to 1pm – Lunch1pm – 2pm – Admin tasks2pm to 3pm – Productive period, do not disturb3pm to 4.30pm – Emails and meetings4.30pm to 5pm – Plan tomorrowOf course not every day will allow for this but if you protect your productive times the rest can flex as needed. If you follow the tips in this article you will be able to reduce how many meetings you go to and how many emails you need to process each day. In turn this creates more time for you to concentrate on the tasks that add value. Pull it altogether and even if you have picked up bad habits while working from home you will quickly become more efficient at work again.If you will be working from home for longer yet, read our article on working from wellbeing <a href="https://spurplanners.com/working-from-home-wellbeing/" dir="ltr">here</a>.<h3>Share this:</h3>

After working from home for over a year we need to re-learn how to be more efficient at work. Use these simple habits to improve efficiency.

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Remote Work

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Career

Being more efficient at work has long been a quest of many people. With the end in sight for Covid restrictions for many there are concerns at how we will adapt going back into an office again. Working from home has created a strange hybrid environment where work and everyday life have become mixed. This is fine while we have been tucked away at home with our Zoom cameras turned off. As we venture back into the office we need to have our plans ready to once again be more efficient at work and shed the bad habits from working at home.

The common first piece of advice to be more efficient at work is to plan your day in advance. This is absolutely sound. You need to go one step further though. Plan your day to work for you. Most of us will have managers who demand things, and staff who need things and our days can quickly become focused on their needs. If you want to be more efficient at work you have to shift the focus on to your work.

Of course you can’t ignore people in your team or company but don’t fall into the trap of thinking that by serving others constantly you are doing well. You will be judged on what you produce so always have that in your mind. This is how you can plan your day;

We might all be at work for 7 hours+ each day but we are only truly productive for a period of that, around 2.8 hours according to <a href="https://blog.rescuetime.com/work-life-balance-study-2019/">rescuetime.com </a>. You must make the most of this productive time for you!

In his book ‘When’, Daniel Pink found that for most people this productive time is earlier in the day with many of us losing energy and concentration the more the work day goes on. To be  more efficient at work you need to know when your productive time is. For a few days try doing your most difficult task of the day at different times and see which works best for you. It may be one long period such as first thing in the morning, or split over two or three periods of the day. When you know what they are, book them out of your calendar and only relinquish them for meetings that are more important to you than the task you would be doing. Note the focus on ‘important to you’. Just because somebody else labels a meeting ‘urgent must attend’ does not mean it is urgent for you. You need to make the judgement call.

This is focused time for you to complete your most important tasks. What is important to you will depend on the job you do. Remember though that it could be a task for you or it could be a task for another that will also help you and the wider company.

As we move back into the office, booking your time out may not be enough to deter some people who will seek you out at your desk and interrupt your focused time. Don’t be afraid to move to a quiet (or hidden) part of the office so you are less visible. This may seem sneaky but for most people, being a bit harder to find for an hour or two will not spell the imminent downfall of the company you work for.

Being more efficient at work is not just about getting more done. It’s about focusing your energy on the tasks that matter and discarding those that don’t.

The single biggest waste of time in any work day is meetings. We have all been to meetings where we don’t speak or don’t add any value. Most of us will have been to meetings and not even known why we were there. If you want to be more efficient at work you have to stop enabling this behaviour.

If you don’t believe you need to be at a meeting, ask the organiser why you are invited. If you aren’t happy with the response, tell them and decline it. If a meeting goes in your diary that only needs a quick conversation to sort out, try to do it in your admin part of your day (more on this in a minute). Even better, if a meeting just needs to be an email, send that email, decline the meeting and get back to your own tasks.

Not all meetings are bad. Some add great value and knowing which these are is a skill. Like any skill you need to practice it. Never be afraid to question why you have been invited if it isn’t immediately clear.

In 2018 the average worker sent and received 190 messages a day according to <a href="https://www.dovico.com/blog/2018/03/06/time-management-facts-figures/">Dovico.com </a>. While instant messages may be speeding up the back and forth of messages we all still have that moment of dread as we see our inbox load up each day.

Your inbox is one of the biggest barriers to you becoming more efficient at work. An out of control inbox makes it impossible to know which tasks will add value and which is junk. You need to head this off!

Three quick tips to keep your inbox under control are too;

<ul><li>Set up redirects for any mailboxes that send you regular circulars that add value but are not urgent. These might be company wide emails, market updates etc.. Send these to a ‘Reading’ folder and you can then read them when you have Admin time (more in a minute on that). </li><li>Set up a second re-direct for anything you are CC’d into. The CC was probably a good idea originally but now just amounts to people covering all the bases. Not sure if someone needs to know something, CC them in. Most of the time you don’t really need to know so send it to a ‘CC’ folder. You won’t need to look at it unless somebody chases you. </li><li>Instead of engaging in back and forth emails that take time and distract you, wait until you have a gap in your diary and either ring the person or go see them if you are both in the same place. Talking resolves most issues quicker and you can always follow up with a final confirmation email if needed. </li> </ul>

Put at least 30 minutes aside in your diary each day for admin tasks. If you manage a large team you may need more, or it may even take up all your day, but for the rest of us 30 – 60 minutes a day will be fine.

These will be recurring tasks that don’t require much concentration but just need to be done. These might be chasing up actions, market reading, staff management and support etc.. Plan this for periods of low productivity so you don’t eat into your high productivity time. A usual time is that post lunch slump many of us have.

Having an ideal structure to your work day is vital to being more efficient at work. If you follow the above it could look something like the below, though this will depend on your job and periods of productivity.

9am to 10am – Productive period, do not disturb

10am to 12pm – Emails and meetings

12pm to 1pm – Lunch

1pm – 2pm – Admin tasks

2pm to 3pm – Productive period, do not disturb

3pm to 4.30pm – Emails and meetings

4.30pm to 5pm – Plan tomorrow

Of course not every day will allow for this but if you protect your productive times the rest can flex as needed. If you follow the tips in this article you will be able to reduce how many meetings you go to and how many emails you need to process each day. In turn this creates more time for you to concentrate on the tasks that add value. Pull it altogether and even if you have picked up bad habits while working from home you will quickly become more efficient at work again.

If you will be working from home for longer yet, read our article on working from wellbeing <a href="https://spurplanners.com/working-from-home-wellbeing/">here </a>.

How To Be More Efficient At Work - Spur Planners

Boost Your Efficiency At Work

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