by Jyoti Hariharan

Created on: July 18, 2009   Last Updated: July 19, 2009

Do you find yourself juggling between emails and phone calls, rushing in and out of meetings, wasting time looking for important documents and finally at 5 pm start feeling that you haven't done a thing today....well don't anymore. Here are some simple ways to spruce up your act and get more productive at the workplace.

Planning

Planning is the key to the success of any project. The more planned and organised you are, the more likely you are to reach your goal. Most managers would vouch for planning as the all important tool to being productive.

Project management

Every task you take up at work, consider it as a project. Ensure you, Outline the objective of the task The objective helps to evaluate and measure its success or failure.

Determine the Time, money and people you have at hand to assist you in completing the project. Allocate the resources wisely. Take stock of the time available.

Monitoring the plan regularly keeps you updated on the status of your project and addresses any problems that arise midway.

You wouldn't want any information imperative to the project lost out because it wasn't documented. As humans we can't remember everything therefore it's important to document everything, always.

Keep all project stakeholders in the loop about status, changes, milestones achieved, problems etc...

Most importantly stick to the plan you have made and follow it to the core. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, 'to map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs' Do not abandon ship; take the project its entire course to see shore at the end.

Use checklists

Imagine yourself forgetting to take a backup of your presentation for a client meeting only to realise at the venue that your laptop is corrupt and won't start. Well, if you had crossed out 'back up presentation' in your checklist, you could have avoided this situation. The importance of checklists is most often underestimated and undervalued Checklists are an excellent tool to help you increase your productivity... No one can remember all things always. Checklists relieve our brains from memorizing. A well thought out checklist always ensures that you are on top of all things. While all checklists need to be sequentially thought out to avoid any misses, you can look for prepared checklists off the web and personalise it to suit your needs. Like for instance if you are asthmatic, no checklist will have a check box on your asthma pump,

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• 6
• Next Page >>