Does improving your personal and professional life have to be about making monumental changes? No. Even small steps in the right direction can often make a huge difference to your happiness. Plus taking things one step at a time will help avoid overwhelm. We are continuing with our “Small changes, big impact” series below:
1) Tame the email beast
How many times do you check your email account per day? Per hour? You might have noticed that checking email multiple times throughout the day can dramatically decrease your productivity.
Email is a major distraction to all of us. Feeling bored? Let’s see if there is anything interesting going on. Bad case of procrastination? Surely there is something else you can do before embarking on the project you are procrastinating on.
Email can get very addictive and you will find yourself in a loop of constantly checking private and office emails.
What if you decided to check your email 3 times per day only at the office? At the beginning of the workday, before lunch hour and in the afternoon. Let your co-workers know about your new system so they have a realistic expectation about you reading their emails. The good news is the world will not fall apart if you take a few hours to respond to an email! What if there’s any emergency? Your colleagues will find a better way to connect with you. Many times a personal discussion can help dealing with office emergencies.
2) Tech-free for a day
As much as we love technology, it is easy to get sick of it from time to time. We discussed the email beast above. Constant internet access, smart phones, messaging apps, social media and we become available to others all the time. And while it is nice to keep in touch… maybe we need some boundaries around our availability.
What if you switched off your phone as soon as you get home? Keeping it switched off is social situations? Simply saying “no” to constant availability.
Can you still remember the old days without mobile phones? We did survive and didn’t miss much, right?
Why don’t you consciously take time away from technology completely, for example for a day each week or month? Take Saturday or Sunday off from being online all the time. Who knows maybe you remember the activities you forgot you used to enjoy: reading a book, walking in the park or just daydreaming. Or you could use it as the perfect excuse to spend more time with your family.
3) Stop multitasking
Want to increase your productivity at the workplace? Stop multitasking immediately! It’s been proven time and time again that multitasking will not lead to better results or higher productivity. Especially women fall into believing that multitasking can be an answer to a more productive life. Well, it is not true. Some research suggested that multitasking actually can be unhealthy for your brain.
Focusing on one task and you will get more done in less time. Your quality of work increase, too! Decide to multitask less even if you feel the expectation to deal with more than one thing at one time. The myth of multitasking is still very apparent in our work culture so you might be challenged by others if you decide to stop this behavior.
Focus on one task and your productivity will increase automatically!
Find the 1st Part of this series here!
