The business world is a hectic place. And people
with larger workloads need to be busier to cope with the speed at which the
world works – or do they?
A number of studies have shown that being very
busy doesn’t necessarily mean being more productive. Surprisingly, the most
productive people are often more relaxed than average performers. It all comes
down to how high achievers spend their time, or simply said, make the most of
it.
By understanding how these top performers spend their hours you can
learn ways to be more productive – and possibly less busy – in your daily
work.
Practice makes perfect A study conducted among a
group of violin students in the 1990s revealed some surprising insights into
different work styles and their consequences.
The students, divided into
“Average” and “Elite” players, seemed to spend the same amount of time
practicing. Yet, clearly the latter group was developing faster than the former.
So what gives?
Giving the students a series of in-depth interviews, the
researchers then gave them diaries which divided each 24-hour period into
50-minute chunks, and sent them home to keep a careful log of how they spent
their time.
It soon became clear that the difference was in
how
they spent their practice time. The Elite group was spending almost three times
as many hours on concentrated deliberate practice, whereas the average players
spread their work throughout the day.
From here, two simple definitions
followed.
“Hard work,” consisting of concentrated attention to a given
task, may be more rigorous, but you are able to complete it within a clearly
defined set of time. This style of work provides you with a clear measure of
progress and adds to motivation, since you can complete a task fully within a
single time frame.
“Hard
to do work,” on the other hand, is work
that you complete with difficulty, because of poor time management,
interruptions or simple procrastination. Because you need to continually shift
your focus back to the task, it causes a false sense of busyness and wastes
precious time. It’s also harder to measure clear progress, and inevitably adds
up to worse results.
Adapting working style to the business
world These two work models can easily be understood in the context
of your own daily work. Ever spent a day running around, jumping from one
project to the next, where you seem to make very little headway? Clearly, how
you apply your efforts and how you spread your workload has an effect on your
performance.
With that in mind, here are a few tips for creating a more
concentrated work style to enable better results and reduce false
busyness.
Don’t break your hard work up over the day. This makes
for more stress and less productivity. With that in mind, and considering that
harder tasks will take more effort, it makes sense to prioritise. Put your
strongest efforts into these tasks
first, as your energy will naturally
wane as the day carries on.
Be wary of multi-tasking. It loses
its benefits when you jump from one project to the next, distracted by merely
being busy with projects instead of getting them done. For best results, work
hard at something in a sustained manner to get the best
results.
Define your time on social networks. With a lot to do,
it stands to reason that wasting time won’t help you. Again, the benefits of a
phenomenon like social media quickly turn to obstacles if it isn’t wisely used.
As with any task, set aside some time for it during the day. While you’re doing
it, do only that. But don’t let it keep cutting into your productive
hours.
Nothing beats efficiency. Learning new skills can help you
do more work faster. For example, learning the ins and outs of your word
processing program can help you edit or create documents faster and more
effectively.
Make lists. Nothing beats the simple pleasure and
sense of progress of ticking off items on a to-do list that shows how you’re
dealing with your day.
The world won’t come to an end if you can’t do
everything today Often, the secret to doing a lot is to avoid doing
too much. In a competitive work arena we often take on any and all tasks,
assuming it is expected of us.
But completing three or four tasks
perfectly counts more than taking on a dozen and half-completing
them.
Remember, you’re only human. You have capacity, to a point. Don't
take on something with a steep learning curve if you don't have the available
resources. Don’t try and complete everything at once, and don’t sweat the small
stuff. Rather, plan, prioritise and then commit. Your results will show for
it.
Bid farewell to busyness In the end, productivity is
good, but false busyness is your enemy. Fight it with concentrated effort by
doing one task at a time, with full focus, and doing it well.
By working
this way, you’ll be much more relaxed about leaving a task, knowing you’ve done
it properly, and then moving on to the next one
http://h30458.www3.hp.com/apr/en/smb/1296220.html?jumpid=em_taw_IN_may13_xbu_2059850_hpgl_gb_1296220_0&DIMID=EMID:1175846708&DICID=null&OID=10065784&mrm=1-4BVUP
