Productivity Level at the Workplace and a Modicum of Common Sense

Though you may wish that you should achieve quick growth in your career, there is another aspect that you cannot afford to ignore. That is you should see whether you are getting satisfaction from what you are doing. In fact, experts opine that if you are able to complete your tasks on time and without making any compromise on the quality of your output, that itself will provide you with unparalleled job satisfaction. But how to complete quality tasks on time? In management parlance, completing quality tasks on time is known as increasing your productivity level. There are a few steps that you can adopt for this. Though you may dread bombastic and high-sounding words such as productivity, output, efficiency, and so on, the steps to achieve these goals are quite simple.

Unfortunately, the top brass of several companies seems to be fond of fancy terms such as "productivity-linked bonus," "productivity-linked promotion," etc. But these terms have a tendency to become subjective because they can easily be tweaked to suit some of the managers of these companies and those employees who have the backing and patronage of those managers. A classic example is that a few years back, the CEO of a big company recommended a lower-level executive for promotion to a high position just because this executive made it a point to go to the airport every time the CEO visited his city. He even carried the luggage and other items of the CEO and saw to it that they were loaded properly in the car.

Now, what are the simple steps you can adopt for bringing about a huge difference to your productivity level? Let us find out.

1. Start with making lists of your daily tasks. 

If you are not in the habit of making the to-do lists of your daily tasks, you should begin this forthwith. This will help you in ensuring that you do not forget your tasks. Unfortunately, your mind is exposed to various types of distractions and hence, you may forget some of the important tasks. By applying your mind and preparing a to-do list, you can avoid such lapses. 

2. Review your to-do lists once every three weeks. 

Once every three weeks, take out all the to-do lists of those three weeks and review them thoroughly. This will help you in finding out the number of tasks you could not complete during the period. You should especially focus on two types of tasks. The first type is the high-priority tasks you could not take up at all. The second one is those tasks that you could not complete on time.

It is imperative that you take the above two steps so that you can identify your problem areas. Once you identify these weak areas, it will be easy for you to take corrective action and strengthen your productivity quotient. 

Now, what steps can you take if you find that the number of tasks you are not able to complete is alarmingly high?

1. You can work for more number of hours and complete the tasks.

2. You can try and learn more efficient ways of doing your tasks.

3. Thirdly, you can decide to take up fewer tasks.

Though most of the folks including you may choose the second option, you should explore the possibility of embracing the third option as well. This means that you should learn to delegate some of your tasks to your subordinates, peers, or colleagues. If you think that you and you alone should do every task, you will continue to struggle and your productivity will never improve.

Further, if you are falling behind the schedule while trying to complete important tasks, your reputation will get a beating. One of the best ideas is to accord top priority to such important tasks and complete them during the morning hours when your energy levels are at the peak. There will be fewer distractions during those hours. In fact, your confidence will get a boost also since you may have completed very important tasks before the drudgery of your routine tasks starts swallowing your day.

In fact, you should be ready with the list for the next day before you retire for bed every day. While preparing the list and the time schedule for each of the tasks, you should ensure that you allot a realistic duration for completing them. You should provide sufficient cushion for unexpected distractions, interruptions, and emergencies as well. Very importantly, if you take up similar tasks together, you will find it easy to complete them. 

To summarize, achieving good productivity level requires a little common sense. The only point is that you should apply your mind and keep innovating judicious ways of carrying out your tasks. 

This Four-Letter Word Can Help You Grow in Your Career

On seeing the caption of this post, do not let your imagination fly in the wrong direction. Remember that in English, you have thousands of four-letter words but unfortunately, most of the folks remember only that particular word that should not be remembered. Let us now get into the intended topic without wasting further time.

As an employee, your aim may be to achieve quick growth in your career. But how to accomplish this aim? It is here you have to remember the four-letter word. The word is spelled as "PLAN." Yes. You have to make a solid and workable plan for your career growth. Let us find out how you should go about it. 

Remember the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson who said, "If you would not be known to do anything, never do it.” Even Saul Gellerman, who authored the book entitled "Motivation," says that when your boss recommends you for an elevation, he or she is betting his or her or even the company's reputation on you. This means that you have to earn such a name that the company and your boss is willing to promote you despite the fact that there is an element of risk in it. But how can enter the good books of your boss and the company's top brass? There are three things you should do for achieving this.

1. If you think that you are only a good performer in your organization, you are terribly wrong. There may be others who may be as good as or even better than you. They may be more knowledgeable or more talented than you. The only way you can make your management or bosses choose you over other performers for promoting is to stand out from them. You should show the management that you are competent in a wide range of tasks. You should also display your intelligence and knowledge in more number of areas than the other performers. Simply put, by distinguishing yourself from others, you can make the management choose you for a higher position. On the other hand, if you keep focusing on your own tasks and do not make the management realize that you are versatile, the top brass will prefer to retain you in the same position in which you have been showing your excellence.    

2. Let the managers of the other teams also know about your competence. If you succeed in accomplishing this, the leaders of the other teams will vie with each other when there are suitable positions for you in their departments. For making the other departmental heads know about you, you should be ready to mingle freely with the members of those teams as well. There may be several occasions that can help you develop a good relationship with the members of the other departments. There may be company outings, get-togethers, company seminars, etc. These people should know that you are competent and knowledgeable. You should be nice to them. It is not that you are advised to embrace hypocrisy and be nice to them. You should really be sincere and nice to them. If you fake, you will be found out very soon. 

The purpose of making the suggestion that you should create such an internal network is that these people will carry the details about you to their managers who, in turn, will keep the information in mind for future use. When there is an appropriate position in their department, they will remember you. Of course, they will test your competence before giving their final nod. Secondly, once you are chosen for the position, the folks who have passed on your details to their bosses are likely to be your peers or subordinates. They will extend their fullest cooperation and support to you and this will eventually help in your growth.

You have to make a plan to execute the above suggestions. That is the reason we firmly say that PLAN, a four-letter word, can help you achieve quick growth in your career.