Who doesn’t want to be efficient in doing everything? Particularly in education and career when you are surrounded with tough competition, you do want to be the one who does everything better than the rest and on time. There are however some hurdles in the way, most people fall prey of procrastination and indulge in the habit of delaying things that can be done later (on not but thy like delaying) and someone else takes the cup. There are things you can start doing from today to improve the quality of your performance, and excel in doing things, become a tough competition for the colleagues or class mates.
Difficult Comes First:
Like we always want to get rid of the work so that we enjoy our favorite TV show or go out with a free mind, same approach can be applied for difficult work. When you have piles of work waiting for you, get the difficult work sorted first and then move to the comparatively easier ones. When you approach the difficult work first, you will be having more energy at that time compared to the level of energy at the end of the pile of work. Also, you mind will not be tired after working on other things, get rid of the difficult work first with a fresher mind and then the rest comes after. Your to-do list for the day should have the type of tasks you dislike doing the most. The more you hate it, the higher it goes on the to-do list, get rid of it so that it is not nagging you all day long. Soon enough you will see that it is becoming a practice!
Take Breaks & Stay Positive:
Endless work gets work done, but the work in which breaks are incorporated gives productive and better results. Why do we need to but our minds in so much pressure to do everything in one go? It is a myth to work three hours straight without breaking your concentration. The longer you work without breaks the more tired you feel and experience unproductive patches in your work. Take breaks to let your brain catch its breath and then get back to work with a fresher mind. You know you can do it so do not put the pressure on your brain and panic. Studies show that when you are generally happy and feeling positive, it has positive impact on the quality of your work. Stay calm and stay positive and it will show in your work, we promise you that!
You’re the Boss!
Never be afraid to be your own boss. Take control of your time and set time for everything. Giving out favors is a good thing to do but do not take extra work on yourself to help someone when you already have piles of your own. When you are working from home, ask everyone to respect your work and your working hours and ask them to not disturb you. Same goes for working in an office, if you work from an office, let your colleagues know your super busy hours and to respect them and not interrupt you during the work. Unnecessary chatter can be harmful for your time. Again, take only as much work as you can and give your best but do not be misused!
Time Management Like a Pro:
You can’t change the hours of the day no matter how badly we all want that. So unluckily enough you only have so much hours in a day and your tasks needs to be divided somewhere in between these hours. Work always comes after enough sleep, on an average you must make sure that you are taking in seven to eight hours of sleep in a 24 day cycle which looks difficult most of the days. But with that, always wakeup early and compensate the remaining hours in the rest of the day. About work, separate and divide work in the categories of very important, important to less important. In your free hours or free time, look at the work that is ‘very important’ and try to get it done. Be objective driven and always look at the objective of everything you do. See how doing one thing right now will reward you now or later and you will have fun doing everything.
Plan and Work:
Have you ever had the chance to feel accomplished because you planned something and worked for it within the time? You can experience that feeling every day. The kind of work you get to do whether as a professional or a student, it must not necessarily be something that you can do in a day. Tasks are usually assigned for a week or some days. Once you have your tasks sorted, you can plan your next day, and the day after that and so on. A week can be planned given you have tasks sorted out. Be sure to go easy on yourself and make realistic plans for everything. Plan usually is most helpful in time management. Time should be divided within the work in a way that you get your short breaks during the day so that you stay sane and does not cause any damage to your creativity and productivity.
Self Awareness and Self Motivation:
You need to excel in whatever you do? Know everything about yourself! Your weaknesses, what kinds of attitudes, people and things drives you away, what are the kinds of environment that you can’t handle and the situations best suited for you to work. Focus on the kind of distractions that takes your focus away from important stuff and fix everything. You can only improve when you know your own problem areas. Secondly, you do not need anyone else’s motivation. When you know you are good, motivate yourself to do better and be your own competition, always be willing to learn and to improve.
Albert Barkley is a social critic and working with Affordable Dissertation, UK based firm. He loves to look at the changing social trends closely and criticize accordingly.