How to be More Productive at Work 2

There’s a reason why we only have 2 hands unlike an octopus. Don’t multi task!

I have talked about Pareto’s law, Parkinson’s law and coming to work slightly earlier in my first article on How to be More Productive at Work.  I have an additional 2 tips that will make up this article on part 2.

1) Do not multi-task. Just like in marketing, communicating one benefit is often stronger than communicating 5 benefits at once. The strength of the five benefits will be diluted by five for each of the mentioned benefits. So you have 5 much weaker benefits compared to one very strong USP benefit. Similarly, by diluting your focus, mental and physical energy on five different tasks at the same time counters good productivity. Focus all your mental and physical energy on one task at a time, and you can burn through your task like a laser does in no time.

2) There are times when we have to work late. Hopefully this is not often nor regular, as it defeats the purpose of productivity. If you are perpetually working late, you need to 1) hire extra help, 2) re-examine your priorities and delegation, or 3) re-evaluate your productivity level. If you work late once a while, that’s ok. But if you do so, don’t work late more than a few days in a row. Your body and mind need rest, so return to normal work levels after a few days at most, or else you will burn out.  A burnt out person will require a longer recovery time, just like incurring an injury during sports training that requires downtime.  It’s not worth it.

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