From my over ten years of working in fast-paced and productivity-based environments, I have learned that a lot of the time, it pays off to do your job smarter, which doesn’t necessarily mean doing it harder. Most tasks involve getting from point A to point B and while there is always the established straightforward path of getting there, sometimes there are hidden paths that get you there quicker.
Here are some of the habits that I have learned along the way that have gotten me an Exceeded Expectations marking for all seven years that I have stayed at my previous company:
- Keyboard shortcuts are your best friend
It sounds very simple but using keyboard shortcuts at the workplace is a very underrated trick to completing one’s tasks faster. While I was learning to use MS Excel in my early years, I was introduced to the concept of keyboard shortcuts and found out very quickly that they significantly made my life easier. Sure, one could use the mouse to do the same thing but if you’re clicking on the same things for every case or item, chances are there’s a keyboard shortcut out there that can drastically increase your productivity. I started with Alt + Tab to switch between screens and searched on Google for the rest of the keyboard shortcuts that I needed for my work and found that keyboard shortcuts work on almost all systems running on the Windows platform.
- Work on the hardest tasks first
I have experimented with different ways of working and found that it never really pays off to put off working on your hardest or most draining task until the end of the day because by then, my energy would have been depleted by all other items on my plate and I would eventually push it to tomorrow’s list. I have learned that if it’s draining for whatever reason, it’s best to tackle it while you have a full tank of energy and full of focus.
- Stop multitasking
When I first started out, I was a big fan of doing many things at once and felt very productive because I thought I was completing more tasks faster. It wasn’t until I decided to do an experiment and timed myself doing the same set of tasks one at a time and found out that it actually takes me longer to complete them when I was multitasking. I puzzled over this for a while and realized that I was constantly getting distracted by various things while I was multitasking. I thought that I could quickly reply to an email while I waited for a particular report to load and that ended up taking longer than if I had just done the two things separately. I wasn’t actually being more productive or efficient because my focus was split into different things. Now I employ my own version of the Pomodoro technique where I set a 30-minute timer for difficult and labor-intensive items so I can give my full focus to it for a limited time period.
These are some of the habits that I have built over the years of working in jobs where productivity and efficiency are key metrics. They’re very simple concepts but I believe that they have had a great impact in increasing my productivity in the workplace. While I understand that they might not be for everybody, I also have shared these tips, especially the one for keyboard shortcuts, to other colleagues and received good feedback. I know that we all have our own different ways of doing things and completing our tasks but if there’s a way to make the process easier, why not try it out?
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Lol it’s a random post, I know but I wrote this when I was applying for a job a couple of months ago and I just want it up here for posterity’s sake.
