Be more efficient!

1. Stop Multitasking

Remember when your low-wage coffee shop/ movie theatre/ restaurant boss used hoot and holler about your lack of multi tasking abilities? Well call him right now and tell him to shove it. Just kidding! But he, and those like him, are dead wrong. It’s actually proven that you can produce better work faster if you focus on one task at a time.

2. Delegate

Don’t bite off more than you can chew! Actually efficient people are great at delegating tasks to other folks who know what the heck they’re doing. If you’re the project lead you should focus on the forest, and let your minions focus on the trees.

3. Use Appropriate Communication

Poor communication can add hours to any project. DUH. Think through your communication in the beginning, IE look before you leap. Before you get on the phone or have a meeting write down what the heck you need to talk about.

4. Apply Structure to the Schedule

Basically just get on freakin’ google calendar already, or asana (or a similar project management tool), or both!

5. Give Everything a Proper Place

This one we could all probably brush up on. Be the person with the meticulously organized tool shed, not the lunatic with the rusty pile of junk in their back yard. Think about it like this: Taking the time to put something back (a pen, a ruler, and elderly mother) will be a lot quicker than trying to find it later.

6. Time Activities

Don’t let a meeting go over, don’t even let a phone call go over! Set a time-goal at the start of your task, and hold yourself to it. If you have a gabby coworker tell them you only have 5 minutes once they start giving you the deets on their sick weekend- or you know, just slowly back away until they get the message.

7. Commit to Downtime

This one’s the best! Instead of being distracted and overworked, chill out every once in awhile. Give yourself a “you moment.” We’ve also found that ten deep breaths on the hour can help your over all focus- by taking these baby breaks you have a better chance at working well through the day, and you’ll resist burning out and watching cat videos (or reading blog posts about efficiency filled with pop culture GIFs.)

8. Plan Projects

Start early, and plan deeeeep. You need to know what layers to a project will exist before you even have the first foot in the door. Get paper, get a pen, and plan every aspect. Have daily meetings leading up to the kick off, talk to co-workers and experts, and make sure you know whats coming so there isn’t a mad scramble! This one seems obvious, but it’s often neglected in favour of do-or-die last minute terror.

So in closing, DO AS I SAY, NOT AS I DO.

-J