Efficiency: Top Reasons It Should Be At the Top of Your List

If you find yourself clock watching while you are at work and feel like you’re not getting enough done, then the chances are very high that you need to start the heater more efficiently. Developing more streamlined ways of managing your workload and your employees is smart, because you’ll find it more effective and more productive in the end. 

Not only that, but you will be left with much more free time to spend any way you would like, whether that’s on improving yourself or in relaxation. Programs such as Takt Time are there to help you with managing your time, but are you really setting your expectations high enough? Efficiency should be at the forefront of your mind as a business leader, and if you want to make sure that you are prioritizing your workplace efficiency, here are some of the best reasons you need to put efficiency at the top of your list.

The Case for Efficiency

• Set goals that make sense. You know that goal setting is critical to your business success, because these are the goals that will help to shape your journey. Setting those goals can be a very effective way to improve your efficiency, because while you may not have assigned realistic deadlines to those goals, they are still in place to help. You need to focus on the goals that you have as well as the desired outcome, because when those goals are too high or you are not defining them enough, you are unable to clarify it. Setting your goals and making them reasonable can help. 
• Look at your current practices. If you are, as a manager, jumping from task to task with no clear strategy, then you may be struggling with your efficiency. Refining your time management skills is important, so you have to familiarize yourself with the processes that you currently have, and then do some research into ones that could help you in future. When you improve your efficiency through better time management skills, you are in the best place to reduce your stress. This can help you to feel much better about your efficiency. 
• Stop staring at the screen. Heavy computer usage may be a part of your job, but ditching those digital devices can be one of the most important things that you do for efficiency. You might need your screen for work, but it’s likely that you don’t need to use an iPad or a phone for the rest of it. Use a pen and paper during meetings and see whether or not your thoughts are flowing more freely when you don’t have Facebook to swipe on. You might find that your memory improves better when you’re writing something down by hand instead of typing it, too because this is linked to muscle memory. If you are constantly being distracted by social media sites or other websites and apps, then ditching the digital devices will help. 
• No is a full sentence. It’s a tiny word but it can have a big impact. Whether you are feeling the pressure from others, or you are putting pressure on yourself, you might be taking on more tasks than you need to. Most people are set on proving that they are capable of multitasking, so you may find yourself saying yes over and over again. You need to make sure that you are not associating the word no with failure, but learning to delegate means that you are saying no in a positive way. Delegate those smaller tasks and free up your schedule so that you can focus on the assignments that matter the most.

• Taking breaks can help. Yes, you want to be more efficient, but can you be efficient when you are burning out? Take breaks along the way when you are working so that you can make sure that you are not getting stuck on an idea or agonizing over what to do first. You need your focus to be clean and clear and not stuck on projects that you can’t make headway on. When this happens, your energy can become blocked and work efficiency grinds to a complete halt. Take a break and do something that’s unrelated to the task at hand. Move away from your desk and from the task that you were on and do something else. This will help you to feel more productive and energized to be more efficient. 
• Fall in love with your new routines. If you want to be more efficient at work and be more consistent with it, then you can accomplish your goals by creating routines that you will love. Make sure that you are creating routines that put you in the best possible place to be productive. This could mean exercising in the morning before work so that you get your blood pumping. It can mean heading out into nature for lunch so that when you come back you feel revitalized and invigorated. If you create routines that will help you to be productive, that will feed down into your work day and you’ll feel better for it. 
• Stop putting pressure on yourself to be perfect. Perfection is an illusion and it’s a dangerous one. You don’t want to limit your beliefs, you want to understand and accept that nothing will ever be done perfectly. Those crippling expectations you keep carrying are not helping anybody but they’re hurting you. Giving yourself a pep talk is important, because it will make sure that any setbacks that you have are actual learning experiences instead. It would also mean that you’ll be less inclined to procrastinate, which we are often ending up doing when we find everything too insurmountable to manage. 
• Look at your environment. A good way to make sure that you are more efficient is to make sure that you are working in an environment that promotes efficiency. So whatever you need to do to make sure that your job runs well, do it. This includes ergonomic seating, printers and scanners, multiple monitors and more. If your desk is clear and not cluttered, you’re going to feel more like you can thrive rather than you’re battling to work hard.