The Basics
Finding ways to work smarter, not harder
By Lisa Kanarek

The amount of time you work does not always correlate with the amount of work that you accomplish.

If you have several hours to complete a project, you may waste part of that time. If you have only one hour to finish the same project, your productivity level soars. Some people work 12-hour days including weekends and holidays, while others start working later in the day and stop at 5 p.m. Is one person more productive than the other? Not necessarily.

Here are five ways to determine how productive you are:


1. Are you spending a majority of your time on top priority items? At the beginning of each day, look at your to-do list, whether on paper or PC. If you don't jot down a list, start now. You have to determine which tasks are more important to complete than others or your day could be chaos. You might have been up half the night with a brilliant new strategy for your company, but do you have the time to get it all down right now? Probably not. As eager as you may be, kill the enemy that is up close first. Focus on the top priority tasks and work to complete them on schedule.
   
   
2. Do you limit the number of tasks on your daily to-do list? If you have more work to do than time to do it, schedule the rest of the tasks on other days. Or assign work to others. A major project with a distant deadline should get attention early.
   
   
3. Do you work on your most important tasks during your peak time of day? Some people are morning people while others have trouble getting into gear until late afternoon. Determine when you are more productive and schedule your important activities, meetings or projects during that time.
   
   
4. Are you constantly jumping from one project to another without completing any of them? Focus on one project at a time until it's done before moving on to the next. If you need to stop working on a project, break off at a point that you'll be able to easily pick up again.
   
   
5. Are you making the most of technology? Have modern office machines freed us from drudgery or enslaved us in data? It's debatable. But they have certainly empowered us. Not having up-to-snuff computers, etc., and not knowing how to use the software and other tools available to you is sticking your head in the sand. It's like driving a car -- you don't have to know much about how it all works, just what it does.

Working long hours doesn't mean that you'll accomplish more. It's possible to be productive without working overtime, risking burnout and compromising the quality of work you produce due to fatigue. Working smarter, not harder, is the way to accomplish more, feel better about your work and have time to enjoy other activities.