Discovering your team’s productivity rhythm has a powerful effect on maximizing productivity and improve overall time management skills. Your team’s productivity rhythm will measure how, when and where your workforce is most productive; you can use these cycles to your organization’s advantage for making the most of available time.
Determining each employee’s peak levels of energy and focus will allow you to make better choices as a leader throughout a busy workday, as well as keeping your team focused and on track. To effectively find your team’s productivity rhythm, it is first important to take the time to invest in yourself and your current habits and follow these steps for each player in your team.
Here’s 5 effective lessons to tech your team to improve their time management skills and ultimately, productivity:
1. Know Your Energy
Energy levels fluctuate throughout the span of a workday. It is highly beneficial to prioritize your tasks based on these energy levels. These patterns are connected to the ability to use brain power and think clearly. The terms “morning people” and “night owls” are often used to describe one’s most productive hours. Patterns of energy levels will differ for each individual based on various factors, including diet, sleep, or emotional stress. Once you determine your peak performance times, you can better schedule your daily tasks.
It is important to match the work that is of highest priority to your peak performance times, including those tasks that require critical thinking or problem solving. Likewise, you can assign your lesser complex tasks for the hours that you know you will be less engaged or focused. Knowing your energy will allow you to set the stage for how you perform your daily tasks and seek better results.
2. Work-Life Balance
The most productive individuals are those who are well-balanced. Work-life balance includes prioritizing the demands in one’s personal life at home, as well as the demands in the workplace. This does not mean an equal balance of time between work and home, but rather prioritizing what is important during that time. Work time should be dedicated to tasks that are essential for your career, whereas home time should be dedicated to family time, or personal time.
Be respectful of your time. Poor work-life balance will often lead to working longer hours, increased responsibilities, and a greater chance of experiencing burnout.
3. Taking Regular Breaks
Practicing good time management does not mean that you are endlessly working around the clock to meet a deadline. Those who are most efficient with their time will understand the importance of incorporating breaks into their schedules. Taking breaks will help you to increase your level of concentration, as well as avoid burnout. In fact, breaks will allow you to get more done throughout the day and remain in your productivity rhythm.
The most effective breaks are those that happen away from your workspace, such as taking a walk, meditating, or sitting in fresh air. Find something that works for you to ensure you get time to relax. The key is to detach from your desk and reset your mental energy. Skipping lunch breaks to complete extra work will only decrease your performance levels and increase your chances of making mistakes. Taking the time to care for your mind and body will have positive effects on workplace achievements.
4. The Multitasking Myth
A common misconception of effective time management is the skill of multitasking. Multitasking is the act of carrying out two or more tasks simultaneously. Despite how this may seem like a sufficient way to conquer that to-do list, it is harmful to your productivity rhythm and leads to a significant loss of valued time.
Multitasking and good time management oppose one another. Performing multiple activities at once will cause you to stress more, perform poorly and increase your chances of burnout. Our brains are not designed to handle multiple assignments at once, such as answering emails while conversing in an important business call. It is of major advantage to devote all your energy into one task at a time. When you dedicate your time and focus on one task at a time, you will generate a better outcome for that task. Organize your time so that each task will receive your full energy, rather than sharing this energy on various projects.
5. Time Batching
Time batching is a great productivity system to improve focus and build structure into your daily tasks. Different from multitasking, this approach involves grouping similar tasks together, and organizing dedicated time periods to complete these tasks without interruptions. Time batching will provide concentration without breaking your workflow and will eliminate multitasking.
The practice of time batching is advantageous for everyone- whether you have difficulty focusing on a task, have many disturbances in your workplace, become easily distracted, or are just simply looking to have a productive day.
Time batching is a simple process to implement. To begin, start by establishing your to-do list. With this list, determine which tasks are related to one another and ‘batch’ them together on your schedule. Think about which tasks would be realistic to do right after another. It is important to remember that the time frames for these tasks should be realistic, and if necessary, longer projects can be divided into separate batching groups, to allow for renewal breaks or fresh air.
At the Libertas Business Institute, we’ve achieved a great amount of success in developing better teams through our unique corporate learning and development approach. Our personal approach incorporates theoretical knowledge, experiential learning through using state of the art business simulation software and the application of psychological training. Schedule a consultation with our team below to discuss how we can assist your organization.