Here are few things you can do to increase personal efficiency.
1) Monitor your work-life balance. Some are wired for 60-80 hour weeks others are not but over time it takes its toll on all of us. Save yourself some down time to do something relaxing or active that you enjoy. Set aside 15-30 minutes to refocus whether it’s a walk, pushups, or a sitcom.
2) Take some time to make yourself more efficient at work or at home. Borrow some techniques from Lean 5S. I took 15 minutes per day to digitize and scan some documents in a 4 foot wide by 5 feet tall 4 drawer cabinet. It took three months to sort what I needed and what could be shredded. The result was a gain in 8 square ft (2ft x 4ft) of space in my office. When someone needed a document I had to get it out and scan it anyway. Now they are all digital and neatly organized in files. Less paper is better and more efficient.
3) Identify and eliminate the time wasting things you do that add no value, The best way to do this is make a list of some of your most common activities. Which ones bother you the most? Can you combine them, eliminate them, or someone else do them?
4) Invest in yourself - read a book, take a free class offered by your local library or local adult education programs, get a certification, take a college course. Knowledge makes you better and smarter. The more you know the better your outcomes.
5) Seek out improvement opportunities reading this blog is a good example. Seek out ways to make things easier. Life becomes more complicated than it should be. Research ways to simplify work and the off time.
6) Make the most of the off time. Use your weekends for what they are “week-ends”. Wind down from the hustle and bustle and have some fun even if you have a part time weekend job. Take advantage of your vacation time as well. That’s what it’s for.
7) Prep for the upcoming week. The best way to get a jump on the hurdles of the week is to be prepared. Make notes of things you don’t want to forget, organize the things you’ll need for Monday, layout the clothes, line up the kids’ stuff by the door.
8) Focus on your goals and your strategy to live life to the fullest. Give some daily thought to where you want to be during your daily commute. How will you get there? What is working? What’s not? What possible solutions are there to the things that bother you?
9) Avoid negativity - I always seem to catch the elevator at the end of the day (sometimes the start) with the person that says “oh boy another day” or “I hate Mondays”. That sets the tone for everyone in the elevator. As I rode in to work on the shuttle with a co-worker we passed a man on the sidewalk that had two diabetic walking boots on his feet and was missing his left arm. We both looked at each other at the same time thinking the same thought and said to one another. “No matter what kind of day we have we should be grateful that we haven’t had days like he has had.” Always be thankful and grateful.
10) Minimize distractions – Life is becoming more “electronic” than ever before. Use the technology and apps to your “advantage” not your “disadvantage”. Smart phones have a number of apps to make you more efficient, remind you to do things, keep you informed, and make you more productive. Take advantage of them but avoid “addiction” to your phone. If it becomes a habit checking your phone every few minutes you’ve got a problem and need to focus on extending the duration between each time you are “just checking my phone”.
1) Monitor your work-life balance. Some are wired for 60-80 hour weeks others are not but over time it takes its toll on all of us. Save yourself some down time to do something relaxing or active that you enjoy. Set aside 15-30 minutes to refocus whether it’s a walk, pushups, or a sitcom.
2) Take some time to make yourself more efficient at work or at home. Borrow some techniques from Lean 5S. I took 15 minutes per day to digitize and scan some documents in a 4 foot wide by 5 feet tall 4 drawer cabinet. It took three months to sort what I needed and what could be shredded. The result was a gain in 8 square ft (2ft x 4ft) of space in my office. When someone needed a document I had to get it out and scan it anyway. Now they are all digital and neatly organized in files. Less paper is better and more efficient.
3) Identify and eliminate the time wasting things you do that add no value, The best way to do this is make a list of some of your most common activities. Which ones bother you the most? Can you combine them, eliminate them, or someone else do them?
4) Invest in yourself - read a book, take a free class offered by your local library or local adult education programs, get a certification, take a college course. Knowledge makes you better and smarter. The more you know the better your outcomes.
5) Seek out improvement opportunities reading this blog is a good example. Seek out ways to make things easier. Life becomes more complicated than it should be. Research ways to simplify work and the off time.
6) Make the most of the off time. Use your weekends for what they are “week-ends”. Wind down from the hustle and bustle and have some fun even if you have a part time weekend job. Take advantage of your vacation time as well. That’s what it’s for.
7) Prep for the upcoming week. The best way to get a jump on the hurdles of the week is to be prepared. Make notes of things you don’t want to forget, organize the things you’ll need for Monday, layout the clothes, line up the kids’ stuff by the door.
8) Focus on your goals and your strategy to live life to the fullest. Give some daily thought to where you want to be during your daily commute. How will you get there? What is working? What’s not? What possible solutions are there to the things that bother you?
9) Avoid negativity - I always seem to catch the elevator at the end of the day (sometimes the start) with the person that says “oh boy another day” or “I hate Mondays”. That sets the tone for everyone in the elevator. As I rode in to work on the shuttle with a co-worker we passed a man on the sidewalk that had two diabetic walking boots on his feet and was missing his left arm. We both looked at each other at the same time thinking the same thought and said to one another. “No matter what kind of day we have we should be grateful that we haven’t had days like he has had.” Always be thankful and grateful.
10) Minimize distractions – Life is becoming more “electronic” than ever before. Use the technology and apps to your “advantage” not your “disadvantage”. Smart phones have a number of apps to make you more efficient, remind you to do things, keep you informed, and make you more productive. Take advantage of them but avoid “addiction” to your phone. If it becomes a habit checking your phone every few minutes you’ve got a problem and need to focus on extending the duration between each time you are “just checking my phone”.
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