Simple strategies to improve efficiency at work and in life.

With the beginning of a new year and after singing Auld Lang Syne at midnight, or at least thinking of what it means we all probably entertained some thoughts about some new year resolutions.

Life is mainly based on routines that either are creeping in due to our lack of attention or through a conscious series of repetitive choices we make through discipline. 

Discipline shouldn’t be looked at through the toughness lens, it can be a way to shed some habits that takes us nowhere and replace those habits with new ones that help in our pursuit for goals that we choose to go after.

Certainly, anyone had those kind days: it is passed 6 pm and besides feeling exhausted there is a strange realization that nothing was really accomplished that day and maybe this comes along with even some bitterness. Not all the days are glorious nor equal. How about if we could experience a different feeling at the end of the day: accomplishment, joy, more confidence in our abilities to do something? This list could be worth of 2 pages and is up to our positive imagination to fill up those pages.

Here a quick recipe for a better and more efficient way to spend a day.

Our brain can be trained through repetitive actions to either stay focused and organized or jump from here with no purpose and waste energy for no results.

It is not a novelty that checking emails,  text messages, and social media posts every 15 minutes, and keeping eyes glued to a small screen, disconnects us from the immediate reality and derails us from our daily small achievement  path or even worse, not getting done what is important for us and for our families.

Wonder, would the world come to a screeching halt if inbox stays unchecked for 6 hours?

Wouldn’t be better checking emails only twice a day and when I decide to do so; not when my electronic device asks me to do so or because I enjoy the chime it makes when a new email pops up in my inbox or because of someone’s new post?

Lately even the text message is no longer a safe space, all kinds of text messages are showing up on our smartphones just to get a little bit more of our attention and time in attempt to push some info that we might not even need into our minds.

It is not an easy job to keep up with all the above and let alone we need to take a good care of our daily job; I doubt distraction that comes out of our smartphones can help focus and improve our efficiency if left unchecked.

Here are some simple steps for focus and efficiency improvement:

Turn off ALL notifications on your smart phone except the most important, shall not be more than 3 and rather related to family or to a specific goal.

Make a conscious decision to check social media and personal emails later in the day and allocate an exact amount of time to spend on it and keep track of it.

When taking a break, look at the sky, consciously breath in and out deep and long for a few times and empty the mind for a few minutes. 

If you are a fan of meditation, by all means do not hesitate to; also you may use the break for praying if this part of your spiritual routine, there is always something much bigger than us we can build a report with.

Write down 3 things to achieve that day, work related, family related, each one in a well-defined time frame, without mixing them up, unless there are emergencies, and our presence is really needed. Prioritize appropriately.

For work related tasks, think of a time budget, it doesn’t necessarily need to be down to a second, with time you will get better at this, just keep in mind the idea of time, a day is made of 24 hours.

Think of each task as a sequence of simple steps that needs to be taken, and when some of the steps involves other persons plan for meetings, information exchange questions etc. Do all you can do on your own first, take those steps first so you can have a solid foundation when engaging with other people that can help with getting that task done.

When focusing on tasks at hand like researching, reading, strategizing, if possible close the instant chat application and email application, for urgent matters people will call so have your phone handy. 

While in a meeting listen, take notes and please do not just wait for your turn to speak.

At the end of the day, evaluate how the day went and how you feel about it, do this in writing. Writing takes the burden off our minds and is a great analytical and recording tool. Pencil and paper can absorb any amount of physiological load and return great deal of relief, clear vision and creativity through simple and unsophisticated journaling.