Unit 2: Enhancing Workplace Productivity
Completing this unit should take you approximately 5 hours.
Upon successful completion of the unit, you will be able to:
- explain the relationship between multitasking and task management;
- articulate a process for determining whether activities are urgent vs. important;
- explain how goal setting can motivate employees;
- describe the characteristics of practical goals;
- explain the benefit of using an incremental approach to achieving long-term goals;
- give examples of ways to plan your time and avoid your tendency to procrastinate;
- examine how time management tools such as the Five-Minute rule or and Pomodoro method work increase productivity; and
- illustrate three sources of distraction (other people, unnecessary policies, and distractions we create) and list ways to avoid them.
2.1: Setting Appropriate Goals and Priorities
Setting goals can provide a powerful motivation tool to help you and your team keep track of your accomplishments. However, be sure to avoid feeling overwhelmed by endless to-do lists.
Read these chapters to learn how to manage your time in any business, industry, or field. The concepts will help you complete work and business-related tasks more efficiently, giving you more time to devote to other priority activities. Complete the questions at the end of each chapter to help assess your planning abilities.
While most agree goal setting improves performance, the mere presence of a goal does not automatically generate motivation. In this chapter, we learn how goals that are specific, measurable, aggressive, realistic, and time-bound (SMART) tend to produce results. Be sure to note how to avoid the downsides of goal setting.
This video defines SMART goals as specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and timely. Using a hypothetical trip to the moon, the narrator describes how each component of a SMART goal might look. Then he analyzes each aspect of the breakdown to see if the goal meets the SMART goal criteria. He also presents some more realistic goals related to personal physical fitness. Are these examples comparable? Maybe it is simply a matter of degree? After all, we have landed on the moon!
In this lecture, Savinda Ranathunga explains why he celebrates the first of January every day. You must refuse to let time control you and concentrate on your dreams for the future. When you take inventory of your daily progress toward interim goals, you break your larger dreams into smaller, achievable targets. This allows you to celebrate your success every day.
2.2: Determining What Is Important
We have learned that time is a valuable but limited resource and the importance of writing specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and time-bound goals. However, reaching your goals brings more complexity to our decision-making and problem-solving tapestry. To-do lists are the starting point for corralling our thoughts, ideas, and activities. Let's examine how to determine the urgency or importance of each task and how to effectively meet its project management or academic challenges. These readings provide valuable tools for gaining control of your time and increasing your ability to balance relationships and academic, social, and professional commitments.
Watch this short video, which offers a logical framework you can use daily to identify your work tasks and prioritize them for completion, especially if you feel overwhelmed.
Watch this brief video which presents a simple framework for categorizing and organizing your tasks regarding people, priorities, and projects. Do you think this three Ps method could work for you?
Watch this video which offers a simple framework for organizing your priorities to determine the urgency of tasks. Spend some time organizing your tasks according to the ABCD task framework. Some people call it the Eisenhower Matrix.
This reading describes Stephen Covey's (1932–2012) description of a fourth-generation in the field of time management. He focuses on preserving and enhancing relationships and accomplishing results. This unit goes beyond time management with powerful tools to help you decide how to act. Decision-making forces us to choose between two or more courses of action. Pay attention to the stages of effective decision-making accompanied by good judgment and clear thinking. The problem-solving steps will help you achieve your goals.
2.3: Methods for Increasing Productivity
The productivity level of any process refers to the effective effort where output is measured per unit of input. In other words, how efficient are you at obtaining your goals, given your effort? Remember our discussion of SMART goals? Each component of this acronym plays an important part in getting to the finish line. Pay special attention to the "actionable" element to increase your efficiency and effectiveness. You might surprise yourself by attaining your goals if you use tools like the Eisenhower Matrix to identify important and urgent demands on your time and avoid procrastinating on less enjoyable or more difficult tasks.
Are you an eleventh-hour person? Do you wait to study for an important exam until the night before the test date? Does the advice, "never put off until tomorrow what you can do today," make you uneasy? You may not consider yourself a procrastinator, but do you feel anxious when you receive deadlines? This resource explains why we procrastinate and challenges some common myths about why we put things off.
Watch this video on the five-minute rule, which the narrator uses to build motivation and complete challenging or complex tasks. He celebrates each win by setting clear, realistic, and specific goals to accomplish in a five-minute time frame. He embarks on the next step of his assignment with extra motivation and momentum.
This short video introduces the Pomodoro method, a time management technique Francesco Cirillo created in the 1980s to break projects into smaller, more manageable chunks to make them seem easier to complete. This technique uses a 25-minute work interval followed by a five-minute break. After you have completed four Pomodoros, you get a 15-minute break, and so on. Experiment with the Pomodoro technique and the timing of breaks to see what works best for you.
2.4: Reducing Distractions and Staying Focused
Are you a victim of distractions when you try to complete a project on time? For example, do you find TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, and other social media irresistible when you try to complete your work? Strategies for staying focused and managing our time include enabling ad blockers and bookmarks to stay focused when you are on your computer. It often helps to designate a distinct workplace or use different email addresses or phones to separate your personal and professional lives. We often reward ourselves for completing a pre-planned goal.
Watch this short video that identifies the top workplace distractions and how to avoid them. What are your top distractions?
Our brilliance is dimmed by distractions that distract our attention from our intended goals. You probably do not live on a deserted island. Friends, family, and coworkers often seem to need our attention at the most inopportune times. We need to recognize the source of these tugs in our focus to address their impact on productivity. Watch this video to develop powerful ways to identify distractions and change your behavior to meet your goals.
2.5: Avoid Multitasking
Many jobs and situations require us to multitask, but research has shown it can be unproductive and damage our health. The following resources offer examples of the negative consequences of multitasking. For example, a 2015 study (Lin, Cockerham, Chang, and Natividad, 2015) showed that college students take longer to do their homework and earn lower test scores when they multitasked while studying.
We can only confidently rely on our decision-making or critical thinking abilities if we commit 100 percent of our attention to a task. Multitasking causes us to fall behind on our own time-bound goals, and we suffer the harmful effects of others who try to multitask, such as distracted drivers and walkers.
This video describes why multitasking can be bad for our brains and how we are usually more productive when we focus on one thing rather than try to multitask.
Watch this video which describes the difference between multitasking and working in parallel and offers a framework for commitment. The presenter says multitasking is a misnomer: we should use the paradigm of working in parallel when discussing task management. Do you agree? Can you explain the difference between multitasking and parallel working? What are some examples of times when you were multitasking when you should have been working in parallel? Can you identify how your work may have suffered from a lack of focus?
The videos have shown that shifting your focus from one activity to another wastes time. But how can you avoid giving in to interruptions and distractions, especially in a busy workplace? What is the best way to stay on track to complete your goals according to your plan? Watch this video for steps to enhance your productivity rather than allow multitasking to diminish it.
Now that you have a prioritized to-do list you are ready to tackle, other less difficult or more enjoyable activities seem to conspire to sidetrack you. Watch this video for tips on maintaining productive concentration during workday tasks and projects. The narrator explains that giving yourself a simple "breathing break" can rejuvenate and restore your focus.