Hand on heart: How much time have you taken today to read through emails that don't actually help your work? To look for something on your desk or computer and then finally start something that wasn't actually on your to-do list? To listen to topics in meetings that don't really concern you? According to a study by the Kaizen office, we in Germany lose two whole days per week to distractions, interruptions, waiting times and other inefficiencies. In our blog article, we tell you how you can free your everyday life from time wasters and ineffective structures.

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The right preparation

The real work begins before your project: with well thought-out planning. With good organisation, you can see which steps are necessary and achieve your goals in less time. However, you should be careful not to get lost in the details - too detailed a plan might even prevent you from actually tackling the project in the end. A healthy balance is also the key to success here. The following five tips will help you plan your project efficiently.

1. set precise goals!

It is not uncommon for us to waste time and energy in the wrong place in our daily work. Set yourself goals and define their framework conditions in order to really achieve them. Among other things, the SMART method offers you guidance in setting goals. With this method, you can formulate your goals concretely using the following terms:

Specific: Make your goals as concrete and specific as possible.

Measurable: Determine qualitative and quantitative metrics.

Attractive: Set yourself goals that you really want to achieve, that you feel like achieving.

Realistic: Only set goals that you can achieve within a certain time and with the means available to you.

Scheduled: Set a time frame for when you want to achieve what.

2. divide big projects into small tasks!

Large projects in particular can be intimidating at the beginning. Often the challenges ahead seem downright overwhelming, while the home stretch is a long way off. Here it can help to divide projects into several small tasks. This way you don't leave out any important steps and the project loses its menace.

3. to-do lists

You can now sort the defined milestones in the form of a to-do list according to urgency and importance (see tip 4). A list not only offers the advantage of an organised workflow and a clear overview, it also motivates:

A study in the management magazine "Harvard Business Review" showed that a sense of progress positively influences mood, motivation as well as perception. The more often the participants experienced progress - for example, by simply checking off a task on the to-do list - the more productive they worked.

If you divide your projects into several small steps, you will have a sense of achievement every day, which will motivate you to move forward efficiently.

4. clarify priorities with the Eisenhower Matrix!

For a to-do list to be truly effective, you should prioritise your tasks. After all, it is not very efficient to do dozens of small, unimportant tasks first and forget to do important ones.

The Eisenhower method is particularly useful for such a classification: the various tasks are assigned priorities based on the importance and urgency of the task. This works as follows:

● Important and urgent tasks are at the top of the list.

● Important but less urgent tasks come second.

● Urgent but less important tasks are delegated when possible.

● Less important and non-urgent tasks come last.

Set deadlines for each task!

To complete a task, you only need as much time as you give yourself. You may know this when you put off tasks until just before the deadline and still manage to complete them on time. This phenomenon goes back to one of Parkinson's laws. The British sociologist and historian Cyril Northcote Parkinson noted the following in 1955:

"Work can be stretched like rubber to fill the time available for it."

If you are working on a task for which no deadline has been set by the company, it is worth setting yourself a time limit. This way you work against the clock, which not only saves you valuable time, but also demonstrably increases your motivation.

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The everyday working life

Now it is time to implement the efficient way of working that was started in the planning stage in everyday life. However, efficiency is an individual process. What works for one person may not be the right way for another. However, there are some strategies that have proven helpful in this area.

6. direct your focus on the essentials!

Even though the myth of working quickly through multitasking has long held true, it is now clear that multitasking is counterproductive for work efficiency. Because with several different tasks, there are often interruptions, which is why your brain has to constantly reorient itself. The unnecessary switching between tasks is accompanied by a considerable loss of time.

The solution is monotasking. If you focus on one task at a time, you will move forward faster and save a lot of time.

Establish routines!

Routines help to get the brain in the right mood for the work ahead. Integrating small rituals into the daily work routine is enough to trigger and maintain the "workflow". This can be, for example, the morning coffee, the brief review of the trade press or checking your e-mails. Regular routines also provide you with an organised daily structure and thus ensure security.

8. observe your ultradian rhythm!

According to studies, the human body follows a so-called ultradian rhythm. This comprises biological processes that repeat themselves in a certain rhythm within a day. You can observe this well in babies, who get hungry every four hours and thus wake up before they sleep through the night. An ultradian rhythm of 120 minutes in adults is the basic cycle for rest and activity. Only in the first 90 minutes of this interval are we mentally in top form - in the remaining 30 minutes there is a low energy level.

For this reason, you should place important or complex tasks at the beginning of such a cycle, and easier tasks and breaks at the exhaustion phase.

Good to know:
According to the magazine Psychology Today, most people's concentration starts to wane after about 20 to 25 minutes. This is where the Pomodoro method comes in handy, with five-minute breaks every 20 minutes to boost concentration.

9. detach yourself from perfection!

Perfection is the enemy of productive work behaviour. Those who check their work over and over again for mistakes, correct and improve it, not only delay progress, but also waste energy and risk their own emotional health. Yet most corrections only lead to minimal improvements - and missed deadlines.

10. your health comes first!

If you are not healthy, you cannot work effectively - at least not in the long run. Without the foundation of physical and mental health, you lack the energy to perform well. Therefore, always put it first!

In addition to balanced meals, sufficient exercise, sleep and relaxation, taking breaks and limiting overtime are essential. Only those who have enough time to recharge their batteries can put them to work.

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Work together effectively

You can often complete tasks faster and better by working together with colleagues. But working in a team can also be very exhausting. The following tips can help you to work together more efficiently.

Work in company!

In general, working in company can often improve one's own performance. In psychology, this phenomenon is also called social facilitation. The desire to make a good impression on acquaintances and colleagues ensures that you achieve better results. So even if working in a team is not really necessary, it is worth bringing another person on board - even if only as a spectator.

Communicate transparently and ensure respectful interaction!

Respect comes first, both when working in a team and in general dealings with colleagues. In addition to a respectful tone, this also includes aspects such as punctuality, meeting deadlines or being prepared for a meeting.

You should also regularly check the effectiveness of your communication with each other. The following questions can help you to do this:

• Do I communicate regularly with colleagues?
• Do my colleagues and I know how we can help each other?
• Does everyone have access to the information they need to carry out a task?
• Is communication done in such a way that the team as a whole can better achieve its goals?

13. initiate an open error culture!

Ignoring mishaps and mistakes or correcting them inconspicuously is a natural impulse. But it is much more effective if you use them as a source of progress. However, this requires a culture of appreciation for mistakes. It can be enough if you set a good example and admit mistakes to your colleagues. Because even if these mistakes are annoying at first, they usually also offer a good learning opportunity.

Tip: It may also be worthwhile to use a tool for error reporting. You can find numerous options on the internet.

14 Learn to say "no" without guilt!

It is not always possible to take on all the tasks set. Often, this tends to lead to small additional tasks distracting from larger priorities and, in the worst case, nothing is done satisfactorily. In the end, this helps no one.

For this reason, it is important that you assess how much time you have available to complete tasks in a healthy and effective manner. Set priorities accordingly. This also includes refusing tasks that do not fit into your time frame - even if it is difficult.

Use the right tools!

Effective collaboration tools are an important step towards efficient teamwork. Aspects such as the comprehensible filing of central information or collaboration on documents are not only faster and clearer with the help of modern management programmes, but also more secure.

For example, with the Document management from Sawayo, for example, it is possible to distribute important documents in a data-secure manner and have them digitally signed.

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The right working environment

The impact that an attractive workplace has on the quality of work is often underestimated. The following tips will help you to design an efficient workplace.

16. ensure a feel-good atmosphere!

To increase motivation at the workplace, it is important that you feel comfortable there. Of course, it is important to have the right organisation to be able to complete tasks quickly - for example, the printer should not be in another room. But ergonomic furniture and an attractively designed office with personal objects and green plants also contribute significantly to a motivating working atmosphere.

17. keep order!

Even though effective well-being furnishings look different for every person, there is one aspect that you should always consider: order. Studies show that a tidy workplace not only saves time because, for example, you don't have to search for important documents - a tidy desk also has a demonstrably positive effect on concentration. True to the motto "Tidy Desk, Tidy Mind".

18. set new impulses!

New impulses can help to stimulate creative thinking. It can be enough to change the workplace a little from time to time. It is ideal if, for example, in the context of shared workplaces, there is the possibility to change the workplace from time to time.

19. make sure there is enough air and light!

In order to concentrate, your brain needs oxygen. For this reason, it is recommended to open the window fully at least every 20 minutes. Rooms that are too dark and rooms without daylight can also reduce concentration and cause headaches, whereby the colour temperature of the light is particularly important. Light sources with 5500 to 5800 Kelvin are ideal - this corresponds to natural daylight.

20 Listen to white noise!

Offices are often very noisy, which is not conducive to concentration. Music, however, distracts too much from working, as the language centre of the brain focuses more on the lyrics than on the task at hand, according to Psychology Today. This is where white noise can help:

A study in the Journal of Consumer Research shows that consistent ambient noise at moderate volume levels enhances creative performance. This effect can be achieved by playing white noise - preferably through noise-cancelling headphones.

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Conclusion

There are numerous methods and tips that can help you increase your work efficiency. However, it is important not to try to do too much - it makes more sense to slowly integrate two or three of the tips mentioned into your daily work routine instead of changing your entire daily routine at once. Technical support tools can also help to reduce the workload and thus make work more efficient.

With well thought-out administration tools and practical solutions, Sawayo supports Sawayo helps employers and employees alike to work efficiently and makes administrative work easier than ever before!

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