The management of every company wants to increase the productivity across all the departments. This is easier said than done as the employees have many work habits that they don’t want to change fetching results against the wishes of the administration. This can be pretty irritating for a manager looking to make his team improve in work habits and increase their productivity.

There are certain productivity hacks that a person can use to enhance his performance. While the role of the manager in enforcing some hacks is essential, most of them can be applied by the employee himself if he really want to give a boost to his productivity. The following are 10 productivity hacks at work that you can easily use and apply, yielding excellent results to your professional life.

Learn to Say No!

Starting with a simple thought as you start your day, there are many tasks a person has to complete and then there are people who ask you for a favor. While it is good to lend a hand to your colleagues, doing this quite often in a day will take the toll on your personal performance. You will have far less time to complete the tasks assigned to you or daily work in a better way. So learn to say no when you know your own work will be compromised as a result.

One reason employees who are junior in position or looking to please their bosses try to do tasks that are often not in their job description. That’s where they end up on the wrong side when their performance is evaluated. So it’s better to turn down a colleague politely rather than rue your decision of helping him later in the day.

Turning off Alerts

There is nothing more irritating than a ringing phone or messages from a friend on Skype while you are trying to concentrate on your work. You need to put off all the devices which can act as a roadblock in this regard. Your smartphone is probably the main culprit here in which you get all the notifications ranging from SMS to emails to name a few.

The simple solution in this regard is simply turning off the alerts for everything and leaving your phone aside while you complete your work. This is one sure shot work hack that you can apply and can see the difference for yourself within days.

Short Meetings

If your work nature is such that you often have to conduct meetings or attend them try to make them short and sweet. Long meetings with no productive minutes of the meeting too can be a time wasting exercise. Limiting your meetings to around half an hour is the way forward in making the most pf your precious time while completing other daily and routine tasks as well.

If you examine closely, most meetings can be finished in 15-20 minutes. Much time is taken going to the meeting and waiting for the persons coming late for any reason. Make sure you are doing nothing else in the meeting and keep your total focus on it. This will complete the meeting even faster.

Short Breaks for Better Productivity

A person’s mind can do amazing things but needs a break after every few hours. A fresh mind can think of many better idea than a tired one. Extra burden on a person can result in fatigue and tiredness that is very dangerous for a person. So try to take short breaks while you work harder on any project. The breaks can comprise of 5 minutes to enjoy a snack or have a tea.

The companies require optimal performance form their employees but this is only possible when they are ready to take on the world. Everyone need to recharge themselves and employees also do need a break; a 5 minute conversation with a colleague on the football match you watched last night is a good idea to start the work with a fresh perspective.

Making Lost Hours Count

The hours that are lost while you travel or within the office premises like having a scrumptious lunch or spending some time talking to a colleague standing in the lobby should be compensated. There are some work which you can do while engaging in other tasks. In this way you can make the most of time you lost unintentionally which you could use productively.

An example in this regard would be better for you to understand. While you are stuck in the morning rush hour traffic, try to make important phone calls which are due for some time later. You can politely ask the person if you can talk to them when you call them and use your time sitting idle in the car to your advantage.

Don’t Try to Complete Every Task Perfectly

This trick may sound unusual to you. Yes it is odd in the sense that everyone wants to complete the given task in the best possible way. Especially people starting their first job soon after graduation try to be the perfectionist in everything they do to please their manager. This is one aspect which cab take much time as some work can be done in less time rather than doing it in a fashion spending extra time in completion. Let me give you an example so that you can know what I mean.

If you can complete a slide show in 30 minutes with standard pictures and graphics, don’t make it an hour long process by looking for the perfect picture or thumbnail. Try to shut up your inner perfectionist as it can become a habit and most of the times you will end up wasting a lot of time in creating that flawless slideshow.

Use of Task Management Tools

The use of a free task management tool can be good if you are finding it difficult to manage your daily tasks with the standard official software you have. To make sure you are on top of your game, you definitely need a task management software or system which you can use to your advantage. It will be immensely beneficial in automating task and streamlining whatever you want to do in a professional way.

Eat the Frogs and Utilize your Time Efficiently

Frogs jobs are simply those that you don’t want to do but are, nonetheless, important enough so that you have to do them. So it is better that you start the day with them and do the tasks in which you are highly skilled for later in the day. There is a valid reason for this, so read on as why this practice is important.

The tasks in which you are highly skilled will be done in a jiffy. On the other hand, if you will do them on priority basis, the tasks you hate to do or are not that much skilled at will haunt you throughout the day until you don’t complete them. To save yourself from this constant psychological threat, complete the frogs task as a productivity hack.

Verbal Commitments

There are tasks or work assigned to you through email or any task management system. Then there are tasks you are told or request to do verbally. This is where the strength of your character comes into play. The verbal commitments are just between you and one person so you can’t be held responsible by your immediate boss or the management of the company, but will you be content with this?

A verbal commitment is a productivity hack in a way as you know that if you break your promise or commitment with a person, your reputation as a reliable person will take a dent. Put it another way, you can ask any person to assign you a task verbally. Words have weight and the vow to your friend will make you complete the task without any written agreement.

Staying Positive

While you may argue about this point by including it in the productivity hacks at work, it is a very important part. Being optimistic can save you from many difficulties and give you the power to face them with an open mind. People often panic when they face a dire situation, stay positive and you will be amazed to see the results.

If you have to complete a tough task or facing a situation in your personal life giving you nightmares, then think of the many blessings that you currently have. There is always a silver lining no matter how worse the situation is, so be positive and be productive.