Are You Always Playing Catch-Up?
Use These Tips to Get More Done Each Day

Shemeka Brathwaite, MSED is a peak performance strategist, keynote speaker, and coach. She is often invited by organizations, associations, and educational institutions to provide inspiring programs on productivity, leadership, and executive presence. Her immersive training programs help professionals learn how to implement new systems that streamline the demands on one’s time, so they can achieve more at work, increase their influence, and live intentionally.

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Do you ever feel like your productivity level is slipping a bit? You thought you’d get four projects done today but you completed only two. You ask yourself where the time goes and you’ve noticed you’re feeling disappointed in yourself and how you perform at work or at home.

So what can you do to increase your efficiency and get more out of your life?

Use these tips as inspiration:

1. Hit the ground running. Be ready to go to work as soon as you arrive, whether you’re headed to work or home. Using the example of work, imagine yourself driving or riding to the office. Think about what it’s going to be like when you get there.

Do you have three large stacks of paperwork to do? Think about what you’ll do first. Perhaps you can complete that project you started last Friday with just a couple more hours of work. Put your mind ahead of your body’s arrival so you can get started quickly.

2. Learn to anticipate. When you ponder what will be happening when you arrive, you’ll be ready to meet whatever challenge is occurring at the time. You might think, “I know the kids will be hungry for a snack. I’ll get out that fruit salad from yesterday and give them glasses of juice right away so I can get to the laundry.” Anticipate what might happen.

3. Develop a method of keeping track of tasks that works for you. Whether it’s speaking your list into your smartphone, jotting down things to do in your calendar, or carrying a spiral notebook, having a running list to look at or listen to will help you get more things done.

Having some way to check-off items is helpful so you can tell at a glance which tasks you’ve completed and which ones remain.

Try a couple of methods until you find the list that’s easiest for you to use. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution here. The one that helps you get the most done is the one you should stick with.

4. Politely tell others you don’t “have a minute.” If you’re at work and people stop by your office to chat, feel free to say, “I’m sorry. I can’t talk right now but I’d love to have lunch today and hear more about this.” When you don’t allow yourself to be interrupted, you can get a lot more done. Plus, others learn to avoid interrupting your work time.

5. Keep meetings brief. If you’re in a position to have control over meetings at work, make a goal to meet for 30 minutes max. If you go into a meeting with a written agenda, you’ll be ready to cover your points quickly.

6. Reinforce your efforts to achieve. Praise yourself each day. Maybe you completed a work project you’ve been working on for several weeks or cooked a great meal for friends and family. Recognize the efforts you make to complete tasks.

7. Allow yourself plenty of time in the morning. If you need an hour to shower, have breakfast and get your task list written for the day, then get up early enough to have your full hour. When you respect your own needs, you’ll be better emotionally prepared to get things accomplished.

Even if you feel like you never get anything accomplished, the great news is that you’ve got lots of choices when it comes to increasing your efficiency. Perhaps while reading this list you were inspired to come up with your own methods to get more done in a day. That’s great! Try them all. The strategies that work for you are the ones worth continuing.

If you put forth some effort to change your approach, you’ll be pleasantly surprised to see you’re getting more done each and every day.