Beware of reactive behavior

It doesn’t seem to be enough time in the day to tackle these tasks. Soon, you start jumping from one reactive behavior to the next one, from one interruption to an email. This takes your concentration away throughout the day making it difficult for you to complete projects and therefore decreasing your productivity factor.

What can you do to complete everything on your plate?
Taking a vacation or the day off is tempting but it will lead to more procrastination.

One solution is to identify and adopt new habit to increase productivity factor. Consider the following six new effective habits.

Know what to do first

Don’t spend time staring at your things to do or how many emails you have received. Spend 10 to 15 minutes at the beginning of your day organizing your work in batches. This is a simple and effective way to increase productivity. Once you have grouped your tasks, prioritize and identify the most important projects.

Divide and Conquer

It could be overwhelming to take over a complicated assignment. Break you work to smaller manageable tasks first. Look at what tasks are the essential ones and try to eliminate tasks that perhaps are unnecessary. Then integrate other tasks into main tasks and set a dateline. This forces you to avoid procrastination and create a sense of accomplishment each time you reach a milestone while working towards your goal.

Working at the right time

There are morning and night people out there. A recent survey indicates that 57 percent of executives are more productive on Tuesdays. Schedule the most important tasks and/or projects for days and times when you can have the highest productivity factor. For example; if you are a morning person don’t allow any interruptions during the first part of your morning. Focus and use this productive time to your advantage. Focus and concentrate until these small tasks have been completed during the early morning.

Use Email efficiently

Constantly going through an ever expanding inbox full of unorganized email can become a time consuming task. Instead of checking email constantly, turn off the reactive behavior by checking emails twice or three times per day. Use your inbox as a process tray. Create an archive folder that you will use to move emails you have dealt with. In your inbox, keep emails that need to be processed or need a response from a coworker before you can reply back.

Always think in bulk and anticipate your recipient’s answers. For example, if you receive three different emails from different coworkers that are involved in the same project, wait until most related emails have arrive (usually during the afternoon) and write one email directing each person into what to do. Have sections separated be the parties and sub parties involved that include actions to take for any possible questions and provide with anticipated answers.

Remember that sometimes is faster and better to pick up the phone for certain activities such as coordinating complex activities. The less email you send, the less you are apt to receive.

Close your door

Set boundaries whenever it comes to give access to coworkers. Establish office hours at your cubicle or office to avoid interruptions. This is especially important when you are under a tight deadline or working on an assignment. If necessary, you could hang a “Do Not Disturb” sign in you cubicle.

Get Fresh Air

Recharge and clear your head by taking short breaks throughout the day. Changing the scene of your cubicle and moving around can be invigorating from your routine and helps you get the energy necessary to tackle the next task.

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• Cubicle Etiquette

If you constantly find yourself putting off little fires around the office, jumping from one task to another, loosing concentration and always behind schedule, it might be time to cut off cubicle interruptions.

From the coffee-mug-holder coworker that suddenly pops up through the partition to talk about what his children did during the weekend to the annoying mid forties woman that laughs loudly while gossiping on the speaker phone, all are interruptions. Here are a few cubicle etiquette guidelines to minimize interruptions and be more considered to your coworkers.

Keep it down
I remember having a project manager talking trash to a contractor in a loud tone. Why? She wanted to sound busy and on top of the project. Reality was, she was disorganized and never plan ahead. Many people put a lot of effort looking busy and even worst, sounding busy. Managers know better. A loud voice makes working conditions difficult for your cubicle neighbors. It makes listening to a concurrent telephone conversation difficult – I’m sorry, could you repeat that? I’m having some background noise. –

Speakers
Get rid of everything that has speakers – not everybody likes your music. Some people even find it difficult to concentrate if music that they even like is playing. Use earphones instead. The same applies to speaker phones. I still haven’t been able to figure out what is the purpose of the speakerphone. One might think this is convenient because it allows you to type and talk at the same time. Ask the person to send you an email instead, take notes, get to the point and hang up. There is really no reason for speakerphones.

Good Vibrations
When at work, I always set my cellular in silent mode. I put it next to my laptop or inside my pocket. I have taught my relatives to send me text messages if they want me to call them after I’m done with work. If it is an emergency they will text me and leave a message. Most of my friends know I won’t answer the phone and very often they leave a message that I hear a few minutes later to evaluate how quickly should I call back.

Turn Down the Volume
If you receive several phone calls per day, it is annoying for your neighbors to ne listening to a loud ring the hold day. Lower the volume of your telephone ring as much as possible as a consideration to your coworkers.

Let’s get together. Conference Rooms
I have always been opposed to meetings. Eighty percent of meetings are; unnecessary ways to make someone look important and, time waster. Meetings should NEVER be held in your cubicle. Reserve conference rooms in advance for meetings with potential clients, contractors or designers.

Try to keeping meetings to a minimum items and as short as possible. Send an email with meeting agendas, Q&A, and reports in advance to attendees. Keep meetings under thirty minutes and never, ever have a cubicle meeting.

Interruptions
Quit sugar. I believe sugar plays a big role regarding interruptions. Most people can seat still and will find any excuse to walk around and interrupt someone else. Do not just pop up into someone’s cubicle just because there is no door and you just need some attention.

Always consider other’s time and space. Send an email if your request can wait.

Batch requests of information – Throughout the day you will need different people’s feedback. Start creating emails at the beginning for each person. Don’t send the email until a few hours before the day is over. Keep adding, rewriting and or eliminating items you might not need to know. If it is urgent call the person and explains why it is urgent to have him/her sign a document, then stop by for the signature.

Hey You! Interruption
Weaving at someone and/or using sign language it is just pure laziness. Wait for the person to be done with the task at hand. Stop being reactive and start been proactive.

Confidential matters
Another reason to schedule meeting rooms is to keep important information confidential. The thin walls of your cubicle don’t prevent people from listening to your conversations.

Smells
Perhaps, one rule of cubicle etiquette many don’t consider is odors and smells interruptions. It is very annoying to work around people that wear to much cologne, aftershave or perfume. This strong smells can get allergic coworkers to sniff creating noise.

Don’t eat at your cubicle. Strong smelling food can off putting other coworkers.

Organization
Self promotion is a skill many cubicle people don’t consider in a working environment. Keep your cubicle clean, tidy and uncluttered. This says a lot about how much in charge you are of your work. Start by eliminating unnecessary objects and pictures. Show to other how professional you are by been organized and focused. Your desk organization is a reflection how your mind effectiveness.

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• 6 Ways to Increase Productivity Factor