25 Tips to Become More Productive and Happy at Work

Business, Career, Happy, How To, Motivation, Success August 23rd, 2007

25 Tips to Become More Productive and Happy at Work

Have you gotten into a rut at work? Would you like to be more engaged, satisfied, and fulfilled in your work? Would you like to be more productive and feel a greater sense of accomplishment at the end of each day? Well you can. It just takes a desire and commitment to renew your habits and routines. Follow these tips and you’ll see your work life improve. And that improvement will trickle into the rest of your life too.

Planning. Establish a routine of planning your week and your day. This will allow you to have your most productive week all the time. Start your day an extra 15 minutes early to do this planning everyday. Write down the top 1-3 important things you must do that day. And most importantly, set and reach your Goals! Use the power of intention to get there! (This is what adds jazz to your life! And focusing on your future helps you get through challenging times.)
Power Question. Keep a question like this at your desk to help you stay focused: “Am I making the most of my time right now?” or “Is this the most productive use of my time?”
Accept That You’ll Never Finish Your Task List. For perfectionists and overachievers this is as frustrating as a greyhound forever chasing the mechanical bunny around the track. Get off that track. Just make sure you work on your most important stuff first. Let the fluff slide, not your priorities.
Turn off Your Computer. “What?!” you say. “Everything is done on my computer!” Well is it really? What percentage truly is? Plan to have your computer on only for that amount of time each day. Plan out blocks of time for different computer tasks and work from a checklist to keep you focused. Giving your eyes a rest from the screen will give you more energy for creating. Even if you just close your eyes as you think of a response to an email can help too.
Don’t Check Email First Thing. Unless this is required in your job, then let it go until after you’ve completed your top priority of the day. And then process email in batches, say two or three times a day.
Take Breaks. It’s a fact that taking breaks will increase productivity. It’s been proven in studies. If you need to, find someone to help ensure you take a morning and afternoon break.
Make the Most of Your Commute. How do you spend your commute? Make it positive time. Use it for reading, writing, creative thinking, creative projects, listen to audio books, or, heck, write your own book! If you enjoy your commute, that happiness will spill over into how you feel at work.
Drop Unimportant Tasks. Delegate or delete the non-essential items from your to-do list. The best way to do this is to always do your most important things first. Somehow, miraculously, extraneous things will fall away.
Transitions. Make sure you plan in enough time between activities and appointments, and find ways to fail proof being on time.
Choose Happiness, Humor, Enthusiasm, Gratitude, Kindness, and a Positive Outlook. Being productive and competitive in business doesn’t mean that you have to be serious all the time. Smiling doesn’t mean you’re not working hard. Enthusiasm doesn’t mean you’re not competitive. Being positive doesn’t mean you’re blind to challenges. Choose to enjoy your time at work. Find others who are like this and spread good cheer. It’s contagious and it grows. Try to avoid gossip and negative chat. It can be tempting, but it doesn’t serve anyone well, including yourself.
Cultivate Compassion for Negative Coworkers. People who are negative are that way for a reason. They may have difficulties you don’t know about. Try to be compassionate and non-judging. If you’re a manager, people still need to meet benchmarks, but you don’t have to dislike them if they are not cutting it. When you encounter a negative person, you have the choice to either be affected by the negativity or to be the one who influences the other person. It’s a decision. Choose to stay positive. Instead of saying (in your head or out loud) “Oh, that Suzy-Q! Her negativity always ruins my day,” try thinking “Poor Suzy-Q. She must have some difficulties. I wish her peace. In spite of her negativity I will try to be a positive influence around her.”
Pace Yourself, Especially on Bad Days. Go slow. Don’t be in a hurry. Just take one thing at a time and keep moving forward. If you’re having a really low day, you might even want to take care of yourself by playing hooky !
Take Everything in Stride. Deadlines, tough bosses, rude clients, slow computers. Don’t make them into large dramas. Don’t lament the challenges of the world. Simply accept that they are there, and just keep moving forward.
Conflicts with Others. Let your goal be “to make progress.” Don’t get caught up in trying to “be right” or to “win” the argument. That will just slow you down. In your mind ask yourself, “what will move this conflict forward right now?” And then get busy doing that.
Take Your Vacation Time. Try doing something different. If you always go on a trip, try taking a more local vacation, and really get some good rest time. Or if you always stay local, try visiting a new place. Variety is one of the keys to happiness.
Pick Your Battles. Cliche, but true. It’s kind of like “The Boy Who Cried Wolf.” When you complain or fight on everything, then your power to ask for things is diminished. Save it up for when you really need it.
Share Your Results. This is not about bragging, but about ensuring that you get credit for the hard work you do. Don’t keep quiet thinking that the right people know what you are doing. Speak up and find ways to let the right people know how you are contributing to the success of the company.
Ask for Help. Don’t be afraid to collaborate with others. Don’t wait for your company to tell you what to do. Think creatively about how you can work with others to generate a greater result than if you had each worked on this alone.
Face the Tough Stuff Head On. If there is something difficult that you must do, just bite the bullet and do it. Don’t put it off. Do it first thing in the day. It’s like jumping into a cold pool. Just count to three and do it!
Ask for More Time. If you are asked a question that stumps you or surprises you, never feel like you have to answer it right away. (unless you absolutely must) Seek more time to think about or research your answer. Simple as this, “I’ll have to get back to you with an answer later.” This will save you from giveing an answer you will regret.
Breaking Negative Habits. For one day, observe yourself. Where do you face difficulties? With people? Certain people? Certain circumstances? Take notice and then later on during some quiet time, think about one or two things you would like to work on. Set up some kind of reminder system to fail proof it, such as a simple yellow sticky note next to your computer.
Learn from Criticism. Don’t immediately reject critiques from others, even if you don’t like or respect them. Sometimes people you don’t like may be giving you more honest feedback than you can get from others. Don’t take it personally. Even if it is personal, who cares? Listen, process, and then decide what positive action you might want to take.
Adapt. Adaptation is the number one survival skill of living organisms. Those that don’t adapt, become extinct. In the work world, the same is true for companies, whole groups, and for individuals. Be open to change. Give it a chance. Adapt to new things while using your experience to guide you, and you will have great success.
Learning and Improving. Always be on the lookout for opportunities to learn and improve your skills. Look for good seminars and training. Then ask work if you can attend and will they pay for your admission. If your company pays for education, use it! Borrow books from your local library, the company library, or even from your boss. Borrow some motivational audio tapes from your local library. Keep learning to continually renew your enthusiasm.
Creative Thinking. Is your job boring? If so, take some responsibility in changing that. How can you make it more fun, more creative, more varied, etc.? What can you do that no one has done before? How could you grow enthusiasm at work? What is a new way that you could do old things? What processes could you alter to save time, work and money?

Please Share!

What makes you more productive and happy at work? All comments big and small are very welcomed!

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Comments

1
Dennis
August 24th, 2007 at 12:25 am

Agree with most EXCEPT the email tip. I process email all the time (not batches:
- 10 to 30 emails at a time is too daunting
- 1 or 2 at a time in that moment (after 7 minutes or so?) that your mind wanders from the task at hand anyway is a great way to change pace/ focus whilst actually churning through stuff.
2
almost vegetarian
August 24th, 2007 at 10:57 am

Those are good tips, but that is a long list. Too long to remember. I prefer to keep it simple: Do work that is satisfying with people that are stimulating.

Cheers!
3
agentsully
August 24th, 2007 at 11:38 am

@Dennis – that’s great. Sounds like you are able to process and then move on. For some email steals them away from things that need to be done sooner. But your way can definitely work too.

@ Almost Vegetarian – it is a long list. I like your simple motto! You could always bookmark this or print it out to review every once in a while.

Thanks!
4
Lyman Reed
August 24th, 2007 at 1:35 pm

Great stuff, Sully. I was going to head back up the post and type which one’s meant the most to me… but they are all fantastic (although the commute one is something I love to do anyway.)
5
ru4real
August 25th, 2007 at 7:45 am

This is a very good list – very well thought out. No. 2 is the thing I have struggled with. Before I realized that I am a goal oriented person, I just couldn’t every feel accomplished because there was ALWAYS something else on my list. When I began to understand the goal oriented personality, I started striving to celebrate (privately – not a big public “look-at-me production”) the completion of each goal individually. Making a list not only helps me stay on track, but it helps me to see that I’ve accomplished a lot – even if my “list” is not completed.
6
Peggy Collins
August 25th, 2007 at 8:33 am

I particularly like your list item about asking for help because our culture makes us feel asking is a weakness and corporate cultures often support this.

And for women it becomes an even bigger problem because they don’t want to show what they don’t know – to keep up with the guys.

I’ve found all this to be near epidemic and have written a book about it called Help is Not a Four-Letter Word-Why Doing It All Is Doing You In published by McGraw Hill.

Encourage those in leadership to lay down guidelines for asking for help. “If you don’t understand something in 45 minutes, ask!” Etc.
The morale, creativity, productivity and bottom line numbers would definitely go up!
Peggy Collins
http://www.helpisnotafourletterword.com
8
agentsully
August 25th, 2007 at 10:43 pm

Thanks Lyman!

Peggy – Asking is so important! I love when people aren’t afraid to ask. When I hear that I see confidence and willingness to learn…not weakness. Wishing you good luck with your book.
10
Helen
August 28th, 2007 at 1:27 am

Great list. We should learn to set aside our pride and ask for help. We don’t have to show everybody how strong we are. Every one of us has a weakness and we will not be able to overcome it if we don’t accept it.
13
Mike St. Pierre
August 28th, 2007 at 1:19 pm

Really good stuff- I especially like the suggestion about posting a question for the day.

Mike
14
siblog
August 28th, 2007 at 1:41 pm

â€œAm I making the most of my time right now?â€? or â€œIs this the most productive use of my time?â€?…Oh crap, I am surfing the web
15
TJ
August 28th, 2007 at 2:04 pm

Do you have a printer-friendly version of this article.

Thanks.
TJ
18
agentsully
August 28th, 2007 at 2:44 pm

@TJ – I am still looking for a good “Print” plugin for wordpress. Anyone know of one? In the meantime, what I usually do is copy/paste text into either a Word document or text file and print that out.

@siblog – funny!

@ Helen & Mike – Thank you for your support!
19
Pamela
August 28th, 2007 at 8:58 pm

These are helpful tips.
I often ask for more time, not as an excuse, but a way of preparing my answers to be more specific and clear. Thanks for sharing this.
20
Bloggrrl
August 28th, 2007 at 10:30 pm

I especially like #11. It keeps me from hitting them.
25
Red Jello
August 29th, 2007 at 10:50 am

It’s so hard to spend time planning the week. Sometimes the best laid plans go right out the window on Mondays, leaving the rest of the week for “seat of the pants” game plans. My motto: “Stay calm.”
43
Allie
September 6th, 2007 at 11:39 am

25 Tips…Number 15 – yikes, once again I neglected to book vacation time – so critical. Thanks for the thump on the head.
44
Bob
September 7th, 2007 at 9:18 am

I don’t think the tips really help when the idiots in management are backstabbing their employees and treating them like dirt. If that wasn’t the case the tips would be very helpful.
50
Gadget Link
October 29th, 2007 at 3:25 am

Interesting tips. I agree with them. I think it’s time I got more organized. First on my list : stop wasting time with my 10 email accounts.

(Cheers)
52
Girish
November 8th, 2007 at 8:55 am

Agree with tip 3. Often times switching off your PC would make you time to plan and think your strategies.
53
Mike
November 21st, 2007 at 6:25 pm

I like your tips, I’m going to try to add them to my daily life.
55
Auto Loan Guy
November 28th, 2007 at 6:23 pm

I’m going to print this out and have all of my employees read it and/or put it up on their wall.
57
Little Tykes
January 2nd, 2008 at 11:26 am

A great list that I am now going to print out and keep next to my desk. Sometimes you need to be reminded about the simple things to can do to make life happier.
58
Las Vegas Homes Guy
January 4th, 2008 at 10:11 pm

I don’t agree with #2 at all. I think sometimes you have to accept that, but with proper time management you can accomplish a lot. 15 is fine and good, if you can afford a vacation. Quite a lot of people these days can’t afford a vacation, so they simply cash the time in (they should come to Vegas instead!). I think its a must to have time off, even if you just sit around your own house. Pretty good list, all things considered.
59
pe-file Car Loans
February 2nd, 2008 at 3:39 am

What works best for me is to category my tasks into three priorities: A, B, and C. If I’m not able to accomplish all of my B’s and C’s task then the next day I will include them with new tasks and re categorize them. Most likely my C’s may either move to a B or even an A task. It’s possible that a B task could become a C task. This system assures me of knowing what my daily priorities are. And most cases I am able to accomplish my A tasks in a timely matter.
61
janet j
February 8th, 2008 at 3:58 am

I should say this is a great list put up. Hope it helps others like me.
62
Jon
February 13th, 2008 at 1:41 am

I agree to these tips. I have applied some of them in my work. They are realistic.

P.S.

please include facebook in your bookmark so i can post it on my account.

Thanx
63
agentsully
February 13th, 2008 at 2:07 pm

@Jon. Glad you liked the tips. And I will add Facebook to the book marks section. Thanks for the reminder!
64
lower ab exercises
February 15th, 2008 at 3:53 pm

These are great tips. Thank you very much for such a great article.
65
yunus ye?ilmen
February 18th, 2008 at 7:15 am

great post. Thnks agentsully….
66
Dina
February 27th, 2008 at 7:02 pm

Hi there,

I am Dina Gerdeman, a reporter with The Patriot Ledger newspaper in Massachusetts. I am working on a story about tips people can use to be happier.

Could you please shoot me an e-mail, and perhaps we can set up a time to chat?
Thank you,
Dina Gerdeman
The Patriot Ledger
dgerdeman@ledger.com
67
agentsully
March 3rd, 2008 at 8:57 pm

@Dina – I emailed you. Looking forward to hearing from you!
69
Leo
March 25th, 2008 at 2:37 am

I was very impressed with your list. Thank you for assembling it.
70
Jess
April 7th, 2008 at 9:59 pm

One of the best systems I have implemented is breaking my TO DO list into 4 quadrants:

1. Important & Due Soon
2. Important & Not Due Soon
3. Not Important & Due Soon
4. Not Important & Not Due Soon

Most people mix up #2 and #3, so a lot of important stuff creeps into #1 status, which causes stress. If it’s not important, I do important stuff first! Hope this helps some of you out.
71
Genie
April 15th, 2008 at 1:17 am

hi, the tips were useful! I just saw them last week, and this week i can feel that i am more productively at work already! yeay!!!!

Thanks alot!
-Genie
72
Tory Burch
April 23rd, 2008 at 12:43 am

Wonderful list, but you left off an important one: Make sure you’re doing something you (relatively) enjoy or have an interest in! I worked for 3 years at companies that I had no interest in, purely for the paycheck. They paid the bills, but I have recently transitioned to a work situation where I don’t make as much, but I have more passion and interest in what I’m doing. It has made a huge difference in my productivity and happiness level.
73
Dorph
May 19th, 2008 at 11:24 am

I use a much simpler way to prioritise my response to calls, emails and workload. Everything goes in the in tray and is then ignored until somebody calls, emails or otherwise checks for progress. Then I deal with it! You would be amazed how much just never leaves the in tray… and the world keeps turning!

Dorph
74
agentsully
May 21st, 2008 at 12:07 pm

@Dorph – ah, what a good method! I do something similar. I call it my junk pile. Every once in a while I go through it and throw out most of it! Thanks for sharing!
75
Las Vegas Real Estate Agent
June 25th, 2008 at 3:40 am

What a great list! Especially the part about not starting the day with emails and only allowing certain blocks of time to deal with them. It’s amazing how much time email can eat up out of your day if you let it!!

Something that I have found helpful is to make up my next day’s “to do” list at night. In the morning I do all the “quick things” first. Quick phone calls, an email (outbound only!), faxes, small errands, etc. This allows me to check a lot of things off my list by early morning, leaving me with only the few longer tasks left on my list. I find that I am then less distracted and actually more energized because I feel like I have already accomplished so much in the day.
76
agentsully
July 11th, 2008 at 5:01 pm

@LV RE A – thanks! My best days are always the ones where I plan it out and am very realistic about what I can accomplish in the day.
77
Phil Read
July 25th, 2008 at 2:14 am

I have been using computers for over 25 and have seen lots of changes in the work place. But I have to admit in general everything seems to counter balance the progress we make. Let me explain…

We make Faster PCs – then we counter balance it with eye candy Operating systems and bloatware anti-virus software and protection making it no more productive.

We lay down faster internet connection – Then we stream high quality video and pack as much crap as we can into websites.

90% of email sent world wide is SPAM, my god what a waste of data sent across the internet not to mention millions of dollars in time every day for people to delete / fight spam with purchased software which in turn slows down our machines / servers.

Let’s face it we miss the point here… World Wide if we all worked only 4 days a week and only 1 partner worked full time no one would be any better off or more ahead of the game. Plus billions of dollars a year could be saved in child care costs and children would get a proper upbringing with a parent at home (man or women I’m not a sexist).

We think more is better, but just take the fact OIL prices have shot down in price because there’s less demand… What does that tell you, if we all said screw you, we’re staying at home this week OR cycling to work we’d all be healthier, oil would be cheaper and we’d save millions in health care.

One day we will wake up!
78
agentsully
July 28th, 2008 at 2:53 pm

@Phil – Right on! I couldn’t agree more!
81
ROCKFUSE - Make Money Blogging
August 19th, 2008 at 9:14 am

Thanks for the killer tips! Indeed gained something valuable from it…

Cheers!
Nadeesha.
82
Alex
August 31st, 2008 at 8:58 am

Point 20 Ask for More Time. is something about my way of doing thing. I never in a hurry to finish something, otherwise I will need to re-do the whole thing…
89
MJ
September 8th, 2008 at 6:55 pm

I’ve been discussing these tips in The Bee Blog at ButterBeeHappy.com. It’s been a fun experiment. I hope you’ll check it out and let me know what you think. I also hope you’ll try out Butter Bee Happy. You use it to write down five happy or thankful thoughts each day, to develop a more positive outlook on life and become happier. Also, a lot of people say they like reading through other user’s happy thoughts. It’s kind of like smiling to a stranger on the internet.
95
agentsully
October 2nd, 2008 at 6:22 pm

@MJ – What a cool idea! Thanks for highlighting my post/blog with this project of yours. It’s a really neat idea. I am flattered. Best wishes!
97
Chris
March 6th, 2009 at 12:18 am

Wow! powerful advice…we need to be productive and happy at work…what i like best is to have a creative thinking….accept criticism…and allow yourself for improvement and learning.The world is a big place for us to experience freedom.
98
Pool tile cleaning
October 15th, 2009 at 5:02 pm

I have had more success by following rule 19 than any other. I had a tendency to hide from the stuff I didn’t want to do and choose work that is lower priority to avoid some jobs.
100
Cort
March 18th, 2010 at 8:51 am

I am so glad I found this. I needed to here these suggestions today.
101
Simple Life Tool
June 10th, 2010 at 11:40 pm

Great tips. I often struggle with managing my task, and having too balance between the items that are important, and the ones that I just want to do. The ones I just want to do, are most often the ones for fun, which i cant shake at times.

Thanks