Do you feel that you need more time in the workday to get things done? Do you find there are not enough hours in the day and are working longer than you expect?

Would you like to find ways to get more time back so that you can spend more time doing what you want? Such as with your family, doing a hobby, working on a goal, reading or chilling (maybe over your favourite Netflix series).

I am going to share with you simple 5 strategies to help you be productive, and give you time to focus on the needle mover activities.

1. Meeting Chunking

Meetings can take up a lot of time and be a distraction from achieving goals and purpose at work. When my meetings are spread out with short breaks in between (such as an hour half) I find it challenging to complete needle-moving work. I am often doing busy work such as checking emails, calls or admin.

I found the stop-and-start between meetings meant that I had to work late, start super early or work on weekends to complete what I needed.

A common question I get asked is: What do you do if someone sets up the meeting outside this time?

At times it is hard to avoid this happening and I adjust accordingly. When I can I propose a new time for the meeting that works for me.

Bonus Tip – block out times in your calendar so that you can work on your projects and it will be less likely that someone will book a meeting over this time.

Team Ninety says that “People who chunk time:

• Have more control over how they produce effective outcomes for their work.
• Focus their time and effort on meaningful or purposeful goals.
• Stay on-task better to get through their to-do lists and more.
• Don’t let interruptions stop the flow of work.
• Avoid switching their attention constantly among different or smaller tasks.
• Don’t have to react to constant distractions.
• Get great work done without stress or burnout.”

2. Go Offline

This is an excellent tactic especially when you need to concentrate and complete an important task such as a report or presentation or even to get work done without being distracted by new emails or online distractions.

For this, you can do one of two things, switch the internet off (assuming you can complete your work offline) or otherwise go offline in the applications that tend to distract you most such as emails and messenger.

Did you know that Microsoft Outlook has a function you can use to go offline? This means new emails won’t come in however you can work on the current emails in your inbox.

How to go Offline in Microsoft Outlook

Step 1: Start Outlook.
Step 2: Go to the “Send / Receive” tab.
Step 3: Click on the “Work Offline” button in the “Preferences” section.

3. Block Popups, Icons and Sounds

As you are working on the strategy for your team a new email notification pops up on your screen. What do you do?

If you are like most people you stop what you are doing read the email and potentially respond. If you decide to respond afterwards you then go back re-read the email and respond (which is duplicating work and less wasted time).

Steve Glaveski’s article Stop Letting Push Notifications Ruin Your Productivity states that “recent estimates find that while each task switch might waste only 1/10th of a second, it can add up to a 40% productivity loss if you do lots of switching in a day.”

A study by the University of California found that it takes an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to get yourself back on track after being interrupted. If you get interrupted 3 times in a day that is over an hour lost.

What to do instead? Turn off notifications, popups and any sounds that occur for emails and other websites and instead schedule time (about 5 to 8 minutes) every hour to check emails.

4. Decline Meetings

I was in a meeting the other day and there were 15 of us on the call. This meeting cost:

• 7 and a half hours
• $375 (assuming each team member is paid on average $50 per hour)

In this meeting, I believe that:

• Half the people didn’t need to know about what was happening.
• A quarter of the people could have read the minutes and it would have met their needs.
• Three-quarters of the people were off camera and I am sure doing something else in the background.

• Will attending the meeting be the best use of your time?
• Are you able to get a summary of the meeting in the minutes from another colleague in less time?
• Is there enough representation already from your team already?
• What value will you bring by attending the meeting?

If you find that the meeting is not the best use of your time, a summary of the meeting’s minutes is sufficient or enough team members are going then decline the meeting.

5. Write it down as you remember

Have you ever been in the middle of a task and then remember something else you need to do, such as sending someone an email, scheduling a meeting or organising a costume for book week?

When I remember I need to do something I take one of 2 actions:

1. Write it down on my To Do List
2. If I can’t write it down I send myself an email

Leon Ho states nicely in his article Human Brains Aren’t Designed to Remember Things

“Our brains are not designed to record information accurately and objectively. Trying to take in too much information results in us becoming overloaded and overwhelmed. What’s more, we interfere with what our brains are truly great at — processing information and being inventive and creative.”

Writing down what you need to do unloads your brain and frees up the capacity to focus on what matters. I write down both work and personal items. For example, if something comes to me over the weekend for work I will send an email to the work email address on what I need to do.

The benefits of taking this approach are:

• It frees my mind up so I can focus on the task at hand
• I am more productive as I get more done as I have written down what I need to do and not relying on my memory
• I remember what I need to do which means there is a less likely chance I will forget
• Writing down can calm anxiety. It’s the first step in a plan, making you feel as though progress has been made.  

What are some things that you do to get more time back in your workday?