The Complete Guide To Office Productivity

Learn how to build your week around high-impact, achievement-driven tasks that produce real, valuable achievements.

To effectively implement deep work and escape the trap of shallow tasks, you need the right tools and skills. Our office productivity courses will equip you to optimize your workflow, master essential software, and focus on the work that truly matters.

The 4 Biggest Productivity Killers

Most of us ashamedly succumb to one or more distractions every hour.

In fact, the average office worker gets distracted every three minutes and then takes a whopping 23+ minutes to find their concentration again.

To succeed, you must kill these distractions before they kill you. However, before you can kill them, you have to be ready for them. And to be ready for them, you must know what they are.

So, what kills productivity? Here’s our shortlist:

• Notifications
• Open offices
• Burnout
• Perfectionism

Productivity Enemy No. 1: Notifications

What are the biggest distractions at work? Notifications, according to CareerBuilder.

Or more specifically, employees blamed:

It’s not that surprising when you consider the fact that your overall productivity takes a nosedive the moment you hear your phone buzz.

It’s a lose-lose situation.

If you immediately answer every text, email and Slack message you receive throughout the day, you’ll never be able to maintain focus and get into the flow of deep work.

And not responding won’t help either, because just the thought of having to deal with answering that message later will stress you out, distracting you from your current task.

Productivity Enemy No. 2: Open Office Environment

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand why open work environments hinders employee productivity.

The constant noise, constant interruptions, and being forced to listen to your coworker’s conversations is no hotbed for deep work. This is probably why “open office workers are 66 percent less productive” than those with privacy.

Unfortunately, 70 percent of companies have an open floor plan; and so, it’s vital you find a way to cope.

Productivity Enemy No. 3: Burnout

You’re not getting anything out of working 60+ hour weeks – especially if the time you’re spending isn’t spent in deep concentration (and let’s be honest, they never are).

It’s an unfortunate fact: “Productivity drops immediately upon starting overtime.” In fact, working eight, 60-hour weeks becomes the same as working eight 40-hour weeks.

I know what you’re probably thinking: “I can’t work fewer hours; my boss would fire me!” What I’m thinking is she won’t if you go about it the right way. Setting the precedent for a positive work culture helps build a productive office space.

Productivity Enemy No. 4: Perfectionism

People who are hell-bent on doing things perfect or not at all get nothing done.

What’s wrong with perfect, you might ask? Well, for starters, it leads to hindered productivity.

Because perfectionists tend to spend too much time on the little things – like proofreading an email 15 times – they rarely get anything substantial done (i.e. no tangible achievements/results).

So if you want to succeed professionally, you need to adopt a “ship it” mentality because done is better than perfect.

How to Increase Productivity in 3 Steps

Measurement is the first step that leads to control and eventually to improvement. If you can’t measure something, you can’t understand it. If you can’t understand it, you can’t control it. If you can’t control it, you can’t improve it.

Dr. H. James Harrington

Think about this:

Athletes rarely win the gold on the first try.

Instead, they set a goal – say running a triathlon. Record their baseline metrics. Train to improve those metrics. And then hopefully, eventually, win.

They continually monitor their performance metrics (i.e. how fast they run, how far they swim...) to ensure they’re progressing.

You must adopt the same mentality when it comes to your productivity.

If you’re asking yourself, “how do I increase my productivity?”, here’s what you need to do – step-by-step.

Getting Things Done (GTD)

Effort Required: Medium

Do you have a lot of loose ends you need to tie up in your head? If so, GTD is your best bet.

GTD will help you brain dump all of your thoughts, to-dos, obstacles, whatever, out of your head and onto paper (or your screen). Then it helps you figure out what to do with them.

Here’s the basic structure of GTD.

Capture

Capture just means brain dump everything in your head into your notebook or app. Don’t worry about sorting or prioritizing at this point. Just dump!

Clarify

Now, turn your broad thoughts into concrete action items.

For example, if you wrote down “rent,” now is the time to clarify what exactly you need to do to get this off your mind. So if you have to pay your rent on the first, then you would write down something like this:

1. Go to bank to get cashier’s check after work.
2. Call my landlord to see when he wants to pick up the check after bank.
3. Etc…

By breaking this down step-by-step, the task will be easier to get done because it’s specific, actionable and unintimidating.

One rule of thumb: The smaller the task, the more likely tasks are completed.

Organize

Color code and label tasks based on the project they’re in and the type of task at hand. This way you can batch process the same kind of tasks, such as writing emails and making phone calls. This method helps reduce unnecessary task switching, which is especially handy if you’re prone to distractions.

Last but not least, prioritize those babies.

Reflect

Review your list on a consistent basis. We suggest daily, but weekly could work too.

Every time you review your list, ask yourself:

1. Can I break these tasks into even smaller ones?
2. Are there any unreasonable deadlines now that you think about it?
3. Are there items that have become irrelevant?

To learn more about the intricacies of GTD, visit GTD.

The Athlete Method

Effort Required: Minimal

We touched on this earlier, but athletes know their stuff when it comes to focus and productivity.

Maybe that’s because working out is known to stimulate creativity and help you think better and faster.

While you should exercise at least 30 minutes a day to boost productivity, more importantly, you should think like an athlete.

The athlete’s approach:

1. Determine one solid goal or purpose (win the triathlon).
2. Schedule your most important tasks first, so they aren’t skipped (run every morning).
3. Measure your results (run times, miles ran, heart rate, etc).
4. Hold yourself accountable and fix what’s not working (using fitness tracking apps, eating more protein than carbs, etc).
5. Prioritize your health (stretching, taking breaks, healing injuries, etc).

So let’s say you want to earn more sales commissions this month. Using the athlete’s steps outlined above, you would:

1. Set a specific goal (make an additional $2,000 by your next commission payout).
2. Schedule your most important tasks (MITs) for your most productive hours (write ad copy during your morning coffee buzz, create marketing emails in the afternoon, etc).
3. Determine your key performance indicators (KPIs) (number of new leads, number of new sales, etc).
4. Review your progress to improve your strategy (do attribution reporting to see where the majority of your commissions come from and reallocate time to focus on that activity 80 percent of the time).
5. Set boundaries (take a break after every 15 calls you make, turn off notifications after 9 p.m., etc).

Eat a Frog

Effort Required: Minimal

Everyone procrastinates. The difference between high performers and low performers is largely determined by what they choose to procrastinate on.

Brian Tracy

One productivity technique people swear by is “eating a frog” first thing in the morning. No, not an actual frog. We’re talking about your most difficult task(s) that you’re likely to procrastinate on, but that will have the highest impact or results on your job performance at the moment.

TLDR: Do the worst first.

In case you’re wondering, here’s how you eat a frog.

First, list out everything you need to get done the night before you start work. (Never start work without a list.)

Next, review your list, and put an A, B, C, D, or E next to each task.

Last but not least, here are the rules of the method:

• Never do a B task when you have an A job left undone.
• If you have to eat two frogs, eat the ugliest one first.
• If you have to eat a frog, it doesn’t help to stare at it for a long time.

If you’re stuck categorizing your tasks, ask yourself three questions:

• What are my highest value activities?
• What can I and only I do that if done well will make a real difference?
• What is the most valuable use of my time right now?

Doing this ensures that you stay focused and productive, and deadlines are met.

The Pomodoro Technique

Effort Required: Minimal

This technique is perfect for chronic procrastinators. It works best for tasks that you must get done but keep getting distracted from doing.

The concept behind the Pomodoro Technique is simple: Work in 25-minute increments and take five-minute breaks in between. Repeat this process three more times before taking a longer break.

When you limit the amount of time you have to work – in this case, a quick 25 minutes – you push yourself to work faster to beat the clock. Kind-of like the dead battery technique.

Try not to think of breaks as wastes of time. Your brain is like a muscle; it needs time to recalibrate after these periods of fast, intense work.

Imagine doing crunches for an hour straight without taking a break – yikes!

Our brains can only focus for so long. So utilize break times to keep your mind sharp, focused, and energized.

Keep in mind; this technique is better for some tasks than others. For instance, 25 minutes won’t be long enough for deep work that requires you to get into a flow state. You can still use this technique for tasks requiring deep work, just make sure to add a lot more time to the clock.

Want to give this method a test run? Check out this list of the best online time trackers. And if you have more questions, check out Quora.

Don’t Break the Chain

Effort Required: Minimal

You can thank Jerry Seinfeld for this baby. Seinfeld famously told a young comic that he marks the days he writes with a giant red X on his calendar.

After a few days, you’ll have a chain. Just keep at it, and the chain will grow longer every day. You’ll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job is not to break the chain.

This visual motivation subconsciously shifts your focus from the overwhelming task at hand to keep the chain (aka your productivity streak) going. You won’t want to break the chain, so you’ll force yourself to get things done, helping you stay consistent.

Here is a calendar to get you started. There’s also this web tool, in case you aren’t into print.

If you want to keep learning about various productivity techniques, save the links below to read later.

• The Ultimate Guide to Personal Productivity Methods
• 5 New Productivity Techniques You Probably Haven’t Heard Of

Following one – or a few – of the methods above should help you establish highly productive habits. However, what else can you do right now to feel more productive and less like an unaccomplished house cat?

We’re glad you asked.

Productivity Power Laws

Overhauling your productivity isn’t going to be an overnight success story.

You may try several of the above productivity core concepts before finding one that sticks in your work and personal life. To get the ball rolling, start with one (or all) of these four easy hacks to improve your productivity quicker than it takes to drink your morning coffee.

Prepare for Tomorrow Before the End of Today

It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations if you live near him.

J.R.R. Tolkien

Productivity all comes down to planning and strategy. So make it a habit to plan tomorrow today. Your future self will love you for it.

Walking into work with a plan for the day means you won’t waste time or energy coming up with a plan and then executing on it. This way, you keep energy levels high and hit the ground running in a productive direction.

Find Your Prime Time

Once you start tracking your time, you’ll uncover patterns in your behavior.

For example, if you’re not a morning person, scheduling your most difficult tasks first won’t work for you probably. Instead, dedicate your morning work periods to shallow work, like meetings and emails. Then, schedule your complex tasks for the afternoon, when you’re in your prime.

On the other hand, if you’re an early-riser, you may want to eat those frogs first thing in the morning. Optimising your workday around your natural ebb and flow of focus and concentration can reduce stress and improve your quality of work.

How do you find your prime time? The resources below explain.

• Discover Your Most Productive Hours with This Simple Method
• How To Find Your Most Productive Hours
• How To Find Your Most Productive Time Of Day

Always Set Deadlines

No one likes a looming deadline, but they’re absolutely necessary if you want tasks to be completed.

Parkinson’s Law tells us that “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”

So if you give yourself a week to finish something, you’re more likely to take an entire week to complete it even if the task could actually be completed in a day or two.

Setting clear goals, like deadlines, work because they combine almost every productivity-enhancing tactic we’ve discussed today.

Working to meet a deadline means you’ll need to:

• Accurately assess what needs to get done
• Prioritize tasks
• Create a realistic schedule or timeline
• Focus on meeting your deadline (this is where “done is better than perfect” comes in)
• Monitor your progress to make sure you’re on track

Even if you do nothing else from today’s guide (not that we recommend trying that), set a few deadlines today, and you’ll almost immediately increase your ability to get things done.

Multitasking Batching

All those tabs you have open right now – they’re killing your productivity because humans can’t effectively multitask. Alternatively, to be more precise, 98 percent of people can’t effectively multitask.

So chances are, multitasking is killing your productivity.

Multitasking, like distractions, splits our attention, giving us zero opportunity to enter into a flow-like (or deep work) state.

Constantly giving your brain new tasks to complete means it needs to switch gears, re-focus, and then use extra willpower to get back to the previous task and focus again.

It’s no wonder multitasking has been shown to reduce your productivity by 40 percent and lower your IQ by 10 points.

Fortunately, there’s this productivity hack that helps. It’s called “batching.”

Batching means scheduling time to work on only one thing – such as replying to emails, making sales calls, fixing bugs, etc. – during a particular chunk of time.

During that time, ignore everything else except that one task.

This will help you accomplish your shallow work super fast. After all, it still needs to get done, especially if you don’t have the budget to outsource it.

Dedicating time to shallow tasks, like email, and deep work, like strategizing, means your brain doesn’t have to switch its concentration or think about doing anything else for that period. By not switching focus, you increase your productivity rate.

(This has to do with attention residue. If you want to learn more about that, check this out.)

You’re able to enter your flow state faster and easier, so even your shallow work becomes deep work – effortlessly.