Far too busy to be productive? Here’s 5 tips on doing busy better

With personal and professional pressures culminating in the approach to Christmas, November and December are often considered to be overwhelming months. To help navigate this period, Productivity Expert, Michelle McQuaid, has partnered with Officeworks to detail the tricks of doing busy better at home and work.

1. Start strong – Spend the first ten minutes of each day at the office using your strengths – those things you’re good at and enjoy doing – to do what you do best.  Not sure what your strengths are? Spend your first ten minutes tomorrow taking the free 10 minute strengths survey at www.viacharacter.org – don’t worry, studies have found that you’re more productive for a while just from discovering you strengths. Research has also found that playing to your strengths boosts your confidence, energy and engagement in your work enabling your brain to perform at its best.
2. Connect with others – Recent studies have found that engaging with people around you offers the best guarantee of lowering your stress levels and improving your concentration and focus. When we create genuine connections with others, it helps our brains release the pleasure inducing hormone oxytocin into the bloodstream, making us feel better simply by interacting with those around us. Make time for that quick cup of coffee with a friend or acquaintance, or even just a few minutes chatting and catching up with someone. See these small investments of your time as the secret to boosting your performance in the long term.
3. Know what matters – Don’t rely on willpower and self-discipline to pull you through – instead, stay connected to why completing the tasks in front of you really matters. Researchers have found that the number one predictor of meaningful work is when we understand how what we’re doing has a positive impact on others. Try replacing your “to-do” list with a “tah-dah” list, noting for yourself why these small actions matter. Using a “tah-dah” list will help you boost the sense of purpose you find in completing the tasks you set for yourself.
4. Cultivate your grit – Your brain makes sense of the world by creating stories about why things are happening and what will happen next and these stories shape the way you think, feel and act.  Unfortunately your brain has a tendency to focus on the worst outcomes – like not having enough time to get everything done – rather than the best possibilities – like everything being completed exactly when it needs to be.  Each night as you head home tune into the stories you’re telling about the day you’ve had and then think about what tomorrow holds.  If they’re robbing you of your sense of hope, optimism and resilience, challenge them by looking for equally believable alternatives that serve you better. Ask yourself “Is this story true? Is it the only explanation for what’s unfolding?” Then invest in the stories that give you the grit to accomplish what matters to you most.
5. Keep moving – While sitting at your desk, not moving, and ploughing through all you have to get done may feel like you’re being disciplined, the truth is that the longer you stay seated the less productive you become. This is because after 20 minutes of sitting, the blood is moving away from your brain and into your bottom – not where most of us do our best thinking!  For this reason researchers recommend that we move for two minutes every 20 minutes, it can be as simple as walking to the photocopier, refilling your glass of water, or standing up and having a stretch. Doing this every 20 minutes will improve your creativity and productivity, helping you make the most of your day.