Have you ever wondered what productivity really is?

Is it just a sense of accomplishment when you believe you've accomplished a lot? Or does that mean you're able to get things done quickly without any hindrances? Or you might define it as working hard and getting results?

Productivity isn't "always doing the most you can". We don't even think of productivity as the way to get the most out of each day. Conversely, we consider productive people and teams to be those who spend less time wasting time on incidental tasks (such as attending status meetings with no clear purpose, searching for documents, or following reminders) and spend more time using for work that is important to the organization.

The most productive teams spend less time on low-impact tasks so they have more time to do real work instead of working longer hours.

Increasing productivity without increasing your workload may sound like fantasy, but that's exactly what we're here to help you do. Find out how a work management tool like Mojidoc can help you increase productivity in the workplace and minimize side hustle and bustle.

What is productivity?

First, everyone seems to have their own definition of productivity. For many people, emotions play an important role in their perception. Merriam-Webster defines productivity as "the result, efficiency, or profit produced." Unfortunately, this is not enough as a functional business definition, so the question remains, what is productivity and how do we know if we have achieved it?

The most productive teams spend less time on low-impact tasks so they have more time to do real work instead of working longer hours.

1. Simplify things around you

Problem: You have too much going on in your work environment, and it's distracting.
The solution: take back control of your surroundings in simple ways. Focus on what you can control and work from there.

Wherever you work, practice reducing external distractions so you can more easily focus on the task at hand. The best way to do this is to start small. For example, if you are constantly disturbed by noise, you should try noise-reducing headphones. If you don't have a comfortable task chair, try using a lumbar pillow that supports your lower back. By simplifying your surroundings and finding solutions to the distractions that occur frequently, you can find focus and flow instead of being constantly distracted by distractions.

Since disruption is expensive, we're focused on eradicating it from everywhere possible. When using Mojidoc, since everyone knows what is going on and what is their responsibility, no one needs to get up, so people can enter a state of flow and perform tasks in an undisturbed environment. "

2. Try Time Management Strategies

Problem: You have developed some bad habits of procrastination.
The solution: beat your own procrastination with proven time management techniques that actually work.

We all procrastinate, and procrastination itself is not a bad thing—the time you spend procrastinating may actually lead to more pleasurable feelings and better decisions. But if we're talking about increased productivity and increased high-impact work, I suggest planning your procrastination into a timebox so you don't spend a day hanging on social media.

Time management techniques are ways to think about upcoming work with the goal of developing good mindfulness, reducing procrastination, and increasing workplace productivity. Even just planning ahead how you're going to tackle work problems can help you stay focused. Some time management techniques are designed to help increase productivity, including:

Pomodoro technique:

To get started with the Pomodoro Technique, set a timer for 25 minutes and dive into your work. Once the 25 minutes are up, take a 5-minute break, ideally doing some physical activity like walking to the kitchen for a snack (but that's okay if you really feel like checking social media). Repeat this 25-minute work/5-minute break pattern four times. Then, after the fourth 25-minute work period, take a longer break of 20-30 minutes. As for why this technique is called pomodoro? The reason is that this technique originated in Italy, where the traditional kitchen timer is in the shape of a tomato, and the word pomodoro is the Italian word for tomato.

Plato's Law:

Plato's rule (also known as the 80/20 rule) is pretty simple: you spend 20% of your time doing 80% of your work. When applying Plato's Law to time management, you are encouraged to prioritize 80% of your work that only takes 20% of your time to complete. When you're done with tasks that can be done quickly, you'll feel more accomplished and dedicate your focus to the bulk of the day's work (20% of the work that takes 80% of the time).

GTD working method:

The GTD working method was invented by David Allen in early 2000. In this time management method, you write down all the work that needs to be done and then break it down into smaller pieces as needed. This way, in addition to not having to keep work in your head and trying to recall and prioritize tasks, you can view and act on all your upcoming work in one place. To take the GTD approach, make sure you have a system for organizing upcoming tasks, such as a task management tool.

Eat the frog first:

Eat that frog first Time management method is derived from Mark Twain's famous quote: "If your job is to eat frogs, you'd better eat them first thing in the morning." In Eat That Frog First, you start tackling the hardest tasks before you start procrastinating. Once the hardest work is done, everything after that will come in handy, like any food you eat after a frog.

3. Reduce idle work

Problem: Side issues drain your team's productivity.
Solution: Try using productivity tools to share a centralized source of truth with your team and reduce barriers to high-impact work.

Void workers are the culprit of incidents that come with the job. In the office, idle work mostly refers to unimportant and time-consuming tasks, unexpected duplication of work, or lengthy processes for obtaining information or approvals. Without specifying who is responsible for what at what moment, we have a lot of time wasted in unproductive activities.

To fight back fake work, a centralized source of truth must be established for all teams' work. When everyone can see the big picture and paint the picture for themselves, you can spend more time collaborating effectively and less time on the sidelines of work. As for how to build a centralized source of truth for your team? Try a work management tool like Mojidoc.

With work management tools, you can standardize and centralize team processes. Shape big concepts, stay away from false work. You don't have to be busy with urging approval, but you can grasp the review progress of managers or related people around you. Instead of emailing again and chasing team members to complete assignments, you can view progress directly in shared tools. By reducing lost time, you can free up time for productive, high-impact work.

Before using Mojidoc, I spent a lot of time organizing things like: managing requirements, gathering status updates or tracking details instead of developing strategy or design. Now I save a lot of time and review rounds because I already have everything I need in one place. "

4. Take advantage of peak productivity times

Problem: Your meetings are spread out throughout the day, so even when you have time to sit and work, you don't have uninterrupted moments of focus.
Solution: Group meetings into fixed time slots so you can focus on deep work during peak productivity times.

If you've ever answered a question like "Are you a morning person or a night owl?", you know that an individual's productivity can vary dramatically depending on the time of day. For most people, tackling tough tasks first in the morning is a joy, and it's easier to stay focused at work. There are also some people who prefer to wait until after lunch to deal with work matters. Knowing your most productive moments can help you plan your day in a more appropriate way.

Once you know when you are most productive, you can start practicing scheduling "focus moments" in your calendar based on your peak productivity times. That way, you can say goodbye to frequent, scattered meeting schedules and create the best calendar for your focus and productivity. You can do this manually by arranging a "moment to focus" section on your calendar, or use a calendar management tool such as Mojidoc to automate the task of scheduling your calendar. Either way, practicing optimizing your schedule can make your peak productivity times more efficient.

Another approach is to consider scheduling your workweek so that you have a full day without meetings at all. At Mojidoc, we abide by the principle of no meeting on Wednesday, so that everyone can focus on deep work that day. Deep work is a dedicated period of time where you can focus on your work without interruptions. In moments when you don’t need to worry about meetings or interruptions, you can spend more time doing deep, productive work.

5. Avoid multitasking

Problem: You're working on several things at once, but everything is delayed.
Solution: Get into a state of "flow" by focusing on one task at a time.

Fun fact: Humans are actually bad at multitasking. When you try to juggle two things at once, your brain slows down to process information for both tasks. Therefore, it is not only impossible to take care of both, but it is more likely to take care of one and lose the other in the end.

To avoid multitasking and increase productivity, focus on one task at a time. Make sure you have enough time for deep work to really get down to the task and get into a state of flow. When you are fully immersed in your work, you enter a state of flow, which is a work experience where your energy is energized, you are more engaged, and you enjoy it. A state of flow not only helps you get things done faster, it also stimulates creativity and engagement.

Tips for reducing multitasking and improving flow:

Reduce distractions: Turn your phone face down and disable social media or text notifications on your computer.
Before going deep into work, eat a snack, go to the toilet, and replenish water to avoid being distracted by physiological needs.
Listen to meditation music: if doing so helps you focus. Consider choosing a piece of music without lyrics, or try listening to a song you don't understand.
Combined with fun: if you start to get bored. If you're dealing with day-to-day or low-hanging fruit tasks, try adding some spice yourself by timing yourself, starting an internal competition, or finding recurring items at work to add to the fun.

For a while, it was standard practice for our team to simply respond to work needs. But without a clear set of processes, we will never be able to do our best work

6. Prioritize important tasks

Problem: You have a to-do list and aren't sure where to start.
Solution: Align your day-to-day work with team or company goals, and make yourself aware of the important tasks and the coherence between each task and company goals.

Understanding the coherence between your day-to-day work and company goals or team action plans is not only helpful, but actually a key ingredient to effective work productivity. When you clearly understand how the two are connected, you can prioritize work more efficiently and ensure that the highest-impact work is tackled first. Additionally, team members who understood how their work aligned with the company's plan of action were twice as likely to be motivated.

Conversely, if you don't have an easy way to clearly see the coherence between your day-to-day work and your team's and company's goals, you're not sure how to prioritize. The best way to get hold of this information is with work management software such as Mojidoc. By managing your team goals and action plans in the same place where day-to-day work is coordinated, teams can optimally prioritize, align, and get great work done. In fact, according to the Mojidoc Goals Report, 84% of employees who use collaborative work management software say they clearly understand the relationship between their individual work and company-wide goals, compared to those who do not use work management tools Only 43% of respondents said so.

7. Reduced notice

Problem: You're distracted by constant email, messenger, and project management tool notifications.
Solution: Try turning off notifications or using Do Not Disturb.

In order to lock in the work you do and perform well, you must reduce distractions. The biggest distraction culprits are notifications, whether they are productivity notifications like email or work messages, or non-work-related notifications like social media interactions and text messages.

The key to increasing productivity in the workspace is not to completely abandon the ego, but to seek tools that provide the ability to "turn off" or "do not disturb". That way, you can get into deep work without having to worry about sudden notifications interrupting your flow.

Do Not Disturb has a side benefit: letting team members know you're busy with something. Most tools that offer Do Not Disturb will remind team members who want to reach you that you are currently unavailable for notifications, giving them a better idea of when to expect a response from you. They'll know you haven't been notified, but will reply when they're done working. It's a great way to create healthy work (and work-life balance) habits.

As long as it's up front, we encourage teams to work when they are most productive. When it's time to let go, it's time to let go and turn off notifications. While one teammate wants to wait until the kids are asleep to post at night, the others don't have to dance with it

8. Integrate your business tools

Problem: You spend too much time switching contextual information between different business tools, including chat, email, spreadsheets, and more.
Solution: Manage your work with a centralized source of truth that integrates your business tool suite and avoids switching back and forth between multiple applications.

Did you know that each employee switches between an average of 10 tools per day? When your work is scattered and hard to find, valuable unproductive work time is spent switching between tools to find the information you need. If work context information is consolidated in one tool, the work itself is handled in a second tool, and communications related to that work are stored in a third place, simply accessing the information needed to complete the work becomes a drain on you. The scourge of workspace productivity.

Instead, look for a centralized source of truth that can integrate all business tools, eliminate the data silo effect, and ultimately increase workspace productivity. This is one of the tasks of a work management tool, which is to assist your team in coordinating and managing work. By bringing communication and coordination together in one place, you can grasp the context of work where it is actually done.

9. Automate manual tasks

Problem: You spend too much time sorting out tasks and manually splitting work.
Solution: Choose a tool that will help you automate routine tasks.

Matters incidental to work are also derived from manual operations, sorting out requests, sharing task content with stakeholders to improve visibility, and clearing up affairs. If you manage a team or project, you may have to spend much of your day dealing with manual tasks rather than focusing on high-impact productivity work.

To cut down on manual work, try tools that automate quick jobs. That way, you don't have to worry about tasks not arriving in the right place, and you don't have to do everything yourself. You don't need to spend five minutes here, 10 minutes there combing through tasks or cleaning up forms, Asana's rules feature does it for you. With the rule function, just select the trigger condition (for example: create a new task or change the task status) and action (for example: add task stakeholders to improve visibility, or change the due date). This is the easiest, most cost-effective productivity trick to get.

Now with the rules feature, we are able to save 2-6 steps per 40-50 client requests per sprint, as tasks are automatically added to other projects, pushed along each stage of the process. "

10. Say no

Question: Frankly, you just have too much on your hands right now.
Solution: Practice saying "no" to new projects, or develop the habit of being clear about priorities and capabilities when suggesting new plans of action.

Saying "no" to a new job may sound like a counterintuitive productivity secret at first glance. After all, isn’t the most productive person the one who does it all? Not so. Highly productive people are very aware of their priorities, which also means knowing which ones are not.

By saying “no” to tasks you don’t have time for, you have more time to tackle high-impact tasks related to corporate initiatives or important goals and echo your project plans. At the end of the day, you don't have to "do it all," but find ways to focus on what is most valuable to you and your team.

To say no effectively, practice setting expectations with your team. There are several different ways to practice:

Integrate change control strategies. Change control is the practice of identifying, documenting, and authorizing changes to a job or project. Through the change control process, stakeholders can submit change requests, such as changing project scope or updating deliverables. The change is then reviewed by you and other project stakeholders. If approved, work can begin, but at this point you should be clear about the relative priorities and impact of the changes.

Try using a work pick-up watch. If you often receive work requests through various channels, you may wish to standardize and simplify these requests through forms. Job takeover watches allow you to standardize the details that stakeholders provide when requesting new jobs, such as: relative priority, ideal deadlines, and more.

Prioritize early and often. Even if you don't say "no," make sure team members and stakeholders understand the relative priorities of what you're working on. This way, you can ensure that stakeholders and team members approve of your work.

Try saying "not now". If saying "no" doesn't feel right, you can also try rescheduling the task to a future date. Put tasks on your rainy day to-do list, but don't let productivity stall for things you don't have time for.

11. Set yourself up for success

Problem: You spend precious minutes each morning thinking about what to focus on that day.
Solution: Stream upcoming work before sign-off, so you can start working clean the next morning.

We all know the feeling of being bombarded with letters as soon as we log into the mailbox at work in the morning. All of a sudden, your carefully organized to-do list is out of whack, and you've been busy all morning sorting and answering emails. A cluttered workspace can drain the mind, prevent deep work and enhance productivity, and provide constant distraction.

To avoid mornings like these, set yourself up for success the night before. Take five minutes before you leave work to review your to-do list for the next day. Knowing what's on hand is the best way to start a productive day.

12. Improve team clarity

Problem: You and your team spend valuable time chasing documents and waiting for approvals.
Solution: Share a centralized source of truth so you can work, review and find contextual information in one place.

By focusing on team clarity and project visibility, you can ultimately reduce overhead and increase productivity. Today, there are so many jobs that are siloing and unconnected. Any time we spend looking for, asking for, or scouting for work is unproductive time, which means you have to make up for high-impact work elsewhere. But to improve your personal work-life balance while improving teamwork, you'll need ways to collaborate more effectively.

Best practice is to use a work management tool. Work management tools are methods of accessing and directing an organization's work processes, designed to provide the clarity teams need to accelerate their goals. These tools help you coordinate people and work, ensuring everyone has the information they need to do their most important work in the most productive way.

If you're ready to start work management, try Mojidoc. Mojidoc is a set of work management tools designed to maximize visibility and minimize work incidentals, allowing you to focus on high-impact productivity work.

Improve productivityTeamwork achieves high efficiency

The most productive teams share clarity and visibility. In this way, you are not fighting alone, but through collaboration and connection, you can deliver the best work performance in the shortest time. The most productive teams know how to cut back on the side hustle, the non-productive tasks that get in the way of high-impact work.

If you're ready to enhance your workspace productivity and get your most important tasks done, try Mojidoc , a suite of work management tools designed to help teams collaborate effortlessly.

12 Tips to Increase Workplace Productivity