From chaos to productivity in 5 steps

You know that? Those mornings when you walk to your car while calling to leave for work, trying to eat a cheese sandwich and realize in the car that your car key is still on the kitchen table? Often as humans we have too many things planned in too little time. As a result, you become less effective, forget things, get stressed and often fail to cross off your to-do list at the end of the day. That is why we have listed 5 handy steps to help you go from chaos to productivity!

1. Schedule 20% more time

One of the things that can help you plan and actually perform activities is taking extra time. If you are going to schedule time at the beginning of the day, week or month to carry out your activities in, schedule 20% extra space. This will ensure that you will be able to complete the activity in question according to your schedule and will make yourself more relaxed while performing it.

2. Work in blocks of the same activities

The more often you do a certain action, the easier it becomes. Therefore, when planning your activities, try to keep in mind what kind of activity it is. Therefore, plan activities that connect to each other one after the other. So no work situation in which you make a phone call, then speak to a colleague, then answer an email, then go into consultation and then read a report. Plan your phone calls together, answering several mails one after the other and the conversations with colleagues also in 1 block. This way you have the right focus and get into a good rhythm per activity.

3. Schedule three 'check' moments

To ensure that you do not deviate from your schedule during the day and to be able to make adjustments where necessary, it is smart to schedule 3 "check" moments in your day. To do this, ask yourself at the beginning, middle and end of the day if you are still going well. Look at the tasks you had planned and how far you are in completing them. This is because it can always happen that certain activities come up that you hadn't counted on beforehand. The 20% extra time can already help in this, but sometimes it is necessary to shift a bit during the day. If that is the case, ask yourself which of your planned tasks are the most important and which can be moved to a later time.

4. Do one thing at a time and finish that

Many people still multitask, even though it has a negative effect on your productivity. In fact, research has shown that multitasking causes you to be 25% less effective. So try to focus on 1 thing at a time and complete that activity. For example, do you need to review a report, write a paper, prepare for a meeting or presentation? Then, during the scheduled time, really focus on that task. Make sure you are distracted as little as possible by other factors, so for example, close your mail and put your phone on silent. If it is an activity you can complete, do so. This calms your mind and allows you to then start your next activity.

5. Write down what you were working on

Suppose you are in the middle of preparing for tomorrow's meeting but one of your colleagues has already called 3 times. Then there must be something important going on where they need your expertise. If you get interrupted in your planned activity, don't immediately see that as a problem. Then write down what you were working on so you can then pick up where you left off.

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