Productivity is a core competitive advantage in today’s volatile business environment, and it’s the best time to learn about improving productivity for your business.

If you are an employee, increasing productivity is an important factor to help you advance in your career. If you’re a leader, increasing business productivity can help improve business outcomes and help you stay ahead of the curve and forecast business ups and downs better than other businesses. Whoever you are, productivity is the top issue you need to take care of if you want to achieve your long-term goals at work and in life.

In the article below, we will suggest you 21 simple ways to improve productivity effectively, not only for yourself but also for your business.

Step 1: Increase your productivity

1. Start with yourself

If you want to increase your business performance, first start with your own workday. Trying to make yourself productive not only boosts company productivity, but it also helps you know which is the right approach for you to apply to your employees.

2. Set a deadline and tell people about it

For open tasks or projects that don’t have a clear end deadline, set yourself a deadline to be motivated to work harder. When you tell others about a self-imposed deadline, you’ll be more responsible for meeting the deadline.

3. Work for about 90 minutes

Humans are different from machines: Machines work linearly, while humans operate in cycles. To have a productive day and operate according to human nature, you need to pay attention to Ultradian cycles. 

Studies have shown that the human brain can focus on any task for about 90-120 minutes. After 90 minutes, productivity will start to decrease, we need a break of about 20 minutes to restore energy and ensure high performance in the next session. To optimize productivity, divide your workday into 4-5 90-minute sessions, each completing certain tasks.

For a productive day, work on an Ultradian cycle

4. Rest more often

Studies show that resting for short periods of time helps maintain better concentration and prevents a decline in work efficiency. Taking a break from focusing on one task for 1-2 minutes, about 2-3 times an hour, helps you focus better throughout the day.

Besides, exercise at least 1 time a day, whether it is just a few push-ups or exercise in place, they also help to be more productive.

5. Follow the 2-minute rule

If a task or task only takes 2 minutes to complete, do it immediately. You’ll spend less time on it, than going back to completing it later. This is a simple rule from David Irish’s book “Getting Things Done.” Most of the tasks that you procrastinate on aren’t hard to do, you can afford to do them, you’re just shying away from starting for some reason. The 2-minute rule helps you overcome procrastination, laziness, with 2 principles:

• If your work takes less than 2 minutes, do it now: There are many things that take less than 2 minutes to do, but because of your procrastination habits, your work keeps piling up. Get into the habit of doing small things right away, it only takes you less than 2 minutes.
• To create a new routine, start working for 2 minutes. You can not get everything done within 2 minutes, but to start – just 2 minutes.

6. Take advantage of empty periods while waiting

Answering emails, reviewing to-do lists, brainstorming, rereading documents before a meeting are tasks that can be taken advantage of when you take advantage of waiting time, such as when you sit in a taxi to work, or wait in the doctor’s waiting room.

7. Done better than perfect

All the work you do should be done as quickly as possible, then receive feedback for editing, rather than wasting time trying to make it perfect. You’ll find you can complete projects much faster if you do them in four or five “drafts” instead of trying to finish the project the first time.

Step 2: Increase employee productivity

8. Apply the productivity methods you use to yourself

Once you have successfully applied the methods to increase your productivity, you can choose the methods that are right for you and apply it to the HR apparatus.

• There are short breaks in the working day: you can create activities such as happy birthday, organize weekly group activities, have a weekly lunch together…
• Out rules for working with email. If employees want immediate feedback, they should call each other or go to each other’s offices. Expecting emails to be read immediately leads to the habit of constantly checking emails, which is a waste of time.
• Set deadlines. Whether it’s a long-term project or an open (indefinite) project, your employees will be more motivated to work if you set clear goals and deadlines for them to achieve along the way.
• Give employees access to the gym: Having a gym in the office or giving employees a membership card at a nearby gym, can increase their productivity.

9. Allow employees to work remotely and flexible hours

Where and when the work is done, is not as important as how long it takes to get it done. A Gallup study found that employees who are allowed to work remotely engage with the company and work for longer periods of time. Allow your employees to work flexibly at when and where they feel they work best.

Besides, remote working is also a model businesses are required to deploy in the context of risky markets such as Covid-19. If the business is not familiar with remote management before, it will be difficult to start setting up and seamlessly connecting this stage with the post-epidemic recovery phase.

10. Show appreciation and recognition of employees’ achievements

When employees feel recognized for their hard work, they are more motivated and more productive. Praise them in the meeting, reward them if they have good results. If your employees work overtime, give credit to them. If you fail to reward your employees’ hard work, they don’t work as hard as you would like.

11. Create a culture of responsible work

When employees are given autonomy at work and know that they will receive feedback to improve, they will work more meticulously. Giving employees responsibility also means giving employees a clear direction of the company’s development roadmap, how their work contributes to that growth. If employees understand what their job means, instead of just being a little screw in the giant machine, they will work harder.

Hint: Offering a well-deserved financial reward that corresponds to a clear goal is a great way to increase employee engagement with the company, while improving the business efficiency of the business.

12. Teamwork

Teamwork can improve work outcomes, because a job is viewed from many different angles. This method will make employees work more carefully, they do not want the whole team to be affected or they are inferior to those in the team. In addition, teamwork also prevents feelings of isolation when employees feel ignored and unimportant.