Workflow Hacks To Get Your Most Important Tasks Done Faster

These days it isn’t “so much to do, so little time”, it’s “too much to do, no time”. Use these techniques to improve your productivity and make sure you stay on track and don’t miss important tasks.

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Only Check Email At Specific Times


If you fall into the trap of constantly monitoring email and trying to reply instantly, you’ll soon find you’re doing nothing else — and you’ll develop a feeling of dread every time you see a notification for more mail. For a really strict approach, set time in your calendar twice a day for email, and ignore it otherwise. If your job genuinely doesn’t allow that, try setting a minimum time after sending email before you can check it again, even if that’s just 15 minutes.

Make sure you’ve learned to use your preferred email platform efficiently: finding out what the keyboard shortcuts are can make you work much faster. For more ideas, check out our top 10 ways to deal with email overload. Email picture from Shutterstock


Adopt A To-Do List


If you don’t have some form of to-do list, you’ll lose track of important tasks — and you’ll also lose the satisfaction of crossing things off and feeling that you’re making progress. Keeping a list on your smartphone ensures you can access it anywhere, and there are plenty of great apps to handle the task. But it truly doesn’t matter if you keep an old-fashioned list in a notebook — the important thing is to have a process, not what that process is.


Don’t Become A Victim Of Habit


There’s no single right way to get through your tasks — what works for others may not work for you, so don’t be bossed into changing your approach just because someone tells you their method is better. With that said, if you’re feeling stressed by too many tasks, it could be time to re-examine your habits and adopt a fresh approach.

Before you try to change, identify the approach you already use, and then consider ways to tweak it. For instance, if you leave tasks you hate until the end of the day, chances are you’ll keep ignoring them. Consider slotting them into a specific calendar slot early in the week, so you can clear them and forget about them. Nuns picture from Shutterstock


Learn To Type Properly


If you’re working in front of a computer, you’ll achieve far more if you can type properly. Ten fingers work a lot better than two! Consider typing classes to develop proper technique. If you find yourself typing the same phrases all the time, investigate use text expansion for those oft-typed phrases and snippets. And don’t be restricted by a crappy notebook keyboard: investing in a a new keyboard can also make a difference. Typing picture from Shutterstock


Don’t Talk Yourself Into Feeling Busier Than You Are


Almost the worst thing you can do when you’re feeling busy is to focus on how busy you are. Chances are you may not be as busy as you think, but constantly telling yourself you are puts you in a negative frame of mind right from the get-go. So stop doing that and escape the cult of busy. Stress picture from Shutterstock

Main running picture from Shutterstock


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