7 Productivity Tips To Reduce Work-Related Stress

If you want to be more productive at work, I have some tips to help you.

These tips will help you get more done with less stress. After a while of doing these, you may even start loving your job. Or at least, hate it less.

These are the 7 habits:

1. Have an email strategy
2. Use Dual Monitors
3. Do priority work in the first 2 hours
4. Use Makers Time
5. Disable Notifications
6. Make smart work friends
7. Reduce multitasking

 1.  Have an Email Strategy

It’s estimated that emails and meetings alone account for 50% or more of how we our time at work, we need to do a better job at cutting down the time we spend on both. Something you can do about email is to have an email strategy. Studies show that people who are trained to have an email strategy, increase their work productivity.

Spending less time on email and maintaining an organized Inbox, can help you do that. Here is a list of email management tips that you can draw from to begin developing your own strategy.

• Have a Read now/Read later system.
• Get in the habit of reading and acting on messages at the same time.
• Add reminders to emails you will handle later.
• Unsubscribe from lists whose content you don’t read.
• Encourage and “train” your work colleagues to send you fewer emails.

2. Use Dual Monitors

Multiple studies show that using a second monitor makes it easier to get your work done. This inexpensive tool reduces window switching to increase your productivity and lower work stress. A laptop can be used as a second monitor as well, BTW.

3. Get Priority Work Done First

We tend to be more creative and have more willpower earlier in the day so before you even check email, tackle your important tasks. Even doing just one priority task before the afternoon, can make you feel productive for the rest of the day.

4. Set Aside Focused Work Time

Talk about intentional work! When you set aside time to do focused work, you’ll get more focused work done. Even if you’re not always productive during these blocks of time, they are important for establishing a routine of getting stuff done.

At Google, employees are encouraged to set aside  what’s called “Maker Time” and get this, other employees can’t schedule meetings over each other’s “Maker Time.” These blocks of time that are set aside for working on projects, coding, client outreach, and such, represent work that can languish so you never feel accomplished.

How much time should YOU set aside? It’s found that time blocks of at least 90 minutes and under 3 hours work well for most people however there is no rule against setting aside entire days to do focused work.

As productivity tips go, this is one of my favorites. It has helped to transform how I work and I think it will for you as well.

5. Disable Notifications

Turn off email alerts and desktop notifications and silence your phone during work. Our natural instinct is to respond as soon as a message pops up, but the reality is that most messages don’t require immediate attention. Plus, setting a pattern of instant response puts pressure on you to get back to your co-workers right away. This gives the impression that you’re not that busy. It also encourages last-minuters’ bad habit of getting things to you last minute. Because, you know, “Michelle does quick turnaround.”

6. Reduce Multitasking

Studies show that multitasking makes your brain less effective. Because it lacks the capacity to perform two tasks successfully simultaneously, you slow down your brain when you multitask. And the effect is cumulative over time. When you reduce multitasking and

7. Make Some Smart Work Friends

The reason mentors are so invaluable is that they help to shorten our learning curve and provide other support for our work life. If you don’t have a mentor, and even if you do have one, you should have smart friends at work. Google won’t have all the answers but some of your smart work friends might.

There is that colleague that knows everyone, another who is great with Excel, and yet another, who just has a good mind. These colleagues can help you strategize and get things accomplished faster. Of course, you will need to return the favor when you can.

With these and other productivity tips that you formulate and discover, you can take your time (and your life) back. You can be more productive at work and less stressed too. Now that’s what I call working smart.