5 Ways to Get More Done While Working Less

I’m Christina Hidek, organizing guru and decluttering coach of Streamline Living, and I’m here to share with you Five ways to Get More Done While Working Less.

I’m going to dispel a few myths and cause you to think a little bit differently about the way that you’re working.

The first tip I have is to not multitask. This is perhaps the greatest myth there is of all time. You can’t get more done when you multitask. In fact, as the complexity of your subject matter increases, it can take up to forty percent longer to get that one task done then if you had just focused on one thing at a time.

My second tip is to plan ahead. You need to have a daily and also weekly plan that supports your long-term goals. You can’t just be trying to live on the fly every day and making it up as you go. You’ll never get to where you want to be.

My third tip is to avoid distractions. Every time you get on social media, it takes you up to 23 minutes to get back on task. You have to think about if it’s really worth your time to get on to Pinterest or get on to Facebook, to catch up on the latest business news, or to see the cutest cat picture a friend just posted. Is that really worth it or do you need to stay focused on your task?

My fourth tip is to stop guessing how long certain tasks are going to take you. Most of the tasks that we do in business are repetitive, we do them again and again. So you should figure out how long it takes you to do each task and plan accordingly. So the next time you have five minutes, don’t try to squeeze a 15-minute task into that amount of time. It will set you off your game for the rest of the day and you’ll not be really happy with yourself.

My fifth and final tip is to identify your most productive time. I like to call these my ninja hours. It’s the time of the day when you can get through your To-Do list the fastest and really slay your list. If you try to work at times that you’re not in your optimal state, it’s going to take you way longer and your end result isn’t going to be as good as if you concentrated your hardest tasks to be completed during your ninja time.

So I hope you use these five tips to really help you work less and work smarter.