Productivity - The Struggle With It

As I begin this hub, I will start off by saying; this one is for me as well as hoping you can finding something in it for you. Productivity - The Struggle With It.

It seems lately I have had a very hard struggle with productivity, so I decided I would try to see why and put it in writing so that maybe, just maybe, someone else might find something beneficial.

The definition of productivity is a measure of the amount of output per unit of input. In plain English.. it is what we get in return for our time spent doing something. When we are struggling with trying to see what we need to do next, we are wasting time in being effective with our labor.

In any job or work it is important to know exactly what you are capable of. One cannot do their job well if they are not capable of doing the task required to do it well and be productive. It is not common this day and time to have a job in which we are not capable, but I have seen some occasions when one may have wanted a promotion to something they were not quite ready for. To show and receive the end results of productivity on any job we must be capable of performing the task at hand.

We all want the best Yield for our labor in whatever it is we are doing. If one cannot sell enough cars to get sufficient commission to pay their obligations, then they must think about doing something else.

It stands true for inner satisfaction as well. If you are working your butt off and are not happy in what you are doing, you may be wasting yourself. If you are not being productive or truly receiving the full satisfaction, the money you make doesn't matter.

Yield means that we are receiving something for what we are doing that is worth the labor and our efforts to get the job done. This goes back to the thought that not only are we looking for a harvest with income to reward us for our efforts, but we need satisfaction of the soul and mind.

It means that to produce the best of all worlds, we must love what we do to really do it well. There must be enthusiasm and joy for it to be quality productivity. It does not matter how well we do it if we do not enjoy it.

In other words, the payoff for our labor must be more than money. If we do not have something at the end of the day besides money, we are going to get in a rut and find ourselves unhappy and eventually unproductive.

Some individuals get into a career that has been more or less pushed on them. Their parent or someone else influenced their decisions to master a certain line of work.

This is actually when the parent needs to look within and see if their influence is actually what their children need. A career choice is a very important part of a person's life, and it can mean success or failure. It can also mean that a person just might not be fully happy with what is known as "satisfaction of the soul."

You can watch people who seem to be called within their profession and you can tell if they love what they do. They are individuals who put forth their highest self, work for the salary they get and work until the job is done.

They are happy doing what they do, and this makes them more productive.

Ways to Beef Up Your Productivity

Getting started....sometimes this is the hardest part of getting something done and being productive:

Organizing your office is of primary significance...get rid of junk papers that have been read, clean up your space and have a free path to the printer and fax...

Know when your most productive time of day is....morning, afternoon or evening.

Make your own workspace... a place to be quiet, alone without interruptions if you work at home...*if you work in the office - you usually have to make do with what is there- make the best of it if you can.

Distractions...(at home job) - should be minimal but that includes the phone, email, the kitty cats, the dog, the husband or wife with the little things they need to tell you...(in the office job) - have a time to answer emails unless you know it is of most importance. If you have a deadline- you will need to send the phone calls to the secretary.

Make a calendar for the day or week and plan out your work...it might be well to do this the night before... this is the hardest for me because I want to make it up as I go..but I have to get back to a plan...

Do the hardest part first...what you dread doing...

Ask yourself if you are being productive with your work...set your goals which should be reasonable and doable..not something un-attainable...but set goals and hold yourself accountable...and be motivated...

Know what is most important- you cannot do all things at once. Try doing the important things first- those things which must be done...

Study and learn more of what you think you are weakest in...

Focus on the results more than the number or abundance...this means to make sure your results are greater than your output...for instance:

• If you are killing yourself doing something and are not getting an end result or benefiting, then something is terribly wrong. You cannot outdo yourself and not be accomplishing something worthwhile. If you are placing emphasis on the right areas of what needs the most attention, then that is what will bring the results.

Learn to say no...you can't be everything to everybody and do what you must do to be productive... it is okay to help others who need it, but if it is too often...

Give yourself credit ....do not be too hard on yourself and criticize yourself for not accomplishing what "you" think you should... take breaks when necessary to clear your mind

When I was working in an environment where the amount of work, the abundance of it, was one of the keys to success. It was not the most important key, it was only one key.

It was working in a group auditing loans and gathering pertinent information from the file as to how the loan was originated. How it was processed, underwritten, and closed. It has to meet the specifications of the investors that the loans were sold to.

A lot of paperwork goes into originating a loan, getting it approved and closed. A lot of information must be reviewed. It is not something you can do in five minutes and do it well, but the time it takes is another key to the success of audits.

It was easy to get caught up in trying to audit a file and review 40 files a day. The bottom line was this, it did not matter if I needed to review 40 files a day. What mattered the most was that all of the information gathered was correct, the latest in the file and that it was accurate. If any discrepancies were found, they had to be noted.

So my productivity demanded accuracy and abundance, but the accuracy was the most important.

We can strive for numbers in trying to get something done. It can be reviewing loans, writing articles, selling cell phones or whatever the job may call for. However, the end results will also include the quality of work and the quality of life you have doing it.

It takes a lot of time to gain full confidence in our abilities to work more speedily and still do the job well. Focus is one important feature of doing something well. When individuals are fully focused on their project, they become more productive and get more done.

When accuracy is the main focus, it is important to yield more time, when necessary. One can learn where to cut corners and cut out what is not so important.

While doing your job well, you must also be good to yourself. Nothing is more important than a person's well being.