In the working world, it’s important not to confuse being busy with being productive. While you may be grateful for the influx of work being thrust upon your company, you might not be approaching it as efficiently as you could be. Here are some useful tips on how you and your workforce can get more work done in less time.

Prioritise

While you may be inclined to deal with smaller, less important tasks first in an attempt to get them out of the way, you might actually find it more useful to tackle the tougher tasks as a priority. Handling the more difficult issues first will enable you to channel your attention and energy to solving the problems, meaning you’ll be able to get this done quickly and efficiently. Once the larger obstacles are out of the way, you’ll be left with time to complete any minor jobs you may have.

Organise

Maintaining a well organised office is another way to successfully increase the efficiency of both yourself and your employees. A messy, unclean and disorganised office can be problematic as members of staff are more likely to be distracted from the tasks at hand. To overcome this, you may want to provide spacious workstations featuring sizeable desks with in-built drawers so staff can keep their workspaces tidy and uncluttered. As office furniture experts Calibre point out, enabling your workers to carry out their duties in comfort ultimately means they’ll be more productive. If your employees have less reason to procrastinate, they’re bound to complete work in a more timely manner.

Delegate

If you have a to-do list that just keeps getting longer, you may want to think about distributing work. Utilising your employees to the full by delegating tasks to different members of staff is not only a great way to get more work done, but it will also give your personnel more variety in their day. Sharing the load requires teamwork so you may even boost morale in the office too.

Communicate

In the modern world of work, we’ve become so accustomed to contacting each other digitally that we sometimes forget about other methods of communication. While sending emails or instant messages are a quick and convenient way of passing across information, picking up the phone or visiting a colleague at their desk can sometimes be more efficient. So instead of idly waiting for replies to come through to inboxes, encourage your employees to use their initiative and seek out quick answers to simple questions. This tip could save you a lot of time.

Rest

Making sure your employees take regular breaks will keep them feeling focused and could result in work being completed faster. Whether it’s five or 20 minutes, make sure your staff incorporate regular rest intervals into their day. A short break will give your employees a chance to gather their thoughts before going back to work with a fresh perspective.

This is just a small selection of the many strategies you could put into action to help your business achieve more in a shorter amount of time.