Working but without being effective would be of no purpose. It becomes mandatory that you do an effective and productive work to attain success. Some of the ways by which you can be more effective and productive in work is by following the steps and working accordingly

Measure your results, not your time.

When it comes to productivity we often focus on how long something takes to complete; as opposed to what we actually accomplished in a day. For example, you just spent four hours writing a 1,000-word blog post. You may be be a bit bummed since that took a nice chunk out of your day.

In fact people found “that placing importance on hours and physical presence over action and results leads to a culture of inefficiency (and anxiety).”

“The pressure of being required to sit at your desk until a certain time creates a factory-like culture that ignores a few basic laws of idea generation and human nature: (1) When the brain is tired, it doesn’t work well, (2) Idea generation happens on its own terms, (3) When you feel forced to execute beyond your capacity, you begin to hate what you are doing.”

One way to assist you with measuring results instead of time is by generating a list of stuffs you did and will do. This is simply an ongoing log of everything you completed in a day. By keeping this list you’ll feel more motivated and focused since you can actually see what you accomplished.

Communicate more often

Communicate more often regardless if you’re employee, there will be times when you will have to work with others. As such, you should strengthen your communication and collaboration skills. When you do, you’ll eliminate unnecessary rework and wasted time from straightening out any misunderstandings and miscommunications.

Stick to a routine you created.

“We are creatures of habit, and so are our brains. When we establish routines, we can carry out tasks faster since we don’t have to ‘think’ about the task – or prepare for it – as much, and can work on autopilot,” says Hallie Crawford, a certified career coach, speaker, and author.

Thinking of Multitasking, Well, Stop!

Everyone believes that they are multitasker in their mind and they start to multitask ruining all the work simultaneously. In fact, humans just aren’t capable of doing multiple things at once.

“People can’t multitask very well, and when people say they can, they’re deluding themselves,” said neuroscientist Earl Miller. “The brain is very good at deluding itself.”Instead, we’re simply shifting our attention from one task to another very quickly.

“Switching from task to task, you think you’re actually paying attention to everything around you at the same time. But you’re actually not,” Miller said. “You’re not paying attention to one or two things simultaneously, but switching between them very rapidly.”In fact, researchers have found that they can actually see the brain struggling when multitasking.

So the next time you have the urge to multitask, stop. Take a breather and then go back to focus on the one thing that needs to get done right now. Once that’s done, then you can move on to something else.

Procrastinating? Convert it to your advantage

This may sound counterproductive. But, there’s actually a method to the madness here.  According to a great historian Cyril Northcote Parkinson, “If you wait until the last minute, it only takes a minute to do.

So if you start procrastinating, you might get well in doing the last minute tasks in a fast, convenient and easy way.

Stress Relieving

One of the the most effective stress-relief strategies are exercising or playing sports, reading, listening to music, spending time with friends or family, being in a calm state of mind, finding your inner peace, going outside for a walk, meditating or doing yoga, and spending time with a creative hobby.

Another effective stress management technique is to increase your control of a situation in advance. You can start by planning tomorrow the night before and sticking to your routine. This way you know what to expect in the morning. Being productive about what you are going to do the other day, this will increase your chance of being more decisive about your schedule.

Do what intrigues you

Not everyone is privileged enough to do what you love for a living. Even if you are chasing your dreams and following your passions, there will still be tasks you’re not fond of doing. In either case, focus more on the work that you actually enjoy doing. When you do, what you love doing then you’ll feel more fulfilled, inspired, challenged, and productive.