Can you become both lazier and more productive in the office? Choosing to read this post shows your desire to improve, the first step in becoming a productivity ninja.
Credits: How to be a Productivity Ninja, Graham Allcott
Use your head, don’t abuse your head!
Having control over stress is a vital part of being a productivity ninja. The zen-like calmness will help you to truly grasp the situation and resolve it with a level-headed decision.
Keeping healthy is a perfect way to lower stress. Not only will you look better (only a little bit) but keeping healthy, especially through aerobic exercises, helps increase endorphin levels in the brain. Making you happier throughout the day, improving awareness, increasing attention span, making work in the office more enjoyable.
Your mind is your strongest tool, so make sure it is working for you and not against you.
Office Agility
A productivity ninja needs to always be prepared, light on their feet ready for anything thrown their way. There are two important steps productivity ninjas take in their day-to-day routines to do this;
– Do not over commit.
In attempting to become a productivity ninja, a common mistake is beginning to say yes to every task. Time management is a vital component in improving efficiency. If you bite off more than you can chew, how are you going to cope when unexpected tasks inevitably come around! It is important to always keep some time open in your schedule, to ensure you’re always ready.
– Plan ahead
Grow into, don’t grow out of; with any organising system you use, think one step ahead and develop systems far in advance of the capacity you need. For example if your office has a lot of work on Excel spreadsheets coming up, taking the time to set up the spreadsheet before the work starts will improve productivity infinitely, once the work begins.
Preparedness
Our most valuable tool is the mind, it controls us. Reducing stress is very beneficial, but building confidence is just as important, preparation being the breeding ground. First attempts are always our worst, but that also means that our 100th attempt will be amazing, maybe the 200th attempt for some.
Just like Kobe Bryant said, “I’m always confident taking the game-winning shot because it’s no different from the 1000 shots I practised this morning.”
I have always found that preparedness produces confidence, and confidence produces success.