The need for self-improvement in a fast-evolving labor market can never be overstated. You have to know that your current job is the dream job for millions of other people; people who are probably more qualified than you are.
This means you can’t afford to stay quiet waiting for your employers or managers to push you into improving your work performance. You may be talented, skilled, productive, and good at your job. Here are 4 ways to improve your work performance that can help you become a better and more productive version of yourself.
Improve Your Time Management Skills
From your employer’s perspective, meeting deadlines is the first step towards guaranteeing customer satisfaction, increased business leads, and revenue growth. From your perspective as an employee, finishing assigned tasks within set timelines mean lesser last-minute fatigue, errors, and stress. Everybody wins!
To keep your bosses happy and your sanity intact, try these time management techniques:
- Set daily, weekly, and monthly goals, all with reasonably set timelines. Break each goal into simple, manageable chunks for easier execution.
- Get yourself task management tools, project management programs, and time management tools. There are many free online tools that can help you organize your daily assignments and track the progress of your long-term goals.
- Everyone has their “peak performance” hours/days. You know, the time in a day or a day in a week when you feel most energized to handle physically or mentally demanding assignments. Find that day/hour and get the most out of it.
- Manage communications. Not all phone calls and emails are worth your attention within a workday. Know which communications to entertain and which ones to put on hold until you are done with work.
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Leverage the Benefits of Using PDF’s for the Business
Converting invoices, customer records, and other important documents from word to PDF, whether with the intention of sending them via email or saving them for later, comes with many positives.
For starters, PDF maintains the original format of a document even when sent to other computers. Microsoft Word documents don’t always come out on the other end exactly how you formatted them, especially after they are printed out. That often leads to confusion and time wastage. Altered formatting can even make you look disorganized and unqualified.
Another benefit of sending PDF documents is that the format works perfectly on all the major operating systems, including iOS and Android. That makes collaboration easier especially for team members working from different remote locations.
Thirdly, you can convert big Word files into much smaller PDF documents and consequently save hard drive space. That gives you more space to work with, particularly when you are working on big projects but have limited storage resources.
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And lastly, you can always protect your PDF documents with a password to keep them safe from unwanted tampering.
Improve Your Work-Life Balance
Imbalance in life leads to dissatisfaction, chronic stress, broken families, and sometimes chronic health problems. Some people even get into drug and substance abuse out of work-life imbalance.
None of that is good for your work performance, so you should avoid working too hard to the point of neglecting your family and friends. You should never underestimate the impact of their love and warmth on your professional life.
Also, it helps when you adopt flexible work schedules that allow you to indulge in social activities, join wellness initiatives, and improve your personal life. Take annual leaves just to be out of the office- just to travel, reflect, re-strategize, and re-energize.
Organize your Workstation For Optimal Efficiency
Don’t let a disorganized workstation or office slow you down. Ensure that everything you need for optimal performance is within reach and everything that you don’t need is completely out of your way. For a start:
- Introduce a 2-tray system in your office/workstation. Every document that drops in your lap goes into the first tray. You then sort out those documents and those that need your attention go to the second tray. Get rid of all documents that don’t make it to the second tray, either by filing them away or by throwing them in the trash can.
- Invest in comfortable office furniture. You cannot perform optimally if your back hurts all the time, you struggle to reach the keyboard, or if you strain your eyes.
- Ensure that your office is well-lit.
- Create two zones in the office, one for computer-related tasks and the other one for non-computer assignments. This is because the two types of assignments require totally different tools, and one gets in the way of the other when set up on the same desk.
- Consider painting the workstation in your favorite colors. Decorate your space with motivational pictures or posters, photos of your loved ones, and favorite collectibles.
- Add drawers to your desk if they are missing. While at it, get some office drawer organizers which partition drawers into small compartments for storing business cards, flash drives, paperclips, pens, and other small items that, though important, contribute to visual clutter.
Conclusion
Work performance is tied to two things:
Your personal productivity system and how functional your office is. Combine the two and you will be well on your way to an unstoppable career progression path.