Do you sometimes find yourself constantly being “busy” at work while simultaneously struggling to achieve as much as you set out to? Unfortunately, all too many of us can relate to this sensation.
A side effect of settling into a familiar routine at work is that it sometimes causes your productivity and performance to slide because you unconsciously begin to conduct your duties in a muscle-memory-like fashion without active thought. So whether you’re struggling at work due to unconscious behavior, focusing on too many projects at once, or even being your own source of procrastination, the result is the same; your work performance suffers.
Wanting to achieve excellence in your professional life is an understandable desire and possible with the proper tools at your disposal. However, if you find yourself stuck in a professional rut, bouncing between projects, or even simply going through the motions, now may be the time for a little mental shake-up, starting with some tried and tested improvement tips.
“The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It’s as simple as that. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today.” – Nolan Bushnell.
The Pathway to Performance Excellence
If you are ready to start improving your work performance, these are a few healthy habits that you can implement at any time.
Set Clear Milestones
One of our consistent human faults is that we default to massive goals while overlooking the 100 smaller milestones it will take to get there – invariably setting ourselves up for failure. It’s admirable to be ambitious when creating goals, but we must remember to break them down into smaller goals, then break those down even further into a manageable to-do list. Those 100 milestones will pass by quicker than you think.
Plan & Prioritize
Having a clear and focused game plan is a simple and effective way to manage your time, and so is understanding the difference between urgent and important – plan accordingly. Seeing your daily tasks written out in a planner will prevent you from wasting mental energy trying to keep track of everything. An organized mind is a productive mind.
Plan Your Meetings Well
We are social beings, and it can be easy for a meeting to be side-tracked by a question or off-topic comment. Instead, staying focused on the agenda and ensuring that all necessary points are covered quickly makes us more effective.
Communicate Better
Whether it is your team members, clients, or your boss, effective communication means that you will always have a clear idea of your vital tasks on any given day and can thus plan your day accordingly.
Don’t Lose Focus
Workplace interruptions come in all sorts of packages, from chatty colleagues to personal procrastination habits. Unfortunately, every interruption leads to wasted attention, a disruption to your workflow, and time wasted getting back into the right mindset.
Acknowledge Your Strengths and Weaknesses
Knowing what you are good at makes it easier to go from great to excellent. More importantly, identifying your weaknesses is where real growth takes place. Finally, don’t be afraid to speak to your boss and ask for feedback on areas they feel you could improve. Inviting criticism is not an easy conversation to initiate, but acknowledgment is the first step to improvement.
Finish What You Start
If you constantly stop halfway to start something else, try to make it a habit to work on something from start to finish and then celebrate your success. We are conditioned to enjoy praise, and by rewarding ourselves for completing a task, we can use our existing mental programming to our benefit.
Ask for Help
Too often, we struggle in silence and solitude, which ultimately makes us despondent as we “fail” to improve. Much as you would see a doctor to overcome a sickness, many people rely on Life Coaching or the expertise of a trained business coach to help them unlock their potential.
At Evolucentric, our experienced Business and Life Coaches will support, empower, mentor, and train you along the path of professional and personal growth. They will work with you through online or in-person sessions to identify problem areas, help you overcome unhealthy patterns, build the skills required to achieve extraordinary professional achievement, and bring out the best version of yourself. The time for excellence is now!
Contact Evolucentric to schedule your Complimentary Coaching Call Now