Is Productivity Important? (7 Reasons Why You Should Aim to Improve It)

Productivity, for many reasons, is vital in our day-to-day lives. We should then aim to improve it to get more work done efficiently, improve overall time management, and produce excellence in a work setting.

We will discuss more reasons in today’s blog as we explore and appropriately define productivity and the two types of productivity. We will also observe whether productivity is essential for success.

Read on…

What is productivity?

Productivity is a simple measure of your focus and effort put into a task and how efficiently you accomplish it. You could be productive while mowing your lawn or completing a work project. To productively do a job, you need to factor in your effort, focus, and efficiency in the execution.

Another factor determining productivity often misconstrued is speed. When you work on all your tasks at a fast pace, that hardly means you are being productive. It means you are working fast but probably not as efficiently as you should. 

By maintaining a steady and standard speed on just a few tasks, you become more productive by completing each duty carefully and with ample time. The results from this will be exceptional.

There are two areas we will zero in on when it comes to productivity: personal productivity and productivity in your workplace.

Personal productivity

Personal productivity refers to getting work done daily and maintaining focus while being time conscious when doing your tasks. 

As mentioned above, keeping focus is crucial for productivity, but so is time. Time management helps you complete tasks on time.

Here’s a 2-step process according to Friday, a time management app that will help you monitor if you are productively executing your tasks:

Two-step process for measuring personal productivity

To accurately measure personal productivity, you need to:

Track your time

Tracking your time is a practice that has existed throughout history. Just like the school system has a schedule recording time for each class and the activities after class, you can also implement this time structure in your daily activities.

You can draft your schedule timelines the old-fashioned way with a notebook and pen or through digital means using time management applications.

Here is what you can track: the time you woke up and the time you went out and came back from your morning jog, how long it took to cook and pack lunch, or how many hours it took to do your chores.

Having these timelines helps give you an overview of how much time you spend on which activity, how to improve your time management skills and how to ensure productivity across the board.

Measure your outcome

You can calculate your productivity as a percentage. Divide the total time by time spent productively and multiply by 100.

10/24 × 100 = 42%

This measure will help you determine whether your productivity was average or above-average throughout your day. 

Another easy and practical way to determine whether you have been productive is by having a checklist that you can use to cross out tasks you completed successfully.

If you had 10 tasks to accomplish in a day and completed 5, it would mean you were averagely productive that day.

Note that you can list your tasks in order of importance to help you get the major parts of the job done.

Workplace productivity

Productivity in the workplace means setting priorities, making a concrete To-do list, and getting work done through proper allocation according to importance. 

On the other hand, you can find yourself being busy rather than productive in the workplace. So what’s the difference? 

Keeping busy means having many priorities all jumbled up without proper order. Busy people are often in a rush, keep all work assignments open, take up many work tasks at a time, and fail to manage their time well.

On the contrary, productive people achieve more by managing their time well and prioritizing important work projects even if they are few.

How to increase your productivity at work

Here are five productivity practices for a great work ethic:

Prep yourself

Ask yourself these questions, what is the most important thing I need to do right now? What can I do later? Make a mental list of things you need to prioritize for the day.

Note them down

Make a list by arranging your priorities in order of importance, by writing them down on your phone notes or any other list app.

Allocate time

Specify timelines for each assignment. You can decide that from 12-12.30 pm you will check emails. You can also set a reminder to ensure you are on track with every duty.

Reflect on the tasks

Before jumping straight to work, reflect on all the tasks, and take at least two minutes to review your calendar and to-do list. Figuring out all the requirements for each task will help you decide how to manage your time well. 

Game time

Begin with an optimistic attitude, associate well with your team/co-workers, and meet deadlines scoring a good performance and work ethic.

Is productivity essential for success?

It is a no-brainer that when you imagine yourself being productive, you associate it with a successful day in both your personal duties and work duties.

To flourish as a productive person or business, utilize your time and resources wisely. The measure of your success will come from the financial returns. 

You create an overall balance when striving for productivity. Struggles while balancing units such as time and resources will arise, but kicking into a productive strategy can help lessen any negative implications.

To successfully achieve personal productivity, you may need a working strategy to keep you balanced. We have a course on personal productivity that can help with that.

Why is it necessary to improve your productivity?

Here are 7 reasons why it is important to improve your productivity:

1. Produces quality over quantity

Productivity affirms that the output value is worth more than an output amount. When you put your time and effort into a project and make as many revisions and modifications as you should, the result sometimes will be smaller in number, but the value is worth it.

Think of famous writers or musicians who take years and years to compose a piece. The value is not in the number of written compositions but in that golden one that hits.

So when you improve your productivity, you are certainly on your way to success through your effort that produces value.

2. Prevents burnout

Spending hours and hours doing a task can be overwhelming and exhausting. Burnout is inevitable at this point, but when you continuously strive to be productive, you will realize that taking a break is more than okay. Create a schedule appropriate for you and add rest as a big part of it.

Maintaining a productive lifestyle and work-life balance will help you factor in rest days. When you are busy and lack productivity, you will find that you barely have time to rest and rejuvenate. Go for that vacation, take that nap, and just take whatever break you need that will help your productivity.

3. Better time management

Imagine getting your duties done for the day, then you suddenly check the time and are shocked to find that you spent a crazy amount of time on a task that shouldn’t have taken that long. 

Maybe you were tending to your crying child or busy answering some calls. The problem here is time management due to a lack of productivity. 

When you keep your productivity levels high and improve them, you realize that you are accomplishing your priorities despite the distractions, eventually helping you organize your time well. 

4. Better deadline management

Managing your deadlines is made simple through productivity. You have an outline of what you are to do and when it is due. 

High productivity levels will keep you accountable to your deadlines and help you maintain order.

5. Completion of shorter tasks quicker

Having your tasks listed out helps you identify each task by its:

• Difficulty
• Time required to complete it
• Resources needed to work on it

If you find a task easy enough and takes a short time to accomplish, get it over and done with and free up more time to work on tougher and longer ones.

Ultimately, you will find that you knocked off a good number of things on your to-do list and have that rewarding feeling of accomplishment. 

6. Improves efficiency 

Improving your productivity will, eventually, help you work better with teams and keep your priorities structured. You become more organized.

You might even find yourself often decluttering, which helps you clear your mind and keep your focus at its peak. A focused mind and a positive mindset aid your efficiency.

According to Dr. Dweck (Mind Analyst), developing a growth mindset expresses that believing in your abilities and developing them triggers effort.

7. Increases focus

Improving your productivity increases your focus, assisting you in getting quality work done on time. 

So then, how do you focus? Make sure where you work is a distraction-free area that also eliminates noise.

You can use noise-canceling earpieces to help you with that. Silence quiets the mind.

Conclusion

Productivity is a component that is essential in all aspects of our daily work, and being productive will help you a ton. Productivity is determined by the effort and focus you put into an activity that yields output.

We discussed two types of productivity which are personal productivity and workplace productivity. 

So, is productivity essential for success? 

Yes, it is. Productivity helps you wield your time and resources effectively, increasing your returns which paves the way for success.

Among the reasons why you need to improve your productivity, we mentioned that improved productivity

• Helps you produce quality over quantity.
• Prevents burnout
• Enhances time management 
• Makes deadline management easier 
• Improves efficiency and
• Increases focus.

On that note, you can improve your productivity today! Check out Iris Reading’s Personal Productivity Course. Click the link to get started.