April 12, 2022
Today’s competitive market compels companies to accelerate their working process, laying the foundation of various myths about increasing productivity. Many of us follow these myths and adopt habits that halt efficiency rather than increase it.
Companies have started using employee productivity monitoring apps to understand work patterns and undo years of damage these myths have done. Most have already understood that real productivity is not about doing more but working more innovatively, focusing on what truly matters, and optimising time.
In this blog, we’ll debunk myths and highlight evidence-based approaches to increasing productivity and building sustainable and effective work habits for ultimate business success.
As we mentioned earlier, several misconceptions exist about attaining maximum productivity. These myths may stem from desires to increase output or fear of failure to meet deadlines. Here are a few most famous myths that you should be wary of.
The relationship between outputs and inputs defines productivity. At face value, the idea that if your employees put in more input, you will achieve more returns. Following this, many believe that making your employees work longer hours leads to higher outputs, but this mindset can backfire.
Research shows that human brains and bodies have limits, and pushing past them often results in diminishing returns. For example, if you continuously make your employee work 16 to 17 hours a day for two weeks without taking a day off, you will see a clear drop in energy and output. You will feel their attention waning, compromising the quality of their work.
A decline in quality means more mistakes and the need to redo tasks, ultimately consuming more time. The added time consumes more body and brain power, contributing to quick burnout. Ultimately, they become exhausted and irritated with the job and seek opportunities elsewhere.
While preparing schedules for employees, you need to understand that efficiency is not working for more hours but delivering quality work within a certain amount of time. Productive strategies suggest that one should divide their time with a balance between work and rest.
We’ve found that allowing employees to take small breaks and limiting their working hours can help maintain high focus and creativity, and they will give more input during these hours.
One of the most common myths you’ll come across is that multitasking increases productivity.
Although it feels like you will get more done, studies have shown that the human brain is not wired to handle multiple complex tasks simultaneously. They take more time to complete each task while multitasking than working on them separately.
When we multitask, we’re not doing two things at once. What we are doing, however, is switching our attention back and forth between tasks, which takes up more of your brain’s computational power.
Multitaskers lose IQ points while switching between tasks. So, where it feels like your employees are doing more, they are doing less and also losing quality.
Instead of giving your teams multiple tasks at once and asking them to multitask, consider techniques like time blocking or the Pomodoro technique. In these techniques, you advise them to allocate a specific time to each slot and focus on it without diversion.
Many people equate being constantly busy with being productive, which often reflects poor time management rather than effectiveness. Busyness can sometimes mean spending too much time on low-priority tasks rather than focusing on the ones that truly make a difference.
Being busy is a natural byproduct of the work environment, and there will always be tasks that take up more time than others. But being constantly busy might mean you never get anything done since you cannot dedicate any meaningful time to any one thing.
Busyness often has a domino effect, and hangups from previous unresolved items can delay future to-dos.
Let us elaborate with a quick example. You’ve scheduled a slot to brainstorm ideas for a new product—a high-priority task. However, you’re already 20 minutes late since you were busy sending out email updates for another low-priority task. The 20 minutes you lost in this meeting must come from the next thing in your schedule.
This mainly happens due to a lack of organisation and focus. Several productivity techniques can provide a systematic approach. One of the best time management techniques we’ve found to deal with this is the Eisenhower Matrix. This technique divides tasks into four categories: urgent and important, important but not urgent, urgent but not essential, and neither urgent nor essential.
Focusing on urgent and essential tasks can ensure meaningful progress toward your goals. This strategy helps reduce unnecessary busyness and enables you to work on what matters.
Stressing on various tasks at once or working extra hours won’t make you or your team productive. Real productivity is about focusing energy and time on high-impact tasks. It is about finding the right balance, allowing individuals to give 100% to the task, not simply filling their hours with activity.
Achieving efficiency requires organising and prioritising rather than giving more input. For effective results, one needs to understand the core principles that define productivity and the techniques that don’t burden your employees but offer a solution to generate maximum results.
Prioritising means knowing what task should be done first and deserves undivided attention. Productivity doesn’t come from juggling many tasks simultaneously but from dedicating focused time to the most important ones.
Numerous prioritising techniques exist to help you define a hierarchy of task completion. Some of these include:
These techniques allow you to decide what your employees should focus on and how to maintain it, leading to more extraordinary accomplishments than spreading equivalence across various projects.
Effective time management is the strongest pillar for consistently maintaining efficiency. You must understand that time management is not about cramming as many tasks as possible into the working day. It is about balancing work with adequate rest and reflection.
Scheduling breaks and downtime is as important as scheduling work hours to maintain long-term productivity.
Consistent progress over time yields better results than sporadic bursts of productivity. It is essential that when you make schedules and apply techniques in your organisation, you ensure that they are being followed religiously for continuous progress.
Many businesses use different software to ensure compliance and quantify productivity. Knowing the accurate stats allows you to revise and implement strategies more effectively.
Once you understand the core principles, you must apply strategies to prevent myths from entering your organisational structure.
Effective time management is the key to optimum productivity. There are various ways to improve time management skills but to monitor the progress, you need something that tracks the time you spend on tasks.
If you’re looking for a holistic approach to managing your organisation’s productivity, we recommend the TimeBee employee productivity monitoring app. With it, you can monitor how much time your team spends on each task and identify areas where they might be wasting time.
Plus, TimeBee offers features like automatic time tracking and productivity reports for insights into peak performance hours. You can also set project-specific budgets and deadlines, ensuring your team stays on track without feeling overwhelmed. The app even allows for screenshots and activity levels to give you a clearer picture of your team’s engagement.
Author Cal Newport introduced the concept of deep work, which emphasises the value of uninterrupted, focused work. In the organisational context, employees can make more significant progress in less time when they focus on a task without distractions. Individuals with small attention spans can use the technique to improve their focus and more effectively focus on complex or creative tasks.
In contrast to multitasking, single-tasking allows you to give your full attention to one task at a time. As mentioned, the human brain may take time to adjust to the new task, so if you keep switching, you will spend more time. Single-tasking improves the quality and speed of your work, as you’re less likely to make mistakes or have to backtrack to previous tasks.
The myths surrounding productivity, longer hours, multitasking, and constant busyness do more harm than good. They distract you from the defined primary goal and affect the structure of the work, resulting in diminishing returns.
Continuous work on a non-organisational structure can be demoralising for good resources. Employees often experience burnout, reduced efficiency, and lower-quality results.
By adopting evidence-based methods like focusing on high-priority tasks, practising deep work, and using technology to manage your time, you can boost your productivity sustainably and effectively. Real productivity isn’t about doing more; it is about doing what matters and doing it well.
