After a long week in the office or running your business, it can be difficult to motivate yourself on Friday – especially with the weekend right around the corner. But keep in mind that Fridays are 20 percent of your workweek, and that any tasks you don’t finish can make the following Monday unnecessarily stressful.
To learn how to be productive at work, and stay focused on Fridays, try a few of the office productivity tips below.
Eliminate distractions
If you work in front of a computer or own your own business, you know how easy it can be to get distracted. From checking Facebook a little too frequently to dealing with an unreliable supplier, there are an infinite number of things that can take you away from more important tasks, like managing your business bank account or calculating the week’s payroll.
To reduce distractions, try checking your email once every hour or two rather than opening each new email notification that pops up in the corner of your screen. If you own a business, inform your staff that you’ll be unavailable for a few blocks of time, and should only be interrupted in an emergency.
Cut down on distractions that break up your workflow and you’ll be surprised at how much you can accomplish in a few uninterrupted hours.
Schedule regular breaks
Burnout or mental exhaustion can be a serious impediment to office productivity, especially at the end of the week. Even if you’re on a tight deadline, powering through a task without regular breaks can actually make the quality of your work decline. To keep your mind fresh and focused, take short mental breaks at regular intervals. A short walk to the drinking fountain every 30 minutes or so not only gives your brain a chance to rest, but you also get a physical benefit from getting away from your desk throughout the day.
Plan ahead
It may not be realistic to schedule every hour of your workweek ahead of time – there will always be unexpected obligations – but you can put together a general framework for how you want the week to progress.
On Monday morning, set aside an hour or two and plan out your week as much as possible, taking into account the tasks you know about, and leaving some flexibility for ones you don’t. Creating this schedule will help balance your workload, so you’re not overworked at the end of the week.
Use Fridays for tasks with a known completion time
You probably know how long several of your weekly tasks will take to complete, while others are more open-ended. While outlining your schedule at the beginning of the week, it can be helpful to tackle more open-ended tasks earlier in the week, when you have more flexibility in your schedule, and reserve the end of the week for tasks with a clear completion time. For example, researching a local competitor could take two hours, or it could take 20.
On the other side, transferring funds to your business checking account only takes a few minutes online and can be a great way to wrap up the week. You can also use online banking to help you handle payroll, the next month’s budget, or employee credit cards. You can increase your productivity and effectiveness at work by tackling direct business tasks like competitor research early in the week, and save the financials for Friday.
Put these office productivity tips into practice
Use these productivity tips to make the most of your Fridays, and head into the weekend with a sense of accomplishment. Managing your time more efficiently will likely improve in the quality of your work, and may even reduce your stress-level.
Sponsored content was created and provided by RBS Citizens Financial Group.