Quality and productivity play an extremely important role in the development and survival of the business. Do you want to increase the productivity of yourself, your employees, or your business? So, please refer to the tips of 21 ways to increase work productivity through our article  below! 

1. How to increase your work productivity

If you want to increase your business productivity, start improving your own  performance first.

1.1 You yourself must know how to make an effort

Making an effort to make yourself productive. Not only will this process help boost your company’s productivity, but it will also help you find the right methods for you to apply to your employees.

1.2 Work for about 90 minutes

Unlike machines that operate in a linear fashion, humans operate in cycles. In order to have a productive day and to function naturally you need to pay attention to the Ultradian cycles. 

Researchers have shown that: The human brain can focus on any task for a period of 90 – 120 minutes. After 90 minutes, performance  will start to decline, so take a break of about 20 minutes to restore energy and ensure high performance in the next working session. To maximize productivity, divide your workday into 4-5 90-minute sessions, each of which will complete a certain number of tasks. 

1.3 Set work deadlines and notify others

Set a deadline for yourself, to be motivated to work harder on open tasks or projects that don’t have a clear end date. Besides, should inform others about the deadline you set yourself. This will make you more accountable for meeting your deadlines.

1.4 Follow the 2 minute rule

For a job or task that only takes 2 minutes to complete, do it right away. This helps you get things done faster than going back to work later. In fact, the tasks that you procrastinate are not difficult to do. You’re usually able to do the job, you’re just avoiding it for some reason. So, the 2 minute rule will help you overcome procrastination, laziness and get to work with 2 principles:

• If the task takes you less than 2 minutes, do it now.

• To create a new habit, start working for 2 minutes. Although you can’t get everything done in 2 minutes, it only takes 2 minutes to get started.

 1.5 Rest more often

According to scientists, taking a short break will help maintain better concentration, preventing the decline of work efficiency. So you need to take a break from focusing on a task for 1-2 minutes, about 2-3 times an hour. This will help you focus better throughout the long working day.

Besides, do exercise at least once a day. This will also improve your productivity .

1.6 Better done than perfect

All work that needs to be done should be done as quickly as possible. Then take feedback to edit rather than waste time trying to make it perfect. You’ll find yourself able to complete projects much faster if you do them in four or five “drafts,” rather than trying to finish the project the first time. 

1.7 Take advantage of the free time while waiting

When you have free time, you can use it to reply to emails, review to-do lists, brainstorming, reread documents before a meeting, etc. For example, when you are sitting in a taxi to go to work or waiting in the airport lounge.

2. Tips to increase employee productivity

The quality and performance of employees play an extremely important role in the development and survival of the business. To achieve this goal, you can apply the following tips:

2.1 Apply the method to increase your own productivity for employees

When successfully applying methods to increase productivity for themselves, managers can choose appropriate ways and apply them to the enterprise’s human resources apparatus. As follows:

• There are short breaks during the workday: You can create activities during this time such as happy birthday, weekly group activity, weekly lunch, etc.

• Establish rules for working with email: If employees want immediate feedback, they need to call each other or go to each other’s offices. Because waiting for emails to be read immediately will make them have a habit of checking emails continuously, which leads to wasting time.

• Set deadlines: For any project, managers should also set deadlines for employees. This will motivate them to focus and complete the task in the best way.

• Granting employees access to the gym: Need to have a gym in the office or give employees a membership card at a nearby gym. This can increase their work performance .

2.2 Allow employees to work remotely, flexibly

Employees who are allowed to work remotely are more likely to stay engaged with the company and work longer hours. So allow your employees to work flexibly when and where they feel they work best.

However, this form will be appropriate if your company has a clear process, employees already know their tasks and goals to achieve. For startups that are in the process of building systems, processes, and organizational structures, working together is a better form.

2.3 Building a responsible work culture

When employees are given autonomy in their work and know they will receive feedback to improve, they will work more meticulously and responsibly. This also helps your employees have a clear direction on the development roadmap of the business, knowing the meaning of what they are doing. Thereby boosting employee productivity.

The suggestion for this is to give a worthy financial reward, commensurate with the effort that employees put in. In addition, this also increases employee engagement with the company, and at the same time improves business efficiency of the business.

2.4 Recognition of achievements, showing respect for employees

When employees feel that their efforts are recognized, they will be more motivated and will be more productive . Give praise during the meeting and reward if the employee has good performance. Also, if employees work overtime, acknowledge their efforts. 

2.5 Teamwork

Teamwork can improve work results. This method will make employees work more carefully and meticulously. Because they don’t want the whole team to be affected or inferior compared to the people in the group. In addition, teamwork will also prevent feelings of isolation when employees feel ignored and unimportant.

2.6 Diversify the type of work

Doing the same job over and over can bore your employees. Diversify the type of work, the way of working (eg independent work / teamwork) so that the work becomes more new, helping to improve the skills of the personnel. At the same time, it helps employees have a comprehensive view of the company when they are rotated to different positions.

2.7 Commitment to organizational process improvement

To improve productivity , leaders need to commit to change in organizational processes. The steps for this improvement are:

• Set a baseline: If you are a service provider, what is your total revenue per hour worked? What are the basic services you provide? If you are a manufacturing business, how long does it take to produce the product? What is the percentage of products that are defective at first production?…
• Identify areas for improvement: For example, you want to reduce the number of defective products by increasing the number of employees, or streamlining the production process. You want to increase the size of your business, starting from changing the departmental structure, etc. Identify specific areas that need improvement, in order to gradually achieve long-term goals. 
• Establish a change process and define success metrics: This process can take months or even years. You will need to test new processes to see if they are improving the metrics they set. 
• Training the management team: For a process to work, you will need to train your managers first, because they are the ones who directly manage the employees implementing it.

2.8 Invest in employee training programs

Capacity training of internal enterprises not only helps the quality of human resources become better, but also gives employees a feeling of wanting to “repay” for the company. Always pay attention to mid-level leaders, because they are the key people who lead the team to make the business vision a reality. Therefore, leadership training sessions for the management team will directly improve the company’s  work productivity .

3. Increase work productivity through technology, software

Technology and software will be one of the effective tools to effectively support work efficiency .

3.1 Investment in technology products

Using technology in business will increase efficiency and save time for businesses. If it takes a full-time staff to maintain the technology, or your employees are constantly experiencing problems, that technology product is not right for your business. Therefore, when choosing technology solutions, you should choose the solutions that take the least time and effort of personnel.

3.2 Equipping new employees with computers

Using an old computer can save money, but every second spent on booting up or waiting for loading, etc. will reduce staff productivity. Therefore, investing in a new computer both saves business time and shows employees that their leaders want to give them the best work tools. This helps employees work at peak productivity.

3.3 Using an online job tracking tool

Currently there are work tracking software like Flow, Producteev or Wework, which will allow employees to update project progress anywhere. This makes meetings shorter, less email back and forth, and increases work efficiency many times over.

3.4 Build a technology platform for employees to work from anywhere

Studies have shown that employees who are allowed to work remotely are more productive. You can boost employee productivity by allowing them to “take advantage of” to work while waiting. To do the above, employees need to be supported by technology products such as:

• Laptop: This is a minimal tool to help employees work remotely, but only if it is synchronized with the company’s computer and program.
• Smartphones and tablets: This tool will allow employees to check mail and edit documents while on the go.  
• Programs can sync between different devices: Everything on employees’ desktops needs to be available on their laptops, smartphones, and tablets. This creates a flexible, connected HR apparatus. If employees can only access the program at their desks, they will lose flexibility and find it difficult to work overtime.
• Collaborative technology platforms: for example, social networks Jive or Yammer, communication tools like Skype or Google Hangouts, help employees stay connected even when they do not meet in person.
• Cloud platform: Cloud-based work storage and collaboration makes it easier for everyone to work, your employees can access the system and work from anywhere.

3.5 Encourage employees to use reminder apps, To-do list

To-do list apps will allow you to prioritize tasks based on due dates or other metrics, to ensure projects are completed on time. You can refer to the task management software fTodolist. With the To-do list interface, it helps managers see to-do lists, not only of individuals but also of all employees in specific projects. 

3.6 Should choose to invest in specialized software

If you are looking for a solution to increase  business productivity , choose F-Todolost. This is specialized software for work management and team collaboration, focusing on solving problems to improve work performance for businesses, with the following advantages:

• No need to install, using online on the cloud platform, employees can access and work anywhere.
• There is no need for personnel to maintain the system, because Wework has a direct deployment support team in Vietnam
• Managers can monitor work progress in real time, reduce the effort of updating work status, save meeting time, increase work productivity by up to 200%.
• Reminder feature, set task priority, set due date, help minimize deadline delay.
• Management interface in the form of to-do list, Kanban and Gantt chart. Very flexible, suitable for the specific work of different teams. 

Productivity is the core competitive advantage in a volatile business environment. This will be the best time for you to learn about improving the productivity of your business. Hopefully, our review of 21 ways to increase productivity  will help you do this!