Been struggling lately to get things done, stay focused and motivated? You’re not alone!
Maybe you’ve had more time during the week, without needing to travel to and from work? Plus more time on the weekend without the usual social catchups? But the extra time isn’t translating into a big pile of completed tasks.
For me, the saying “Work expands to fill the time available” comes to mind. I find it amazing just how much time can pass while I do things that yes, I need to, but could actually be done far more quickly or efficiently. And I’ve really easily slipped at times into starting work a bit later… then everything gets pushed back and I don’t have the same momentum, or productivity, or satisfaction!
You can probably come up with lots of contributing factors to not staying on task and getting things done – online shopping, the fridge being so close by, no separation between work and home etc, etc. At the same time, I’m betting you’ve had days when you’ve knocked heaps of things off your to-do list and felt great.
If you’re a people manager, you’re likely seeing the same thing happening with members of your team. It’s not great for them personally, you who has to manage them, or for your organisation overall.
So, the challenge is how to get high productivity and that great feeling of accomplishment happening, consistently…
A combination of organisation and accountability
Yep, it’s not really any magical formula, but neither is it necessarily easy.
Some suggestions we’ve helped our business coaching clients implement are to:
Write a task/to-do list, prioritise it and tick things off as you go. Review it at the end of the day and create your prioritised list for tomorrow. You can then dive straight into things in the morning.
Set up a buddy system with a friend / colleague and tell one another what you’re each going to get done and by when. Commit and follow up, including with prompts and encouragement.
Make sure every meeting results in agreed action points, with names and dates. Then follow up on progress and completion.
Schedule yourself time after meetings to make a start on, or diarise to do, your action points.
Break bigger projects down into smaller tasks, in order and with dates attached. It’s a great way to get yourself/your team going and making progress.
Set up reminders and alerts for yourself. These can work, but only if you commit to paying attention to them!
Do a physical (or virtual) walk through your practice/clinic and create a list of what needs attention. Then assign yourself / your team responsibility for getting them done. This is also a great one to do at home – room by room!
Get your team motivated
This topic is a good one for your next team meeting. Get everyone talking openly about what they’re experiencing, build some strategies together, assign buddies. Make agreements about checking in and help one another become accountable, productive and winning.
And don’t forget to check back in with the whole team, and share your wins and strategies on getting things done!
The team at Augmentum has expertise in the Medical & Allied Health fields. We provide a broad range of consultancy services to business owners and decision makers, including business coaching to build management and leadership capabilities. Other key areas in which assist are with strategy development and action planning, building effective foundations and teams, keeping your finger on the pulse, and driving growth and success. Get in touch to find out more, or check out our website www.augmentum.com.au
And you can Sign up if you’d like to receive our email updates, with other healthcare industry-specific articles, tips and news.
