Working Smarter, Not Harder

One of my favourite posts to read is how people handle their work days. I'm pretty sure all of us would like to work smarter instead of logging those extra hours and it's something I've been working pretty hard at improving over the past year. It's all trial and error in finding what works for you and how you personally work - but there are some fail-safe techniques that I really feel will help you get your day flowing a little easier. 

If you think of it, do it

Whatever job we have, whether we work from home or not, there are bound to be things that will randomly pop into our head and distract us. I'm terrible at receiving phone calls and then forgetting all about the task I was just working on. I've learnt that if a task is going to take me less than 5 minutes to complete then I'll do it immediately. If longer, then I write it on to my to-do list so I'm sure I won't forget it. It's something so obvious, but so helpful.

One task at a time
For so long I used to believe that doing more than one task at a time would help me get through my workload more efficiently. But it doesn't. Over the last few months I've come to really despise multi-tasking and will avoid doing it at all costs now. For now, it means that I'm not properly focusing on what I should be doing so the outcome isn't as good as it could be. It's hard to get into a habit of doing one thing at a time because it's so easy to take on multiple tasks at once, but once you do it makes things so much better and easier.

Keeping yourself company
I'm used to working with music in the background constantly playing (thank you BBC Radio 1 and Radio 2!). I sometimes find that working without background noise can be pretty lonely - it's a strange concept, but it sometimes works really well for me. Whilst I do love working to music when I need to wake myself up, sometimes the silence really allows me to focus on what I need to complete within my day.

Do you have any tips for working smarter and not harder?