ask you two simple and seemingly trivial questions:
Are you giving the best of yourself?
Is it better to work harder or smarter?
Well, the answer is obvious, but how do you give your best and work smarter?
In this article, we discover together 7 tips that will help you work smarter and give the best of yourself.
It is normal for a person who wants to give the best of himself not to shrink from work but feel stimulated by it and see it as a challenge.
But a person can only reach his maximum potential if he knows how to organize well , only if he dedicates time to himself and is committed to working intelligently .
There are many surveys that have highlighted the different productivity between Italians and Germans.
We Italians, even if we work longer than the Germans (about 25% more), have a lower productivity of 23 points , if we consider the European average 100.
It means that it is a bit of our culture as Italians to privilege working a lot rather than working better and in a profitable way.
So what should we do to have greater productivity, i.e. to work less but smarter?
Let’s go through these seven simple tips that will surely help you to give the best of yourself.
- Drink a glass of water as soon as you get up
Because your body loses water while you sleep, you are dehydrated in the morning and good hydration is known to promote reasoning and improve mood.
So, drinking a glass of water when you wake up , before eating anything, will help you start the day on the right foot, with a better and more responsive mood .
- Define 3 main tasks for the day each day
Every morning, before starting any activity, define the three main tasks that you will have to finish during the day and set goals to achieve.
Once you have them set and defined, organize your day according to these three priorities and commit to completing the three tasks before the day is over.
- Get moving every day
The movement keeps you healthy and awake, also improves your energy and your mood, reducing stress .
Make a commitment to get some exercise every day, even before you start working.
You can do some jogging in the morning, or exercise at home or in the office, or simply park your car a little further away and walk, climb the stairs instead of taking the elevator.
When you come home after work, make a commitment to go for a walk.
- Express satisfaction and gratitude for what you have and for what you have done
Being satisfied and proud of your work, expressing gratitude for what you have and / or achieved, as well as strengthening self-confidence, increases the degree of happiness .
We recommend that you do this exercise in one of two ways.
You can write 3 things every day to be satisfied and grateful for . Write them in the evening before going to bed or in the morning after having breakfast, write them every day, even if they are the same as those of the previous days.
Or you can write a complete list of all the things you’ve done that you feel particularly proud and satisfied of, to be grateful for. Periodically update this list.
In both cases, reread every day, even several times a day, what you have written and especially in moments when you are under tension and stress. Reread and reflect on them for a few minutes, then express gratitude by saying THANK YOU aloud . Don’t be afraid to thank someone for something or thank someone, don’t be ashamed , do it whenever you have a reason, do it every night when you are in bed before falling asleep .
- Apply the 90/10 rule
When you are working on a project or doing a task, use the 90/10 method, i.e. work 90% of the time and leave the last 10% on a break.
In practice, in the last 10 minutes you can dedicate a little to yourself , for example you can move away from your desk and take a walk, you can go out for some air, or you can make a phone call, or go get a glass of water, or even meditate and reflect.
You can also use a timer that sounds after 50 minutes if it helps.
- Make a daily report of your work
Spend 10 minutes at the end of the day for reflection , reporting on what you have done.
For example, ask yourself what went well, analyze what you did well , ask yourself what you need or what you want to improve, ask yourself how you can be more effective in what you do .
Also ask yourself what degree of satisfaction you have given others with your work, thinking that anyone who uses or receives your work is to be considered a valuable customer.
- Make a list of good intentions
Twice a year, prepare a pattern divided into four parts (quadrants).
In the first quadrant write something you would like to stop doing.
In the second quadrant write one thing you would like to do less.
So in the other 2 quadrants write one thing you would like to start doing and one thing you would like to do more often.
Update this matrix twice a year and re- read it every day, best done as soon as you get up.
We are confident that if you apply these seven tips every day you will work smarter , work less and improve your productivity .
To better understand what we have written above, let’s see which of the two ways of working you would use, if you were one of the two employees who have to present a job at a meeting and are keen to make a good impression.
The former decided that to concentrate on the presentation it was best if he worked on it over the weekend, locking himself up at home and working on it for two full days.
Also, he went to bed late the night before the meeting because he double-checked and refined the final details of his presentation.
So the morning of the meeting he got up late, got dressed in a hurry and got ready as best he could, without even having a coffee, to arrive on time for the meeting.
So he came to the meeting hungry and tired, but also anxious and agitated and not at all sure of the work he did, because he didn’t even have time to think about it.
The second employee, on the other hand, decided to work on it during the previous week, had defined the objectives of the week, inserting this activity as one of the 3 things to be completed in the previous days.
So over the weekend he had the opportunity to relax and release the tension accumulated during the week and the night before the meeting he went to bed as usual.
The morning of the meeting he got up, drank a glass of water, did some exercises at home, then ate his usual breakfast and got ready.
Before leaving to go to the office he even managed to meditate for a few minutes and was able to express all his satisfaction for the good work he had managed to prepare.
So he arrived in the office without having to run and felt at ease, calm and ready to illustrate his project to others and to gather their satisfaction.
Now start applying all seven tips one at a time.
You can start on Monday by applying only the first tip.
So on Tuesday apply the first and second advice.
So on throughout the week.
By Sunday you will have applied all seven tips and you will have a surefire way to work less but smarter!
