Big leaps in productivity are rarer than most people realize. More often, the changes that matter are in the small, overlooked things: the outdated steps in a familiar routines, the emails you write from scratch, or the apps you never get around to cleaning up. We talk a lot about working smarter, but what exactly does that mean? One powerful way to get to the point of improvement is by making regular check-ups. Simple, focused reviews of your habits and processes that reveal where time and energy have been seeping away.
Why paying attention pays off
Think of your personal workflow as being like an assembly line. When one step is outdated or inefficient, everything behind it backs up and nothing ahead of it gets the optimal tools and materials to work with. Outdated, unclear steps can reduce an organization’s revenue; by contrast, when leaders invest in smoother processes, they see more productive employees and better products. The same principle applies on an individual level: if you’ve been taking meeting notes manually, or jumping between different to-do lists, you’re wasting attention and mental energy.
These, largely hidden, bottlenecks also contribute to stress. Have you ever ended the day exhausted but unsure that you even accomplished anything? That feeling can come from time being lost to busywork, rather than meaningful progress. When you start eliminating tiny inefficiencies, you not only reclaim time: you also regain some control over your day.
Finding the time leaks
Studies have shown that every single choice we make, no matter how small, uses mental resources and contributes to fatigue. Without systems, we make hundreds of unnecessary decisions, such as formatting a recurring email or deciding where to save a file. When it comes to making important decisions, we’re often already drained from all the smaller decisions we’ve made.
To locate the sources of these time-leaking decisions, it’s instructive to log your tasks for a week using a tool like RescueTime or even just a simple spreadsheet. At the end of the week, review how much time you spent on different elements of your job: email; meetings; research; admin; and actual deep work. Notice any patterns that emerge. Are you switching from one element to another every few minutes? Could you be batching similar or recurring tasks, or setting templates for some of them?
It might seem like the opposite of efficiency, but (for example) having meetings back-to-back is often a good way to reduce lost time; you don’t need to switch in and out of a meeting mindset. Equally, if you have set times to check email, you can then give your attention to messages at those times and then set your mind to deep work in between them.
Rethink your communications
Communication is an area where inefficiency can easily creep in. Long email threads, indecipherable subject lines and inappropriate use of messaging tools can lead to disorganisation and nobody being on the same page. Conduct the necessary check-ups on your communication habits.
- Email: Look at your sent folder from the past month. See which messages required clarifications or multiple follow-ups: in doing this, you may spot patterns like unclear instructions or missing context. Improving subject lines and using bullet points to highlight key actions can prevent time being lost to clarifying messages.
- Channels: Are you using too many platforms, or using the wrong ones at the wrong time? Consolidate your messaging by ensuring everyone knows which channel is best used for each type of message: Reserve chat apps for quick one-shot questions, and email for formal updates or deeper queries.
- Outbound messaging: If you send newsletters or client updates, examine metrics such as open rate and engagement. Perform an email marketing audit to assess subscriber lists and content quality. Reviewing who you are communicating with and how well your message is landing can strengthen your professional relationships.
Tune up your tools
We live in a world where there’s an app for everything. In many ways, it’s a brilliant encapsulation of how convenient we can make things, and in at least one very important way it’s a bit of a nightmare. We have so many tools for so many different purposes and it is inevitable that over time, some will become redundant or rarely be used. We assume we are keeping them around for a reason, but we need to ask ourselves some reality-checking questions: What problem does this app solve? Do I use it anymore? And, perhaps most relevant of all: does it overlap with another tool that does things better?
There are platforms such as Zapier and IFTTT that bridge gaps between apps, and allow you to automate repetitive steps; they can connect project management tools or automatically save sales to a spreadsheet. Smaller automations, such as sending attachments to cloud storage or adding calendar events from emails, can save time and mental fatigue – something which has cumulative benefits.
Also consider your physical environment. A cluttered desk or a chaotic filing system can slow you down because before you start “doing” you have to spend valuable minutes “looking”. Taking time at the start of the week to tidy your space and check your files can save much more time later in the week. Establish clear rules for naming files and creating sub-folders – and don’t save anything to your desktop unless you need to use it immediately. Good habits like these make it much easier to find what you need when you need it.
Ritualize continuous improvement
Checking up on what you are doing well is a cumulative process, and one which can and should become a habit. Reducing the number of active choices you make preserves mental energy and strengthens the quality of decisions. So it’s a good idea to automatically check up on a set day in the month: the first Friday or last Monday for example. Track how changes have worked – and when they haven’t. Importantly, don’t chase every new productivity craze: even if they do make an impact, you won’t really be able to tell which has worked where. And most importantly, appreciate the way that saving time becomes second nature – that’s how you know you’re getting it right.