7 Crucial Steps to Work Smarter Not Harder

Do you ever guzzle down coffee, work late hours and still never seem to feel caught up on your stack of work?

You might be a hard worker -- and that’s commendable-- but if you set aside just an hour or so to think about the way you work, chances are you can find some great ways increase your productivity and decrease your long-term stress.

Here are seven steps for working smarter versus harder:

1. Prioritize: The 2-Minute Rule

It’s become customary for every professional to sit at their desk to check their flood of emails first thing in the morning. Understandable — you never know when an urgent matter is sitting in your inbox.

To maximize efficiency, take “immediate action on any messages that require two minutes of your time or less,” time management expert David Allen told the Wall Street Journal. In other words, if it’s something you can do right now, do it and get it out of the way. Then, work on the more time-consuming projects by urgency.

Here’s a cool prioritization tool you should explore: Grid Analysis – it’s great to help you track your priorities, even when there are several factors to weigh.

2. Write Down Your Objective

Ask yourself: What’s the point of this? If you're unclear, then there’s nothing fueling your motivation, causing you to move more slowly.

For every task, right down the objective and put it somewhere near you. Read it over when you’re starting to feel burnt out. Feel free to confirm with your colleagues to ensure that your vision aligns with the team's vision.

3. Stop Multitasking

We know what you’re thinking: Doing two things at the same time should double productivity, right?

Guess again!

“A tremendous amount of evidence shows that the brain does better when it's performing tasks in sequence, rather than all at once,” Clifford Nass, Ph.D. and professor of communication at Stanford University told Women’s Health.

Doing two things at the same time is less efficient because our brains are simply incapable of doing multiple things at the same time effectively. It’s that simple.

4. Fight Perfectionism

As much as we’d all like things to go perfectly, in most cases, it can be a little self-destructive to worry too much about making things perfect. You might get so overwhelmed that you won't even start. And worst of all, worrying eats up your time. The best approach is to do your best to get it done well.

5. Create Soft Deadlines

The key to proper time management and overall organization is to set shorter deadlines than expected. This way, you leave no room for procrastination, but sufficient time for potential setbacks. It's a great strategy to always under-promise and over-deliver.

For your next project, try opening an account at Toggl, an extremely simple time tracking tool to help you record how long you've been working on a project. See if you can beat your own time the next time you're working on it!

6. Automate as Much as You Can

Our tech savvy world has not yet invented robot assistants – not for the general public, at least. It has, however, made it easy to cut down time on repetitive tasks. Whether it’s to conduct tough calculations through Excel or analyze social media traffic using the site bitly, which generates analytic reports, take a few minutes to search for automation options.

For instance, check out Life Hacker’s list of repetitive tasks that you should automate, such as making Google search results automatically come to you.

7. Remember to Take Breaks

Working without breaks is the fastest way to burnout. Allowing yourself  breaks throughout the day will increase your productivity simply by rejuvenating your mind and body. It’s a mental fresh-start, which will give you more energy to tackle the next thing on the agenda with clear eyes.