When times are tough, it’s tempting to fall back on bad habits. Long, hard hours calling candidates and clients, eating into your evenings and weekends, neglecting your personal life in the hope that spending more time will lead to better work. But it rarely, if ever, does.
Jason Friend and David Heinemeier Hansson in the book Rework: Change the Way You Work Forever suggest:
“Workaholics aren’t heroes. They don’t save the day; they use it up. The real hero is already home… because she figured out a faster way to get things done.”
It’s important to take a step back and focus on working smarter. The best and most successful recruiters are driven to excel but they do so efficiently. If you’re calm, collected, in control, and focussed, your clients and candidates will know. They’ll appreciate your level head, and they’ll be more confident in your abilities.
With this in mind, here are 20 of our top productivity hacks.
1. Take Breaks
Research suggests that for every 53 minutes of work, you should take a 17 minute break.
According to Derek Thompson, writing in The Atlantic: ‘…the truth about productivity… is that more hours doesn’t mean better work. Rather, like a runner starting to flag after a few miles, our ability to perform tasks has diminishing returns over time. We need breaks strategically served between our work sessions.’
2. Create a Space Where You Won’t Be Interrupted
“Got a sec?”
“Are you free?”
Interruptions at work harm productivity. According to Edward G. Brown, writing for The Fast Company: ‘You don’t just give up a minute. You sacrifice your energy, your enthusiasm, and work enjoyment.’
What’s the solution? Well, Brown suggests ‘Time Lock.’ Carve out a period of time for a specific task, and devote your undivided attention to completing it. Make sure co-workers know you’re busy and not ‘free to talk.’
3. Slow Down
The faster we work, the less effective we become. This leads to stress, in turn driving us to work faster and harder for longer periods of time. It’s a vicious cycle and as Thompson noted in The Atlantic, we experience ‘diminishing returns over time.’
An article on Medium, written by Kayla Minguez, states: ‘Stress is an acknowledged hazard for employees in the workplace, and over 43% of adults suffer negative health effects related to stress.’
So, slow down and be more focussed on achieving your goals. Working faster doesn’t mean working well. Figure out how to be motivated by something other than stress.
And that's just a start. Click on the image below to download your copy of our eBook on the best productivity hacks for recruiters.
