If you ever find yourself starting each day planning for so much to be done but often find yourself procrastinating instead, it’s high time to create a strategy on how to be more productive.

When it comes to work, ensuring that you accomplish your set goals requires effort.

Prioritise tasks

If you want to accomplish your plans for the day, its best to focus on the important or urgent tasks you have at hand. This is where your focus should be- identify them and understand that if you have for example five tasks for the day, prioritise finishing the first two or three of those most important tasks. These will set pace for the other day’s undertakings.

Learn to say ‘no’

One of the hardest tasks is declining a request especially when you know this person really needs your assistance. It is recommended however, that if you want to attain more success in your daily endeavours, limiting the tasks you commit to is necessary. When you are the type of workmate who is always there when anyone needs you, you are bound to focus on everyone’s business but yours. This will of course affect your productivity at the end of the day. What is required in this case, is to accept the tasks you can take on and politely decline those you can’t.

Stay focused

This might mean limiting your time on social media, checking your phone every now and then or even making small talk with colleagues. Even though you can’t do away with everything, you need to make effort in getting rid of any of these distractions. Wrestle with any diversions to maintain your attention span; this might mean locking social media apps for a certain time frame, choosing a specific time to send and respond to emails, this will help you focus and hence get more done in less time.

Make a to-do list

While some argue that to-do lists tend to put one under unnecessary pressure, others commend them for actually pushing them to attain their set goals. Having your daily tasks outlined on paper gives you a clear vision on what it is you need to do. This in turn gives you the motivation to accomplish everything you set out to do. Experts indicate that having a written plan of action can increase productivity. How you rank your tasks can be based on order of importance.