The Quebec workforce is short of time and short of performance. That's what we're hearing everywhere. A number of alarming statistics highlight the fragile mental health of employees. In this context, how can we hope to squeeze the lemon even more? Why do we never seem to be able to reduce our to-do list? Everyone associates performance with effectiveness, when it's efficiency that should be worked on.
Performance is directly linked to efficiency.
Achieving a ton of tasks is not the objective. What if we tried to do more, with less effort? That's what I propose in this article.
Here are 4 strategies for boosting performance through efficiency:
1- Identify how it works.
2- Use your chronobiology.
3- Audit your time.
4- Eliminate distractions.
To optimise performance, you need to know yourself and be able to identify your patterns.
However, we are not machines but well-conditioned beings! We repeat our ways of doing things 95% of the time according to our internal reference system. This is our way of conserving our brain's energy so that we can get on with our daily lives. Metacognition is a tool for working on this ability to observe ourselves so that we can change our behaviour. By working on this ability to stand back, it is possible to deconstruct automatisms and then anchor new habits that are in line with the goals I want to achieve.
Chronobiology enables us to determine when to carry out our highly concentrated tasks.
Not all of us are morning people. Some people refuse to talk to their colleagues before 10:00 in the morning! The brain consumes 20% of global energy without stress factors. When we carry out tasks without considering our body's natural rhythm, we lose efficiency. High-concentration tasks should always be carried out when we feel our body is alert and our mind is sharp. Doing the opposite will make time elastic and result in a loss of performance. Conversely, doing tasks that are easy for us, when we have the least mental availability, helps us to get through the task more smoothly.
In any case, the brain does not like multi-tasking, and even less so when it comes to jumping from a highly concentrated task to an informational or relational one. We can use our circadian rhythm to gain efficiency in the way we organise our work and manage priorities. As I often like to say, let's not forget that we are not open-heart surgeons. Let's remember that planning and organising time are two ways of achieving greater performance.
Time is measured like spending money
Carrying out a quarterly time audit enables us to see how the workload is evolving so that we can make adjustments. The time audit consists of using a table to create time blocks based on the time used for each task.
Most managers underestimate by 100% the time it takes to complete a task. In simpler language, if I think it will take me 30 minutes to answer my emails, it will actually take me 60 minutes. I recommend that my clients follow the 20/80 principle. Organise blocks of time across the day so as to reserve 80% of the hours worked and retain 20% of free time. In this way, the 20% of daily contingencies will not disrupt the 80% planned.
Distractions are the enemy of performance.
This phone that now follows us everywhere is a real drag on performance. Too many disturbances, too many notifications, too much “dumb scrolling”, and so on. During work, most distractions should be eliminated. I recommend that you put your phone in “silent” mode with the face turned towards the desk. You won't be tempted by the devil and you'll improve your ability to concentrate.
Each disturbance has a recovery cost of around 23 minutes. This means that your brain returns to an optimal state of concentration after just 23 minutes. Imagine the potential gains! In a day where many distractions come and go, there's a lot of concentration and energy management to be gained by limiting disctractions.
More performance is possible. Perhaps it's time to rethink performance in ways other than technological optimisation. Stop being efficient and become an efficient person.
