The UK’s productivity is lagging that of many other countries at a time when it really needs to be competitive. So how can we make every hour we work count? The key is to work smarter, not harder or longer.

Inefficiency is a root cause of low productivity and certainly the time we all spend on processing and answering emails has come in for a lot of blame when it comes to wasted time. But emails and other technologies are part of today’s corporate culture and we all need to develop ways of coping with them, individually and collectively.

What is more effective in decreasing inefficiency and increasing productivity is prioritizing, and this is something we can all do if we put our minds to it. And it is something we should be encouraging others to do also.

It is all too easy to look at our “to do” list and tell ourselves that the best approach is to tackle the easy items first so that we can free ourselves up for those challenging and difficult tasks which are what really matter. We have all been there and it is so easy to spend most of the day on the small stuff and then have to rush and quickly handle the big issues at the end of the day when we are tired and running out of time.

What you should be doing of course is tackling those high-priority, hard, gritty problems at the beginning of the day and if something less important ends up not getting done that day then it will probably not have such an impact on your overall productivity. So yes, compile your “to do” list but tackle it in order of priority and then stick to that order. It isn’t always easy, and it does take will-power – but it will pay dividends. The trick is to keep asking yourself: “Is there something else I should be doing that is more important??” if not then fine, go ahead and order those staples.

Contact Crescus at info@crescus.comfor a no-obligation discussion on ways we can help your productivity?