As targets and workloads increase each year, there’s a greater need to improve our efficiency in the workplace.

There are times when we find ourselves being really productive, but there are also times where we feel burned out. This is why it’s important to get into the habit of working smarter. But where do you start first? These are my top tips to improve efficiency in the workplace.

1. Prioritise

Although you may want to start the 100 things on your to do list at once, it also puts you a lot further away from finishing each and every one of them. Therefore prioritisation is key when it comes to your agenda and getting work in on time. A good place to start is mapping out your deadlines and identifying your ‘quick wins’ that can be finished in a short amount of time so you can slot those tasks in between your bigger tasks that take a bit longer. By seeing when your deadlines are, from there you can work backwards and see what needs to be prioritised and to ensure that you don’t miss any due dates.

2. Make sure you have the technology to stay mobile

This one is crucial. If the only place you can work from is at your desktop computer in your office, then it becomes hard to stay agile and efficient. What happens when there are train cancellations or strikes? So if you don’t already have one, getting a laptop and your VPN set up – so you can access your files remotely – will allow you to work from just about anywhere.

3. Utilise software

Technology has got to a point where even if you can’t get your VPN set up, there is an endless amount of cloud-based software that enables you to access your files through Wi-Fi.

Gone are the days where you carry a hard drive or USB around as you can now store files on Dropbox, Evernote and even iMeet when you run your interviews on a web or video conference.

4. Schedule in tasks you often forget about

There are always going to be tasks that you put on the backburner or forget to prioritise.

If you want to stay efficient and prevent yourself from leaving it unfinished, then scheduling in these tasks are a good way to make sure it gets done, particularly for those tasks that you’re not a big fan of.

5. Be smart about your meetings

If you’re not careful, you can end up with an endless amount of meetings and even meetings about meetings.

If you’re concerned about you or your participants running your meetings overtime and constantly being rescheduled, putting in a conference call instead of an in-person meeting and adding an agenda on your invite will keep everyone on track. There are times where people can’t all be in the same room at once, so running your meetings on a conference call means that you don’t have to reschedule it so many times that you give up on the meeting altogether.

So if you’re trying to improve your efficiency, a good place to start is mapping out your tasks and prioritising, but underpinned by that needs to be the technology to help you do the work from any location so you can work smarter!