What a productive job. Productive work activity: how to increase your efficiency
Any real vocation can be compared to some extent with art. That is, in any real calling, growth is possible every day if the work is done honestly. And that is the meaning of art. The only higher art is the art of living, and vocation acquires its meaning as one of the aspects of this higher art.
In most professions, there is so much boring routine work that it is difficult to notice a significant increase in the activity of one day. Selling a few kilos of meat, making daily rounds of the sick, more of them who just think they are sick, preparing for a lawsuit, writing a sermon for a flock that won't listen and that demands a shorter sermon every week—it all seems like a monkey labor.
But it is this kind of work that is done with good mood and with bestowal, from day to day, fills the human spirit with the noblest elements of culture. What do we mean by the word "culture" - esoteric knowledge or some kind of decoration of life? Of course not. Its main elements are: fidelity to the task, a trained will that does not succumb to obstacles, unbending courage in difficult situations, calmness that persists against the backdrop of minor troubles in life, a vision of the ideal in the distant future. These basic elements of culture are planted in the spiritual beginning of a man or woman through a devoted attitude to the unproductive preparatory work day in and day out.
In addition, there is an almost universal optical illusion regarding work: each of us is fully aware of the inevitability of unproductive work in our calling and knows that it must be done. As for the work of other people, we see only the final product. Thus, we tend to exaggerate the situation with unproductive work in their profession and to envy the simpler and more happy, as it seems to us, the work of others. You are sitting in the auditorium, and some piano virtuoso plunges you into the abyss of sublime emotions. The evening of music comes to an end, there is a moment of reverent silence, and then thunderous applause is heard. You go home exclaiming, "What a genius!" Oh yeah, it's brilliant. Someone defined genius as the ability to do hard work. This concept includes many other things, but no talent will lead to anything without the ability to cope with hard work. And when you listen to the finished art of a genius, you do not think about how many days and nights he worked to master the technique of his art, and perceive his gift as the natural order of things.
What, in our opinion, is done easily, is worth a lot of investment and sacrifice, and constantly. When people work at a grueling intensity, drawing on the ever-increasing knowledge of life, they work with the greatest ease. This world is not a lottery where you take a ticket and either win or lose. This is a serious business where you will not achieve anything worthwhile without hard preparatory work for many days and nights. And what comes easily, goes easily. To have money, you must earn it, otherwise you will not know its value or how to spend it properly. To have knowledge, you must earn knowledge. Even a brilliant student who only teaches before exams and gets quite good marks, often loses in the slow race of life to an incompetent worker who has conscientiously walked along the difficult path all the time.
It is said that Euclid, the founder of the earliest of the sciences, geometry, was once called upon to teach the Egyptian king his new science. He began with definitions, axioms and theorems, and the king was indignant: “A pharaoh should learn like an ordinary slave?” Euclid, who knew well what had to be done in order to study science thoroughly and to the end, replied: "There is no royal road to the knowledge of geometry." We can make this statement more universal: there is no royal road to anything standing on earth, and perhaps in heaven too, except for one wide, open road where no payment is required, but diligent, consistent, even if unproductive but the necessary preparatory work. Benedict Spinoza concluded his philosophical work "Ethics" with the words: "But everything beautiful is as difficult as it is rare." And we may add that it is rare precisely because it is difficult.
Grigory Nokhrin, StaffCop Marketing Manager, shows on real examples how much the carelessness of subordinates costs the employer. And, of course, gives advice on how to fix the situation.
Chinese CCTV includes 170 million CCTV cameras. By 2020, the number will increase to 400 million. BBC correspondent in Beijing John Sudworth participated in a December public test of the system. At the 7th minute, the cameras found the Briton at the station.
The number of cameras in China is justified by the goal set by the police. Devices allow you to recognize and prevent a crime before the perpetrator commits it.
Machines know more about us than we know about ourselves. People accept the situation calmly or with anxiety, but life changes regardless of the attitude to events. Governments control citizens, companies control employees.
According to Habrahabr website statistics:
75% of managers keep confidential information on personal media.
60% of user activity on the Internet in working time not related to work.
37% of employees take work materials with them.
20% of printouts from an office printer are for personal use or go to the trash.
11% of employees copied customer databases after leaving.
What challenges does control take?
Problem
Employees of companies bear risks in three directions:
Information leaks.
Malicious activity.
unproductive activity
It is bad when employees do not work during working hours. It is worse if they are busy with personal affairs. Disaster when employees work for a competitor and steal corporate information. I will give an example from practice.
The company organizes annual industry events on a federal scale. Meetings, seminars, master classes are prepared a year before the event. Two managers work with information about the program of the days, renting premises, contracts with partners and manufacturers, attracting participants and delegates. One of the managers unexpectedly quits, copies the archive of documents and databases and goes to work for a competitor company. The new employer takes the experience and launches a replica event based on the stolen information a month ahead of the original. The first organizing company does not gather an audience and cancels meetings, because the partners agreed with a competitor earlier. As a result, losses amounted to 3 million rubles.
The example shows a particular and severe case of financial damage from the dismissal of an employee. Despite the severity of the consequences, the issue of the safety of corporate information is not the responsibility of the HR department.
The HR department will answer to management for regular household losses from unexpected layoffs of employees and unproductive activities.
In another case study, 20% of the sales staff at a manufacturing company quit in early December. Employees responded with collective harm to the change in the coefficients in the payroll formula. Sales manager reassigned overall plan, which was issued by the management, because they did not find a replacement for the employees. At the end of the month, the department did not meet the overall plan, and the managers did not meet the increased personal plan. The head and managers lost their New Year's bonuses, and morale fell.
The HR manager could find replacements for employees if he knew about the dismissal in advance.
The Sales Director works on side projects for other companies during business hours. A marketer writes coursework for students 7 out of 8 hours in the office. The project manager is remotely employed in a foreign company. At least 8 employees of the company search for vacancies on the Internet once a week. All this unproductive activity now really takes place in one company. Perhaps in yours?
Solution
To prevent financial losses from the activities of company employees, they implement Data Loss Protection (DLP) class systems. In the classical sense, the system controls only data leaks. The more complex the calls, the more difficult it is to control the leak channels. The algorithm for detecting disloyal employees “set up a control or blocking rule and receive an event notification” does not work effectively, because it generates false positives. False positives slow down business processes and the company loses money.
A new method for identifying disloyal employees is the collection and analysis of data not only about files, but also about user activity. Activity indicates information security incidents if it does not match the standard profile. According to Gartner classification, the solution class is called User and Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA).
UEBA solutions analyze user behavior through algorithms statistical analysis. Programs detect and warn about deviations in user behavior in advance.
I will talk about existing tools using the example of one of the leading vendors. The system investigates incidents within the organization, controls business processes and monitors employees' working hours. The system tools allow you to pre-determine an employee who has decided to quit or leak confidential information and start looking for a replacement.
Information leaks
Information is stored in files. Users interact with files using applications. To characterize an action with a file, the system administrator must know the circumstances. Important files are protected from copying, the administrator receives notifications on copying events.
Splash of copy events on October 31st. An employee uploaded internal documentation to an external drive
The "file operations" event trend shows the file operations of users and applications. You can find out who, where and when copied the file.
The "intercepted file" log contains shadow copies of files that were sent by e-mail, instant messengers, downloaded from a browser, or uploaded to cloud storage.
Features help the administrator investigate incidents and look for intruders.
Malicious activity
Harmful activities include collusion, fraud, informal leadership, smearing and sabotage. The analysis of several sources of information (exhaustive log) helps to assess employee loyalty. The system records video and sound, takes screenshots from the screens of working computers.
Correspondence, communication of employees and dissemination of information are controlled.
Laptop webcam shots
Pressed keys are stored in the system log. keylogger encrypted social networks.
Video recording of user screens is carried out continuously, at a time interval, or starts on an event. The system allows you to connect to the user's computer and monitor the actions online. The tools help the system administrator collect evidence for internal investigations.
Listening to surround sound recordings gives an idea of what employees are doing during working hours. The record will show who is working, who is chatting, and who is "leaking" information. The administrator correlates the sound with other events on the user's computer using Report Designer.
I note that the use of tracking tools occurs only with the consent of the employees, prescribed in the employment contract.
unproductive activity
The analytical system registers the activity of users during the day, the arrival and departure from work. Activity analysis shows the number of overtime and late arrivals. Online reporting charts identify employees who are performing outside of the norm.
Activity is divided into types of applications. Types and names of applications are sorted into a list by popularity. Statistics explain what employees do in the workplace.
Monthly statistics of Internet traffic in the company
To find out what exactly the user is looking for, the “search query” event type helps. The log contains requests that the user made in search engines.
By analogy with search queries, the user's Internet surfing is divided into productive and unproductive. The administrator gives an assessment of the history of visits using the type of events "visiting sites".
The data of search queries, visits to sites and running applications constitute an individual map of user activity. Periodic reconciliation of productivity indicators will allow the HR department to make a suggestion to the employee in a timely manner or to think about finding a replacement.
Conclusion
According to the Kaspersky Lab, medium and small businesses lose about 780,000 rubles from a serious information security incident. Big business loses 20,000,000 rubles. Companies are equally at risk of being harmed by the actions of employees.
Without special tools, risks are difficult to assess and prevent. The market offers industry-specific solutions for detecting and investigating malicious activity.
The company's management can refuse the services of disloyal employees in advance, and HR specialists can start looking for a new employee before the current one announces his dismissal.
Productive office work- effective work of an office worker, which allows rationally organizing a working day, avoiding time troubles and "blockages".
Relevance
We all would like to be productive, but not everyone is equally successful at it. The good news is that you just need to get the job done right. Do everything right - and you will not only be spared from time troubles, but also receive bonuses in the form of free time, not to mention highly appreciated your work by superiors and bonuses for a job well done and on time.
The main problems of working in the office
Out of the blue. No matter how thoughtfully you organize your work area, unplanned tasks and urgent assignments fall like snow on your head. Of course, this is annoying - you planned to do one job, but you have to urgently do something else. Nothing to do about. Twist-turn the schedule and make a new plan.
Distracted from all sides. Which of the office workers does not know irritation from external irritants in the face of colleagues? .. Regardless of your employment, they now and then look at the office door (or behind the partition) and ask for your advice or ask for something at the most inopportune time. Here's what can be done. First, say that you are very busy right now, so you yourself will come to a colleague, for example, in 30 minutes. Thus, you have half an hour to finish the work, or at least complete the logical piece. Second, you can refer to an urgent assignment you are doing and say, “I am currently doing Ms. Petrova's assignment. If you manage to negotiate with her, I will temporarily postpone her task, the completion of which she is waiting for, and take care of yours. Thus, you shift the burden of prioritization to your colleagues. If they manage to agree, you will move the task. If not, you will complete the tasks on a first-come, first-served basis.
Small Tasks. Sometimes there are so many small tasks that they seriously interfere with focusing on a large task. With little things, you can do the following.
First, no matter how they torment you, you still need to start with large meaningful tasks. Obviously, no matter how many little things you redo, a stone will not fall from your soul until you embark on a major project or task. Therefore, it is not worth delaying.
Secondly, you can plan and arrange small tasks between large ones during the day. For example, you spend 30-45 minutes doing a big task, then do small things as a break (for example, pick up an estimate in the accounting department, call a client, print a document, make an entry in a journal, consult with a colleague on some issue, etc.). This will add variety to your working day and serve as the very change in the type of activity that is so necessary for refreshing a boiling brain.
Thirdly, small things can simply be dumped at the end of the day, when there is still no strength to work on large, serious tasks. Moreover, if you have worked fruitfully during the day, you are provided with a sense of satisfaction, and small tasks will further enhance this pleasant feeling.
Boredom. It's no secret that office work is often frankly boring. To diversify it, do not plan the same activities for the day in a row. Make your working day more varied by alternating various kinds activities.
- Be sure to have breakfast and drink coffee or tea in the morning. By the way, a recent study organized in Singapore showed that black tea invigorates much more than coffee. So do not forget to "charge" with a cup.
- No matter how wonderful and humorous your colleagues are, leave communication with them for a break (including the one provided personally in your plan after completing a significant piece of work). It is unreasonable to spend morning hours, full of strength and vigor, washing the bones of the boss or discussing the wage system at a competitive enterprise. Deal with it later, and best of all in
The secrets of productive work are of interest to everyone who is aimed at success. Many people dream of becoming a productive person. Is it as simple as the books make it out to be? Quite. It is enough to find your productive work time, choose comfortable conditions for productive work and clearly understand what steps you need to take to become a productive person.
Productive work: what is it?
Productive work is the key to success in any business. We are talking about the competent organization of their work and obtaining the maximum result.
Productive work is work that:
- carried out with high quality;
- brings good results;
- gives pleasure;
- initiative is required;
- "does not force" to look at the clock.
It is important to clearly understand that the productivity of work is in no way related to the amount of time spent on work. To be as productive as possible, it doesn't matter how many hours you work. Sometimes in 2-3 hours you can do as much as they do in 15-16 hours. This is where the secrets of productive work lie.
Practice shows that it is difficult to be productive for those people who:
- do not realize where and why they are moving;
- show perseverance - move towards the goal even when the work has ceased to be interesting (do not forget to review the goals and make sure they are relevant);
- consider themselves perfectionists (due to their desire to achieve an ideal result, you can spend a lot of time and energy on the perfect performance of work that no one needs);
- are in a state of some kind of expectation - they are waiting for the arrival of the Muse, inspiration, dreaming about a vacation, waiting for an important call, etc .;
- used to - they, birthday, New Year, but they never start to solve an important task on time;
- carry out most time in your past or dreams of the future.
There are many reasons why people waste hours, days, years in vain. detailed on the forum.
secrets of productive work
How to become productive at work?
If you are interested in productive work, follow the recommendations:
- Find productive work hours. It is more convenient and comfortable for someone to work in the morning, someone is used to working in the afternoon or even at night. Keep track of what hours you are most productive. And use this time wisely. What you do during productive work hours will bring you the best results.
- Get enough sleep, fully rest. Successful people plan not only their working day, but also. They know how to have a productive rest after work. And you?
- Work strictly according to plan. By devoting just 5-10 minutes of your day, you can become more productive and save up to 2-3 hours. Your plan should not have many important tasks. Learn to delegate.
- Organize your workspace well. There should not be anything superfluous on the table, while everything you need (notebook, laptop, pen, etc.) should be at hand. Otherwise, you will not be productive. In addition, do not forget about the illumination of the room and a comfortable temperature. These factors help to be productive. If it is below 20 degrees in a dim room, be prepared to be able to tolerate 44% more bugs than if they were working at 25 degrees in a bright room.
- Get in the habit of doing the hard stuff first and then moving on to simple tasks. If the "elephant" seems big, start "eating" it in pieces. Scared to start a huge project? You just start, without thought, without persuasion, without motivation. Start and not notice how you get involved. At the end of the working day it is better to leave simple tasks
- Reduce the number of smoke breaks, breaks, tea parties, etc.
- Take breaks between tasks. An hour or two worked - rest for a few minutes. If you are very tired, allow yourself to take a nap for at least 7-15 minutes. This will be enough to become productive again.
- Turn off your phone, do not go to the Internet when you are working on an important matter.
- Control your productivity. There are applications for this.
- Value your time. Determine how much your minute is worth. And every time you want to surf the Internet, gossip with colleagues, pull yourself up. Remember that every day burn irrevocably.
- It is hard not only for perfectionism, laziness, distractions, but also for eternal beggars who are used to shifting their responsibilities onto you.
- Record your progress. Intermediate control on the way to achieving the goal is very important. Perfect for this.
secrets of productive work
As you can see, there are no terrible secrets. Everything is clear and known. The main thing is to start taking action. Say goodbye to procrastination and learn to be a productive person.
If your work is productive, you will not suffer from idleness or lack of time. And free hours can be spent on your favorite hobby, recreation and other pleasant activities. I wish you productive work! You will definitely succeed!
If you have something to tell about productive work, share it in the comments. How did you become or want to become a productive person? What have you done or are doing to achieve this?
All successful people had common traits of character that allowed them to make their work productive. Productivity is a skill that can be acquired, developed and improved if desired. What kind of work can be considered productive.
If we compare people known for their achievements or success in some area human activity, you can see that they all had common character traits that allowed them to make their work productive.
What does the word "productivity" mean?
And is labor unproductive? It happens. Because to work productively means fruitfully, with high productivity and good results. Only productive work allows a person to realize his ideas and achieve success.
The word "productive" itself comes from the English "productivity". Initially, it was used in animal husbandry and agriculture to designate the best specimens of animals - fertile and giving good offspring. Over time, when the industry began to develop, it began to be used in the characterization of production.
In Russian, the word "productivity" has a synonym - productivity. We are all familiar with the phrase “labor productivity”. Not so long ago, they began to use it, characterizing the activities of people of creativity, as if emphasizing thereby their "fertility" and high results. Thus, we can say that productivity is the ability to certain time create something or perform a certain number of actions.
Speaking about someone's productivity, you can measure it not only by quantity, but also give it an emotional assessment. For example, low productivity or high productivity. Productivity cannot be said to be an innate property of a person. Most likely, this is a skill that, if desired, can be acquired, developed and improved.
What kind of work can be called productive
Knowing personal productivity and being able to manage it is important in order to succeed. In business, productivity can be judged by profit growth. And what criteria should be used to determine whether our work is productive? The German sociologist Erich Fromm believed that personal productivity depends on the ability to use one's own strengths and realize the abilities inherent in nature.
Whatever a person does, his work can be called productive if he:
- gets satisfaction from work (it is impossible to work productively if the work is boring and uninteresting);
- makes it qualitatively;
- takes the initiative;
- does not look at the time and does not count the hours that he spends on it - as they say, "burns with work."
Based on this, we can conclude that the productivity of work does not depend on the amount of time spent on it. And those employers who are trying to increase the productivity of employees and, accordingly, profits by increasing the length of the working day are wrong.
What prevents you from being productive
Before we tune in to work productively, we need to understand what prevents us from doing this. After all, we often spend a lot of time on work, expend strength and energy, and the results leave much to be desired.
One of the reasons that do not allow us to work productively is perseverance. Perhaps, sometimes this quality needs to be shown. At the same time, some people often continue to move towards their goal even when it has already lost its meaning. Most likely, they do it out of inertia or without noticing the changes that have taken place. Therefore, in order not to move on a hopeless course, it is important to review your goals from time to time and ask yourself if they are still relevant.
Another productivity trap is called beautiful word amplification. It is known that each work requires the application of a certain amount of effort, but often people spend more time and effort than necessary to achieve the goal - they waste them in vain. Amplification is characterized by repeating the same actions over and over again to make sure that everything is done correctly.
Doing your job productively interferes with such a factor as fixation when progress towards the target is blocked. Instead of acting, a person plunges into a state of expectation - inspiration, phone call, permission, next month, vacation, etc. Fixation is a pure waste of time, in other words, its murder.
negative impact on productivity and reversion- a mental return to the past, playing out a life scenario, regret about unrealized opportunities, endless thoughts about what should have been done so that what has already happened does not happen.
Advance events is also a productivity trap. First, when planning for the future, we often waste time because we cannot foresee all the details in advance and rely on opportunities that may disappear in the future. Secondly, by focusing on future tasks, we forget about current ones.
tightening. Probably everyone had to promise themselves: I will do it on Monday (after the New Year, etc.). By this we deceive ourselves, and in our hearts we understand this very well. Such constant postponement will never allow our work to become productive.
How to increase your productivity at work
It would seem that it is simpler: they come to work to work. But everyone understands that few people work productively all 8 hours. In addition to the time allotted for lunch, there are breaks for tea, conversations, “walks” on the Internet, etc.
In order for the working day to be productive, you need:
1. Make a work plan for the whole day
If this is not done immediately after arriving at work, then there is a high probability that we will be involved in fruitless conversations or reading personal e-mail, postponing things for at least an hour.
2. Do not spray
To get real results, you should not schedule more than three tasks per workday. But all the forces can be directed to their solution, not forgetting to take short breaks after each of them.
3. Difficult problems should be solved first
Otherwise, the problem will hang like a sword of Damocles, distracting from other tasks.
4. Come up with a competitor
Many people are not alien to the desire to be the best in their profession. By choosing among employees a person with whom we can mentally compete, we will receive an additional incentive to work more productively.
5. Do not access the Internet without the need
If it is difficult to resist the temptation, it is useful to install an application that "throws" us out of the network.
6. Solve the same type of problems together
For example, checking email or making phone calls will take less time if done right away, rather than periodically being distracted by them throughout the day.
7. Be punctual
So that the solution of one task does not stretch out for the whole day, it is necessary to control the time spent on its solution and observe the time frame.
8.
Without mastering this skill, we will spend our valuable time on other people's affairs and tasks, on useless conversations. Someone said: "Our time is the most valuable thing we can give to other people." Therefore, they should not be scattered.
9. Do not put off the most difficult task until the last working hour
At this time, it is better to relax and take stock. Although many, on the contrary, catch on and start working only when the working day is nearing completion.
10. Don't change your internal clock to winter time.
Often the most productive is precisely this morning hour, when all the family members are still sleeping.
How to be more productive at home
However, there are rules here, following which, you can work productively without staying up until midnight.
1. Work behind closed doors
Your family should get used to the fact that while you are busy with work, you should not enter without an invitation.
2. Correctly assess your strengths
As we know, there are people who work more productively in the morning, and there are those who work better in the evenings. Therefore, everyone should organize their working time in accordance with these wishes.
3. Don't waste time
Working tools: a notebook, pens, phones, etc. - should be in the working area, because when looking for them, it is easy to get distracted and switch to other things. Also, while working, it is worth closing all windows with social networks, chats, news, mail, etc., to avoid the temptation to “for a moment” look at sites that are not related to work.
4. Do not stay at work longer than the allotted time
When planning to work at home, you should not count on the fact that now we can sit even until late at night. On the contrary, we have a great motivation to finish work earlier in order to get more free time.
5. Work with headphones
Properly selected quiet music will create a working mood, distract from the environment and help you concentrate.
6. Do not work in home clothes
It relaxes and "calls" for rest, coffee or tea drinking, communication with family. Comfortable business clothing disciplines and adjusts to the working mood.
7. Don't eat at your desk
In order for the work to be fruitful, you need to be distracted from it from time to time. The lunch break will be just the occasion to take a break.
8. Buy a second computer or laptop
One will serve only for work and will not give you the opportunity to be distracted. The second can only be "entertaining".
9. Move away from the computer during moments of rest
At the first sign of fatigue, leave immediately. workplace and go get some fresh air, move around, leaf through a magazine, read a book, drink tea, etc., and not sit at the computer, continuing to “look at” the monitor.