8 Time Optimization Levers You Can Pull Today To Boost Productivity

Despite being one of our most precious resources, we still frequently fritter away our time on distractions and inefficient processes. The good news? Making just a few strategic tweaks to your routine is all you need to do to increase your productivity. Not the ones that take months to show results, but the ones you can put into motion almost immediately.

This time around, we'll outline eight effective time optimization levers that you can pull right now (like, today) to improve workflow, eliminate needless delays, and make every minute matter. So, are you ready to tackle your time?! Fabulous. Firstly, however, let’s define what we mean by time optimization.

What is time optimization?

Time optimization, to put it simply, is the strategic process of efficiently allocating resources and tasks to maximize your output while minimizing your wasted effort. 

A Harvard Business School study found a direct link between employee satisfaction, productivity, and ultimately the company's overall success. It emphasizes how systematic time optimization strategies, such as prioritization frameworks and workflow optimization, can increase productivity while reducing the stress levels that (unfortunately) frequently trudge alongside deadlines and budgets.

So, what can you do today to make the most of your time? The eight time optimization levers listed below are a good place to start.

How can you prepare to optimize your time?

Before we get a bit more granular in terms of our levers, let’s take a moment for some introspection. It’s worth considering an overview of some of the potential stumbling blocks that have perhaps hampered your progress in terms of time optimization, in terms of mindset, boundaries, and habits.

Shift your mindset

You need to start looking at things through a more proactive instead of reactive prism. In other words, rather than simply responding to tasks as they come at you, focus on your strategic planning and start anticipating potential roadblocks. 

Productivity can be significantly increased by identifying high-leverage activities, or those that have the greatest impact with the least amount of work.

Be more self-aware

We’re not promoting protracted stints of navel gazing here, rather an acknowledgement of how you naturally work best. Being aware of whether you’re an early bird or a night owl can help you adjust your habits. 

Moreover, some people thrive within structured routines, while others perform better with flexible workflows. Any time optimization strategy should align with your unique strengths, especially as you become more aware of your natural tendencies.

Bring on the boundaries

How else are you going to protect your time? External demands, like pointless meetings or overbearing notifications, frequently hijack our attention from more important tasks (i.e., those that generate money and/or bring you joy). 

Learning to say a hard "no" to low-value activities and setting clear expectations with coworkers are key components of protecting your productive time. 

Enforce those communication habits

Be it concise emails or structured meetings, being more strict around your time allocation can make a huge difference in terms of time wasted on back-and-forth interactions. By fostering a work environment that respects time efficiency, you create a system that naturally supports better optimization without constant manual intervention.

Our 8 proven time optimization levers

We've addressed time chunking/blocking, employing SMART goals, and our top workplace time wasters, alongside the importance of minimizing distractions in other blogs. Now, we’re taking it a step further by introducing additional time optimization levers to help you work even smarter.

1. Time tracking automation

The simplest and most effective way to start bringing time optimization into your processes is with time tracking. You need to start tracking your time to see where your attention and energy often dwindle to.

For instance, Memtime is a tool designed to help you conduct a self-directed time audit by analyzing work patterns, eliminating unnecessary tasks, and focusing on the work that drives revenue. With Memtime, you can work uninterrupted without the hassle of manually tracking your time. It gives you the space for deep, focused work without disruptions, ensuring your productivity stays high. Plus, since it runs automatically, it easily becomes a habit: just turn it on and let it do the rest. Best of all, you can try it free for 14 days (we don’t even need your payment information to get you started).

2. Task batching

American Psychological Association research cites that task switching results in cognitive costs that lower productivity. By combining related tasks into “batches”, task batching reduces these switching costs and helps the brain to remain in a single cognitive mode for extended periods of time. This increases productivity and focus.

Checking and replying to emails just twice a day, rather than continuously, is a basic example of task batching. 

For example, you could schedule specific time slots, like 10am and 3pm, to handle all of your emails at once rather than stopping your workflow each time an email arrives. You can accomplish other tasks more quickly, focus better, and switch between contexts less frequently as a result.

3. GTD method

David Allen created the "Getting Things Done" method, which provides a simplified approach to task organization and clarity restoration. All you have to do is take these five steps:

Using the GTD method should help you stay ahead of your workload rather than crumbling under it, increase your output, and reduce that pesky mental clutter – all of which are always welcome. 

4. RPM

By bringing your focus to purpose-driven productivity, the Rapid Planning Method aims to match actions with your unique long-term objectives. The main components of RPM are threefold and include Action Plan, Purpose, and Result.

First, you need to specify the precise result you hope to attain. Next, you should determine the deeper cause (your “why”, if you will) that gives significance to this outcome. Lastly, you then create a strategic action plan that details the actions required to achieve the objective.

5. Prioritization frameworks 

Who hasn't heard of the Pareto principle or President Dwight D. Eisenhower's matrix at this juncture (make your way over here if you need a refresher/introduction), so let's instead provide a brief overview of some other time optimization strategies you can also put into action immediately. These offerings focus on managing multiple clients, projects, and deadlines efficiently.

• Value versus effort matrix: This assists agencies in setting priorities by balancing the effort needed with the potential value of projects, guaranteeing that high-impact work is finished effectively.‍
• RICE framework: Consider this helpful to agencies juggling several campaigns. Evaluating tasks based on Reach, Impact, Confidence, and Effort, it makes sure that resources are distributed effectively and that high-value projects are given priority.‍
• MoSCoW model: This facilitates efficient resource allocation by helping agencies to classify tasks into "Must-have", "Should-have", "Could-have", and "Won't-have" categories. ‍
• Weighted scoring model: Agencies can objectively rank projects according to their strategic importance by using a weighted scoring model, which assigns numerical values to various criteria.

6. Lean management principles

McKinsey's lean management research emphasizes the significance of removing inefficiencies and promoting a continuous culture of improvement. Organizations can improve overall productivity, cut waste, and streamline operations by implementing lean principles.

Five fundamental ideas underpin lean management, which was first described by Womack and Jones, and aid businesses in increasing productivity and cutting waste:

1. Define the value. Focus your efforts on satisfying the needs of your customers after determining what they actually value.
   
2. Create a value stream map. Analyze every step of a process to find inefficiencies and eliminate waste.
   
3. Establish a flow. Verify that the work is proceeding without any delays or obstructions.
   
4. Create a pull system. By that, we mean implementing a system that bases work on demand instead of overproduction.
   
5. Refine. As always, to increase productivity and preserve the caliber of your output, make regular adjustments to your processes. 

7. Decision-making optimization

McKinsey also reports that executives spend nearly 40% of their time making decisions, often inefficiently. Structured frameworks and AI-driven decision-support systems can greatly increase decision speed and quality, which can only improve your business results.

8. Energy management

None of the above matters if you haven't got the actual energy to implement it... And, like we addressed in point 1, time tracking is the best way to highlight where your energy is being siphoned.

The Harvard Business Review advocates for managing energy rather than time, emphasizing that aligning tasks with peak energy levels enhances performance and reduces the potential scourge of burnout. In order to maximize energy use, research on smart environments also emphasizes tactics like demand response and peak load shaving.

Wrapping up

So, hopefully, you now feel more informed as to how you can start optimizing your time today, rather than having to wait months to see results. That said, it’s worth remembering that effective time optimization (like most things worth doing) is a marathon, not a sprint.

Consistency, self-control, and an openness to trying new things are among the necessary components to mastering your time optimization. Over a relatively short period of time, you can increase productivity, start to reduce your stress, and efficiently manage your time by putting our eight levers into practice. Remember to start small, keep a close eye on your progress, and adjust your strategy as needed to achieve sustainable results.

Also, if you’re not already automatically tracking your time, consider signing up for Memtime today. It provides insights into where your team's energy is going, allowing you to identify underutilized capacity because it automatically logs how much time a user spends on various apps and tasks – without falling into suspect surveillance territory.

Some other reasons to consider Memtime include:

• All of your computer activity is recorded silently and displayed chronologically (it’s clearly visible under Memory Aid).
• You can view your work in 1- to 60-minute increments by zooming in and out of your timeline.

• After that, you can select which tasks to record as time entries and export them to your favorite project management software. 
• Again, only you can see the time tracking data that is locally offline on your computer. Nobody else can. Until you decide to give it to your project software, it stays private.
• Memtime doesn't bother you with time tracking alerts that tell you to take a break or record your idle time. It records your work while letting you work quietly.