Productivity. Everyone wants it, thinks they have some of it, and loses it faster than they realize. Here are some things you might check and do on a Friday afternoon to feeling better about starting the week again on Monday morning.
Perfect for Friday Productivity Checklist
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1. End your “real work” a half-hour early on Friday. Most folks don’t want to interact with you late on Friday anyway. If you need that half-hour to finish your work, start next week by planning to finish a half-hour earlier.
2. Use that half-hour to organize everything on your desk. Put things away. Lay out things that still need attending to. Mark what needs to be done. Make a to-do list, if that’s your way.
3. Make a plan for next week–at the least, decide what you will tackle first on Monday and what your three most important goals will be.
4. Do an office check. Are the things you use most closest to where you use them? If not, move them, so that they will be. Are the files you access most on your computer only one click away? If not, move them so that they will be.
5. Order the Monday tasks by putting what you can get done fastest first. Do this for two reasons. It will start your week with a quick sense of accomplishment, and you’ll be able to pass on what you finished–that means that when you move on to task two, someone else can be starting on what was your task one.
Then consider the week closed, leave the office at work, give your brain a break, and have a weekend. What a great way to promote yourself and your brand to anyone who walks by on their way home for the weekend. It says a lot for your personal brand–almost everyone wishes their office looked like it could be in a magazine . . .
Whether you work in a building away from home or in your bedroom, it’s boost to your Monday to walk back into a space that’s ready to work in.
What do you think when you see an office that looks well taken care of?
–ME “Liz” Strauss
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silvia says
April 7, 2006 at 10:31 AMVery nice ckecklist Liz. I’ve just published an spanish version of your checklist with some comments of my own. If you want to check it is at : http://www.mujeresdeempresa.com/blog
Thank you for your job.
ME Strauss says
April 7, 2006 at 10:40 AMThank you, Silvia.
I will be over to visit your blog. I would like to see. I can read Spanish, but I’m too shy to try to write it in public without someone to check me first. 🙂
Isabel
Trevor Hubert says
March 21, 2016 at 9:54 AMHello. I would like permission to share your article ‘perfect-for-friday-productivity-checklist’ via my company’s internal email-based leadership bulletin for april. It is a group of about 500 company leaders and I would also like permission to translate it into french for my french speaking audience. I would of course provide full credit via byline and link back to your website. Thanks again for a great article.
Rosemary says
March 23, 2016 at 5:39 AMYes Trevor you have permission to share as you described, with attribution and link. Thank you for asking!