Although the financial landscape of the future is impossible to predict, some of the world’s largest and most successful companies have spent the last couple of years making staff cuts in preparation for a possible recession. Those cuts — along with the recent wide-scale adoption of generative AI technology for completing tedious written tasks — have left those who are still employed wondering how secure their jobs really are. Is the axe going to fall on your head if your employer decides that it’s time to make cuts?
Understanding the local job market is always one of the best things that you can do to maximize your personal security. On your own time — and using your own computer — it’s wise to scan the local job listings periodically to see what’s available and what skills and qualifications employers want to see. You should make sure that you have those qualifications, because that’s what helps to ensure that you can’t be replaced by a less expensive worker or by a machine.
Beyond that, though, the next best thing that you can do for your job security is ensure that you’re always seen as the strongest member of your team. It’ll be hard to justify replacing you — regardless of how high your salary might be — if you’re the one that people always count on in a pinch to get the job done.
So, how do you make sure that you’re the most productive member of your team? Our suggestions involve a mix of new technologies and some old ones — and the first thing you need to know about being productive is that you can’t actually do your work if you’re not there.
Replace Your Smoking Habit with a Modern Alternative
If you work for a company that might be making cuts in the near future, the last thing that you want to be is a smoker. Smokers are often seen as the weakest members of their teams — and irritants to their coworkers — because they’re never around and are seemingly always outside taking smoke breaks. If layoffs are on the horizon, there’s a good chance that many of the people let go will be smokers. To make matters worse, smokers are also less likely to be hired than nonsmokers. In other words, you need to stop taking smoke breaks if you want to maximize your productivity at work.
So, what’s the alternative? The simplest solution is to use oral nicotine products such as nicotine pouches. You can pop a nicotine pouch or a piece of nicotine gum into your mouth when you feel the need — and that way, you won’t have to leave your desk. In the long run, though, you’ll want to quit nicotine entirely. Try using nicotine-free vapes at home to slowly wean yourself off of nicotine without losing the familiar hand-to-mouth ritual of smoking.
Use Work Apps with Distraction-Free Modes
Are you the type of person who has trouble staying on task because you’re constantly switching out of your work app to check the news or your social media feeds? If you are, the fact that many modern apps — such as Microsoft Word — have distraction-free or “Focus” modes available will be hugely beneficial. To access the Focus mode in Word, for instance, you only need to click the word “Focus” at the bottom of the window. When you do that, the window immediately expands to fill the entire screen, blocking out the taskbar in the process. The only way to switch to another window is by disabling Focus mode — and for many people, that provides ample incentive to remain on task.
Block Distracting Websites in Your Router
Are you able to do your job from home? People have differing opinions as to whether working from home helps or hurts productivity. On one hand, working at home may mean that you aren’t interrupted constantly by phone calls and meetings — but on the other hand, working from home also means you’re free to spend almost as much time as you like on distracting websites. For some people, the allure of being able to check sports scores or see friends’ latest social media posts without someone looking over your shoulder is simply too much to overcome — and if that’s the case for you, you already have the solution in the hardware that your computer uses to connect to the Internet.
Your router most likely has built-in parental controls. Those controls give you the ability to block websites that you don’t want people in your household to visit, and they often allow you to set specific time ranges in which those rules are enforced. To use that tool to your advantage, you simply need to log in to your router and enter the websites that you find most distracting into the parental control function. You can set a time range — so the router automatically blocks the distracting websites when you should be working — or you can disable the blocks manually when you’re done working.
Using your router’s parental controls to block distracting websites can be a very effective way to help you remain on task, but a little self-control on your part will still be required because there’s no way to block every distracting website that exists except by disabling your Internet connection entirely. Blocking your favorite sites, however, may help you to remain productive because trying to visit a website — and seeing an error message explaining that the site is blocked — will provide a gentle reminder that you should be doing something else.
Organize Your Tasks More Efficiently
For many people, the time at work that’s least productive is the time between tasks — when you’ve just finished something and are trying to figure out what you should do next. If that sounds like your situation, you need a better way to organize your tasks.
Many people find that the best way to organize tasks is with a simple drop box or folder system, and the general name for this system is “Getting Things Done” or “GTD.” Implementing this system eliminates the need to remember what you should do next, freeing your mind and allowing you to remain completely engrossed in your current task.
The GTD system can become quite complex, but the simplest way to implement the system is by doing the following.
- Create a space in which you’ll store and organize your tasks. You could use sticky notes on a wall, a stack of physical inboxes or even folders on your computer’s desktop.
- When you receive a new task that you can complete in a few minutes or less, do it immediately. Otherwise, decide whether the task is one that you need to complete soon or one that can wait until you’re less busy. File the task in your “Soon” folder or your “Later” folder.
- If a task requires many steps, separate each step into its own discrete task and file it accordingly.
- When you finish a task, check the “Soon” folder to see what you need to do next. If the “Soon” folder is empty, check the “Later” folder.
If the GTD system seems overly complex to you, consider trying it anyway. In the long run, you’ll be surprised by how much more productive you’ll become when you eliminate the time spent wondering what you should do next.
