The 3 most important productivity rules (and their psychological keys)

These are the productivity rules to keep in mind to improve our performance.

It is well known that in the labor and business spheres, the term "productivity" is one of the most important and widely used; after all, it is one of the main indicators that show the good or bad performance of any system that generates goods or services: whether it is an organization or an individual worker together with his or her materials.

However, it is of little use to estimate to what extent we are being productive if we do not know the main psychological phenomena involved that explain our success or failure in trying to reach the objectives we have set ourselves in this aspect.

Fortunately, there are already several principles that can help us when it comes to optimizing work processes; in this article we will see some of them, through a review of the most important productivity rules..

What is productivity?

In economics, productivity is the existing relation between the total productive activity and the means or resources invested to achieve this activity in a certain period of time.The productivity of an organization is a measure of the quality of what is produced.

These resources can be of different nature and can be measured in terms of different factors, such as time invested, in the case of personal productivity, or, in the business sphere, in terms of workers, natural resources, infrastructure or capital necessary to achieve a given productive activity.

Productivity is thus a necessary indicator of whether the viability of the production activity is higher or lower.. The more resources used to produce X amount of product in a period, the lower the productivity, and vice versa.

This general indicator serves, in turn, to estimate the exact productivity of each worker, each piece of machinery or each portion of cultivated land, a very necessary information used by companies and workers to improve their work performance and detect failures in certain parts of the work sequence.

What are the main rules of productivity?

Over the last century, experts in various disciplines have proposed the existence of a series of principles or regularities that govern productivity. principles or regularities that govern the productivity of any type of entity dedicated to the work..

These are the so-called productivity rules; knowing them is of great help to enhance aspects such as work efficiency and even to generate a good working environment thanks to good time management.

These rules are usually expressed in a simple way, practically in the form of aphorisms, and can be considered tips to be applied not only in formal work but in any human activity, in which we apply effort, resources or even investments.

However, beyond their appearance of belonging to the world of logic, they describe material realities.. Here we will learn about the three most important ones: the Pareto principle, Parkinson's law and the two-minute law.

1. Pareto Principle

"20% of the actions give 80% of the results".

The Pareto principle was enunciated by the Italian economist and philosopher Vilfredo Pareto in 1907, and postulates that greater results can be achieved with less time and fewer resources.. This implies, among other things, that putting more money and resources into an activity does not necessarily translate into a significant improvement, and that it is often relatively easy to obtain much better results without spending more.

This advice can be very useful for workers who want to improve their productivity in a context of crisis in which it is necessary to cut budgets, and emphasizes that better planning during the day and the detection of efficiency errors is key. Paradoxical though it may be, to continue spending is the easy solution, because we have already been working this way and at the present time we are immersed in the inertia of habits..

2. Parkinson's Law

"Work expands until it occupies all the available time".

This law was enunciated in 1957 by the British historian Cyril Northcote Parkinson and states that each job is usually carried out according to the time one has available..

This means that if we have little time to perform a task, we will finish it in less time; and if on the contrary we have more time, we will finish the work in a longer time.

Our way of working adapts to our perception of the working day. Keeping this in mind can help us improve time management and better organize our schedule. For example, one of the implications of this law of productivity is that it is almost always better to have many simple goals. it is almost always better to have many simple short-term goals rather than one overall medium- or long-term goalIn the first case, we will be creating a context that will predispose us to make good use of all the time available for the final objective.

3. Law of two minutes

"If it's quick, do it now".

The consultant and productivity expert, David Allen, is the creator of the "Getting Things Done" productivity method, where he sets out this and other highly useful precepts. Undoubtedly, a very necessary precept especially for people who must carry out multiple tasks of different nature during their working day. It has a lot to do with self-motivation and work strategies designed to combat procrastination.The dead time has a lot of potential, it is not an excuse to do nothing.

Are you looking for professional psychological assistance?

If you are interested in psychological assistance applied to the world of work performance or stress management related to your projects, we can help you, I encourage you to contact me.. I am a psychologist specialized in the cognitive-behavioral model and I have been working for many years both for individuals and for professionals and companies as a consultant. I offer my services in person in Madrid, and also online.

Bibliographical references:

• Allen, D. (2001). Getting Things Done. London: Penguin Books.
• Woodcock, K. (2010). Safety Evaluation Techniques. Toronto: Ryerson University.