When you work in a team office setting, it can be challenging to get everything done- both with your daily workload and additional projects. While you can’t control certain factors around you, including the pace and work ethic of your team members, there are things you can do to visually track the workload of your team, which will essentially result in higher productivity. Here are 5 steps for working efficiently with your team members.
1.) Communicate with your team members, discuss everything you have to do, and write it down.
Whether your task list is physically or electronically written, it’s important to stay organized and track your progress. It’s also crucial that everyone is on the same page and aware of what’s going on; otherwise a team member may waste time trying to do something that no longer needs to be done or they may be unaware of additional work they should be doing.
2.) Prioritize the tasks your team needs to do.
You’ll want to focus on first completing the tasks that are either urgent or already in progress. For things that need to be done by a certain day or time, make sure you mark down when they’re due by.
3.) Break down larger projects and tasks into smaller and more manageable tasks.
Many workers have benefited by using smaller ‘SMART’ goals -specific, measurable, actionable/achievable, realistic, & time-based goals- to complete larger tasks that may seem overwhelming at first.
Before you start working on a large project, break it down. This not only makes it more doable, but can also help your team/coworkers track the progress of your projects and give you a realistic idea of when and how you can finish them.
Breaking larger tasks into smaller ones will also make it easier to delegate and divide responsibilities among different team members.
So those are the first 3 steps to working efficiently with your team members. Part 2 of this article will discuss the remaining 2 steps to keep everyone productive and on the same page.
