Why train to be more productive?

Where people go wrong is when they associate work productivity with a simple question of volume - the more you do, the better. But in reality, productivity is much more complex than that. It involves not only the quantity of work done, but also its quality, its impact on strategic objectives and the effective management of resources.

Gaining in productivity means working better and therefore doing more, of better quality, in less time. You and all your company's employees not only gain in efficiency, but also in comfort (pace and workload). These skills are far from innate, and need to be learned in a concrete, structured way. 

Gain focus for better time and energy management

Learning to focus: what are we talking about?

NUMA's Time and Energy Management training offers a comprehensive approach to optimizing your productivity and protecting your focus. By enrolling in this training program, you'll empower yourself to organize your weeks strategically, focusing on value creation and making wise choices to maintain your focus. 

Participants learn how to :

• Manage your diary and protect your time by reserving uninterrupted work periods and distinguishing between in-depth work periods and "to-do" work periods.
• Know where you want to create value, and make the right choices to maintain or abandon your focus depending on the situation.
• Learn to say no in a positive way to coach your teams and use asynchronous meetings to reduce the number of meetings.
• Manage your own energy and that of your team.

Here are two examples of how you can optimize your time and protect your concentration. 

1. Ritualize your diary

Identifying recurring slots and reserving them in advance is essential for maintaining productivity. For example, your recurring meetings may include team meetings, cross-functional meetings or individual weekly reviews. These dedicated times help synchronize efforts and maintain fluid communication within the organization.

In addition to meetings, schedule recurring individual work time . These times can be set aside for "deep work", accomplishing small tasks ("to do") or preparing for upcoming meetings. Organizing these times allows you to concentrate fully on important tasks without interruption.

And don't forget to set aside time for recurring availability. This time, often neglected but precious, allows you to optimize the organization of your week and avoid being constantly solicited by other colleagues. You can indicate your availability for meetings or for your team, as well as specifying your days of presence in the office. By clearly defining these time slots, you can better structure your schedule and increase your overall productivity.

2. Finish your diary on Monday morning

Taking 20 minutes on Friday afternoon or Monday morning to plan the week ahead is an effective practice that can significantly improve your productivity. During this time dedicated to planning, you have the opportunity to take stock of the tasks accomplished over the past week and evaluate the objectives to be achieved for the following week. By taking a close look at your diary, you can identify the right times for your "deep work" sessions, those time slots when you devote yourself fully to complex, high-priority tasks. By planning these sessions in advance, you ensure that you can tackle important projects with full concentration, uninterrupted by less urgent tasks.

What's more, this planning period gives you the opportunity toassess the need for upcoming meetings and organize them strategically. You can determine whether a meeting is really necessary, or whether the same communication can be carried out asynchronously. By optimizing your schedule in this way, you can avoid wasting time and focus your energies on activities that really contribute to your objectives.

To discover all our tips and strategies for better managing your time and energy, download the Numa Focusing Resource Kit now. This kit brings together the best of our training courses designed to help you optimize your use of time and protect your focus, enabling you to achieve unrivalled levels of productivity.

Learn to prioritize

Why train in prioritization? 

NUMA's prioritization training teaches you how to choose where to focus your efforts, whether collectively or individually. By prioritizing your tasks effectively, you maximize your impact and efficiency.

In particular, this module enables you to improve your skills in 2 key areas of prioritization:

• Prioritize collectively: how to define ambitious yet realistic objectives? How do you decide whether to stop a project?
• Prioritize individually: How can you spend the most time on what's most valuable?

2 examples of tips for prioritizing collectively and personally.

1. Prioritize collectively 

Learning to prioritize collectively is a key element in the quest for organizational efficiency. To achieve this, two essential actions need to be taken. 

First of all, it's crucial to set the right goals. This means understanding that more is not always better, and that quality is more important than quantity. For example, rather than setting ambitious but vague objectives, it's better to define clear, achievable goals. 

Secondly, we need to arbitrate collectively in order to direct our efforts and resources towards the most value-generating initiatives. This can be done by taking a step back and asking the right questions, such as: Is this project still worth our investment? If we had to do it all over again today, would we? This approach prevents inertia and ensures that resources are optimally allocated to achieve the organization's strategic objectives. By combining judicious goal-setting with thoughtful collective arbitration, teams can maximize their effectiveness and impact.

2. Prioritize personally 

In a world where 20% of activities generate 80% of value, it's crucial to recognize that we're not alone in facing this challenge. To overcome this reality, two tips are essential: 

First and foremost, it's vital to communicate effectively in order to protect yourself. This means being transparent about your priorities by making your agenda visible and explicit, sharing your weekly objectives with your team and manager, and clearly defining your focus at team meetings. 

Next, you need to limit low value-added activitiesby adopting the Shotgun technique: identify all non-essential meetings and activities as early as Monday, and refuse them outright. All this while reassuring you that you are available to contribute in other ways. Saying no does not mean that the project lacks value, but rather that you recognize your personal limitations in making a significant contribution. By putting these tips into practice, you'll be able to prioritize more effectively and optimize your time and efforts to maximize added value.

To take advantage of all NUMA's prioritization tips, our team has developed a prioritization resource kit. 

Fewer but better meetings

A workshop on how to reduce the number of meetings and make the ones that remain more effective is an ideal way to learn how to optimize your time in meetings and gain in productivity. Learn how to limit non-essential meetings, prepare and run productive meetings, and maximize time spent together for faster, better decisions.

During this workshop, our Numa coaches will give you the keys to :

• Limiting meetings: a series of cases in which participants propose alternative communication formats to replace meetings they can do without. Voice notes, video messages, regular newsletters, ... and tips on how to use each format.
• Refuse meetings without rushing the organizer.
• Prepare and run a meeting: analyze, criticize and improve an invitation to a meeting (title, framing, objectives, participants, agenda, etc.).

By adopting these solutions and investing in this type of professional training, you gain access to concrete keys and activatable content to significantly improve your productivity at work. Ultimately, better management of time and resources benefits the whole company, promoting sustainable growth and optimum performance.

To find out more about our approach and how we structure our training courses, click here.