Personal Productivity - Introduction

Most people admit that they have faced times when they all wondered if it would be better to have more time in a day. That might not be possible any time sooner, however it’s definitely worth trying an alternative. There are various facets to being an employee that a working professional needs to take in consideration while planning his day, and how he can organize his work in such a manner that he doesn’t feel the crunch of time.

To enjoy life’s hidden moments of pleasure, it’s essential that people learn how to design routines, make goals, create an efficient environment, and use organizational techniques to maximize their own output. Using personal productivity techniques properly, professionals achieve their targets effectively, and that too without missing a deadline. It helps them to keep a tab on multiple, concurrent running assignments, so that they can ensure that their personal goals are being successfully met, along with the team goals.

Dr. Aubrey Daniels had used the term Personal Productivity to explain the correlation between workplace conditions and getting expected results. He had propounded the theory that if a person’s behavior can be modulated, then it will have a direct influence on the quality of his output.

Using this understanding in a formal setting, he found out that if the management can properly modulate the working conditions in their workplace through policies, incentives, and an effective reward system, then they will be able to draw much better results from their employees.

Personal Productivity and Performance Appraisal

Many people tend to mix up Personal Productivity with Performance Appraisal.

● Performance Appraisal is the process in which an employee’s performance during a given time-period is evaluated, and is measured up against the expectations that the management of him. If his performance is found satisfactory, then he is rewarded for his performance through incentives, raises, allowances, etc.

● Personal Productivity refers to the entire set of programs, activities and processes that an employee can create to optimize his efficiency and productivity, subsequently his team, his departments and his manager. Unlike appraisals that are generally an annual process, personal productivity is a day-to-day phenomenon.

Every manager likes to have an employee in his team who is knowledgeable, hardworking, goaloriented, and focused. In other words, a good personal productivity implementation will help the employees in getting good performance appraisals.