Productivity Hacks for the Busy Professional

Look around at any bus stop or subway train during the morning commute and you’ll see some epic multitasking. For most professionals, there’s no such thing as “down time” and those few minutes riding to work are used to catch up on emails, down a smoothie and start that mental to-do list. While multitasking may seem like the best way to conquer our mounting workload, it can actually inhibit productivity. In a study out of Stanford University, researchers found that we’re actually slowed down by this process and less capable of filtering out irrelevant information. In other words, while we flit from task to task, we’re not retaining what’s important and may be just wasting our time and energy.  But if multitasking is off the table, how do we manage our daily output without sacrificing time or quality of work? Here are a few workplace hacks that can actually help you stay focused, get through that to-do list and be a happier, more productive employee.   Read more after the jump...