How to Work Faster
To work faster, draft a daily plan that says what you want to accomplish on each day. If you're dealing with lots of different tasks, give each day a theme where you focus on a specific study subject or area of work. Break down larger projects into smaller steps as this will help you feel like you're making progress. Once you've mastered daily planning, make long-term calendars so you can manage your workload throughout the month. Finally, put an end to procrastination by turning off distractions while you work so you can focus.
Have a daily plan. The most important step you can take towards working faster and more efficiently is to establish a plan before you start your day. Plan your day the night before and prepare your desk by laying out all your study materials, or prepare your chore list for what you want to accomplish. This way, you can just jump right in the next morning. Write your daily plan down on a notepad, digital planner, or a calendar. Writing things down rather than committing them to memory will help you to remember and actually accomplish your tasks. Writing down all you plan to accomplish in a day can also help you avoid over-booking yourself and taking on more than you can handle in the time allotted. It's good to be ambitious, but it's also important to have a realistic daily plan that you can accomplish. Give every day a theme. If you find yourself juggling a lot of different work objectives or even multiple jobs at once, considering theming your days to focus on one of these at a time. If you're a student, consider setting aside specific days for specific subjects: Mondays can be reserved for doing all of your science reading for the week, for example, while Tuesdays can be dedicated to math. In an office setting, allocate specific days for specific tasks: Mondays can be just for administrative tasks, for example, while Tuesdays can be focused on creative projects. Segment the hours in your day. Stay organized by breaking down your working day into discreet hours, and plan to do certain work only during that time frame. For example, the first hour of your day can be dedicated to answer emails and phone calls. Set a series of alarms to cue you to move on to other work and stay on task during the day. Consider scheduling shorter tasks in half-hour increments and longer tasks in 2-hour increments. Learn how to multitask the right way. Multitasking can be a double-edged sword: it can be a helpful strategy for getting lots of things done in a short amount of time, or it can spread your time and attention too thin, leading to poor quality work.  To reap the benefits while avoiding the pitfalls of multitasking, follow these strategies: Focus on related tasks at the same time. Reduce the amount of mental energy used when switching between different tasks by bundling your multitasking activities together. For example, respond to all of your mail messages at the same time -- email, voicemail, snail-mail. Write down your workflow items. Writing down all the stuff you want to juggle will help you to not get distracted or sidetracked with all the multiple things going. Take some time at the end of your tasks to go over each item alone. This narrowing of focus can help with catching any errors and making sure you've done all you wanted while working on it in a multitasking atmosphere. Set small goals. Setting small daily goals helps you stay on task, work more efficiently, and gain energy as you go through your working day. Getting little tasks out of the way, like grocery shopping or running errands, can help you focus on larger tasks that need to be accomplished later in the day. If you have long-term objectives or big projects, break them down into smaller goals that you can make progress on and tackle in a series of small steps or stages. This will help you feel like you're getting work done, which will encourage you to keep going. Prioritize tasks. Prioritizing tasks is not quite the same as making a to-do list. Rather, you are categorizing to-do items and prioritizing those that are small and manageable or most pressing and important. Set up a chronological list of when things need to be accomplished by and start with the most pressing items first. Once these are off your plate, you can take a breather and focus on the one's that are due later. Plan ahead. After you've mastered the daily short-term plan, you can start creating long-term plans to organize your future work and tasks. Knowing what you need to accomplish ahead of time -- whether it's a big term paper at the end of the semester, or an international conference trip -- can help you stay on top of your preparations. Make a monthly calendar for yourself, or create a calendar for your entire school semester term. Note any big deadlines or due dates and pencil in some reminders a week or so before the actual deadline. This will help you work more efficiently and get your big tasks done in easier increments. This type of advanced planning will also help you schedule leisure actives, breaks, and vacations. If you know when things are going to be due, you can more easily plan around them and make sure you have enough time to get things done as well as thoroughly enjoy your break time. Put an end to procrastination. Many of us procrastinate or put things off (especially things we don't like) which can negatively impact our productivity as well as overall work quality. Don't fall into the faulty misconception that "one does their best work under pressure." Psychological studies have shown this to largely be untrue! Procrastinators who wait until the last minute often get less done and produce work with more errors. Give yourself a carrot at the end of the stick: plan a celebration or treat for yourself when you complete your task on time or even early. If you have something fun to look forward to you'll give yourself extra motivation to get your work done. Use a stopwatch while you work. In business, there's a concept known as “Parkinson's Law,” which states that “work expands to fill the time allotted for it.”   In other words, if you leave the amount of time needed to complete a task open ended, you will almost always take more time to complete it than if you set strict time limits. Use a stopwatch or another type of timer to keep track of how long you work on each task. Set goals for yourself and turn this into a game; you'll work far more rapidly if you're attempting to beat the clock. Try to do unimportant tasks within ten minutes. Following this tip alone can often give you an extra 90 minutes a day. You'll be surprised how much time is wasted on unimportant tasks like writing emails! Working this way can help you develop a work “flow,” something that behavioral psychologists have described as a feeling of accomplishment, productivity, and happiness. Designate mornings or weekends as “me” time. It might sound counterintuitive, but you can actually increase your productivity and work ability by carving out some break-time during your day and week. Spending the first few hours in the morning on something you care about -- playing with your kids, taking the dog for a walk, doing yoga, etc. This can help clear your mind and put you in a better mood for the rest of the day, which will help you stay focused and work faster. Research has shown that your mind reaches its peak performance rate 2-4 hours after you wake up, so designate your early pre-peak hours for something non-work related to avoid spinning your wheels and working inefficiently. Disconnect during break time. Sometimes our minds can be at work even when we're not physically working, which can lead to burnout and an overall decrease in productivity and work quality. Set up separate personal and work/school email accounts and limit how often you check your work/school account over the weekend. Make a point to turn off your phone or computer while lounging at home or watching TV so that you're not tempted to check your work email. Try to be mindful and take some time to really switch off from your work worries, especially on the weekends, so that when you do get back to the grind on Monday you can be refreshed and ready to work faster and more efficiently. 
Have a daily plan. Give every day a theme. Segment the hours in your day. Learn how to multitask the right way. Set small goals. Prioritize tasks. Plan ahead. Put an end to procrastination. Use a stopwatch while you work. Designate mornings or weekends as “me” time. Disconnect during break time. 