Stepping back to leap forward: 3 tips to enhance productivity on a tender

Ryan May, Tender Specialist (Perth)

To be capable of giving your best, maintaining a healthy relationship with work is key. Sometimes, this means ‘stepping back’ to give yourself the breathing room you need to ‘leap forward’ to exceed client expectations and personal goals.

It’s not always an easy thing to do. There are often dozens of factors at play influencing your ability to step back, such as workplace culture and expectations, your workload and even your own temperament. Mastery and regulation of these factors, no matter how small, will improve your ability to deliver exceptional work, meet deadlines and impress colleagues. Here are 3 must-know tips to help you improve your productivity during the workday.

Reset with small breaks

Taking small breaks throughout the day is a great way to refresh your mind, particularly if you’ve been submerged in a document for a long period of time. This is backed by research, with one study stating that, “…micro-breaks are efficient in preserving high levels of vigor and alleviating fatigue.” (you can find that study here).

These breaks can consist of anything so long as it switches your brain away from work for about 5 minutes. Try:

• Going for a short walk

• Getting a coffee or a healthy snack

• Reading

• Meditating.

When your head starts to buzz and the words bleed into a giant blob of ink, that’s when you need to take that break. I personally like to leave the office for a chai or a short walk, but any of the above activities will help to give your mind a breather and keep your productivity high.

Taking these breaks may not come easily to you, particularly if you’re not used to the idea. What can help is asking a coworker to take a break with you. Employing a buddy system like this will not only help to hold you both accountable, but it also assists you in building greater rapport with your colleagues. Just don’t lose track of time!

Good can be great

There’s nothing wrong in seeking perfection. The fault lies in our inability to address when the pursuit of perfection is causing more harm than good. Not every schedule needs golden trim drizzled in truffle oil – that organisation chart, no matter how good it looks, will not be the tender’s deciding factor. Learn to let go of perfection in areas where it will have little impact, particularly when you’re burdened by strict time constraints.

Right about now I can hear all the perfectionists cursing me to the theme of, ‘easier said than done’. Yes, this will be harder for you than most. The next time you’re operating on a schedule, section or paragraph with precise, purposeful keystrokes, try to remember that often your 80% is the client’s 100%, or maybe even their 110%! Cut yourself some slack and let go of that elusive 100% where you can. You’ll allow yourself more time to work on other areas that will benefit from the high-quality work you deliver.

Go home!

It’s a movie plot we’re all familiar with – commitments made to family and friends are broken when you “have to” stay back to deliver that big presentation, meet the big deadline or get through a mountain of paperwork. The fact that this scenario is its own film trope speaks to its prolific nature in office jobs, but it shouldn’t be this way. Fatigue does not lend itself to productivity. If you find that you spend more time at your desk than in your house, it could be for a few reasons:

• Poor time management

• Excessive workload

• Workplace culture.

Poor time management is a killer, and it’s a problem that grows the more you feed it. Don’t leave loads of tasks to the last minute - staying back to hurriedly rush through your deadlines is not a productive use of your time. Instead, if you can, complete tasks earlier. If you’re waiting on people to deliver work to you, set deadlines and hold them accountable. Don’t let their poor time management influence yours!

If you know that your time management is solid but still wind up in the office after 5pm, your workload may simply be too large. Though it can be daunting, the best way to address this is to have a discussion with your boss and ask them which projects you should prioritise as a result. This places accountability back on them while alerting them to the fact that your workload is large, paving the way for new strategies to be developed to help lighten your load.

If you’re particularly unlucky, your workplace may foster a culture of working late. This ‘heroic’ act is both personally costly and counterproductive. Not only are you losing time you could be spending relaxing and recharging, your productivity decreases as your fatigue grows and will cascade over to the following day if you don’t get enough rest. This is a hard one to approach and is best met with a discussion with leadership. Cultural change is best delivered from the top, so encouraging those above you to frown upon this kind of behaviour is the most effective way to curb it.

Following these tips to the letter may not be possible for everyone. However, by implementing changes where you can, you will see improvement in your productivity and the quality of work you produce.

Just remember – you can’t leap forward without first taking a step back.  

Short on time but still want that big impact? Tender Plus offers a diverse range of tender services including tender strategy, tender management and tender writing. Our professional staff are experienced and willing to assist you with your next tender – so get in touch! We’d love to hear from you.

Enjoyed this article? Explore our other articles, such as 5 tender management strategies to avoid burnout on a tender and Manifesting resilience on tenders for more valuable tendering insights.