There are never enough hours in the day to get everything checked of your “to do” list. So how do you find ways to maximize the work you get done during business and not cut too many corners or start producing sub-par products and projects.

We’ve compiled several quick tips to help you cut time corners without reducing your productivity.

1. Avoid heavy multitasking

Multitasking is a great skill to have to balance all of your open projects, but take time to focus on a single project without distractions. This reduces the chance for errors that multitasking can cause when your brain is trying to solve 5 problems at once.

2. Prioritize your checklist frequently

Go down your “to-do” list and evaluate how much of a priority each individual item is and adjust accordingly. If something needs to be completed by a sooner deadline, make it a higher priority item even if it seems small enough that you could wait a little while.

3. Set a time to leave

If you keep telling yourself that you can just stay a few minutes later to finish a product, you will work with less urgency and efficiency than if you have a hard deadline time in which to get your items finished for the day.

4. Don’t hesitate to delegate

If part of a project is not your forte, and someone else on your team can finish that piece in a faster, more efficient timeframe, do not be ashamed to ask for assistance. Don’t waste previous time flaying about learning how to do an item that your team members could help you with or teach you about.

5. Eliminate distractions

If you are easily distracted, set down your phone or close browser tabs you no longer need. Distractions can start off taking just a few seconds, but it can break your concentration away from your tasks long enough to make picking things back up again much harder.

6. Plan your days in advance

Start your day by writing up the day’s task list. After you adjust for priorities and deadlines, you will know exactly what you need to focus on for the day, setting the rest aside until you get to the next day.

7. Work in chunks

Brain breaks are necessary to prevent tiring yourself out. Find the optimal amount of time you can work on a single project before you start to lose focus. Take short 5 minute breaks to stretch your legs, refill your coffee cup, and prepare for the next stretch of productivity.

Information is meant to be more than just taken in; information is meant to be used.

Educators have used projects to help students not only retain the information in a certain lesson, but also as a way for students to actively show their understanding of a topic. Long term projects that require research increase a student’s knowledge of a subject to a much deeper level.

Projects have a lot of appeal as well for actively engaging all types of learners, especially more hands on and visual learners. And with the growth of interactive technology in the classroom, you can turn your ordinary lecture lessons into class-wide interactive projects.

Lectures are useful when you have a lot of material to cover, but we understand that temptation to start dozing off. Today’s students respond better and retain more information when that information is broken down into smaller, more manageable chunks.

By inserting moments for your students to come up and point out or interact directly with the board, it keeps the pace of your lesson moving along nicely. Breaking up the traditional routine will be something that your students remember and it can also keep your lessons from becoming too long for their attention span.

Instead of having worksheets to hand out after a short lesson, try giving your students small projects that they can use their phones, if they have them, or school computers or tablets to complete. Take your normal assignments and find a way to make them digital. Here are a few ideas.

• Turn a simple PowerPoint presentation into a short video about the subject that students must work together to create.
• Have students use social media to reach out to experts and government officials to help them answer questions for a worksheet.
• Pair up with another class in a different school to set up a Skype pen pal or homework help system.
• Use collaborative software, like Google’s Drive and Docs, for students to work together to write a report.
• Research and find apps that focus on a particular course subject that corresponds with your lessons for your kids to play with.