When running a hotel business, the ultimate goal is usually to produce more and spend less. To achieve this, you need to improve your level of efficiency by maximizing your time and budget.
In this article, we have provided 5 quick tips to help you improve productivity at your hotel:
1. Set clear goals
The first step toward achieving a greater level of efficiency is to have clear goals with realistic deadlines when tackling any kind of task - from the simplest to the most complex. This allows you to put every action or decision into perspective while maintaining focus on the ultimate goal.
Organizing your agenda and creating a workflow to complete all your short, medium, and long-term goals - whether it is something as minor as the 2 hours needed to finalize a report or the 5 weeks to set up an event - goes a long way in helping you realize the desired results. Always be prepared for last minute breaks that may add work to your schedule.
2. Prioritise your tasks
It is not uncommon to feel overwhelmed by your daily workload and like you have too much on your plate. Carefully prioritizing your tasks can help to relieve the tension and make things much easier and achievable for you.
You first need to determine at what times are you able to perform tasks better. For instance, there are those who feel particularly creative during the early morning hours. Understanding where you lie allows you to better organize your day. So, rather than spending your creative time responding to emails, you can focus on creating content for your website.
When it comes to scheduling your work day, it is important to note that not everything will require urgent attention. Focus on the goals you've already set and determine which tasks are most critical and address them. While some tasks may be important, they may not be critical. Through careful assessment, you will also find that some may also be optional on a particular day. The point is to focus on what is critical.
3. Don't be afraid to say "no"
Any person with experience in the hospitality industry will tell you how much harm overbooking can cause, especially when it comes to time management. Never overbook your daily schedule. Many people falsely believe that they can handle multiple tasks simultaneously. But nothing could be further from the truth. The human brain is scientifically incapable of multitaskingefficiently. Basically what you are usually doing when 'multitasking' is rapidly shifting your focus from one thing to another without actually achieving much.
What you may not realize is that when you divide your attention between different activities, you actually increase the time it takes to complete any task, even the simplest ones. Trying to multitask can have a hugely negative effect on your productivity and efficiency levels. So, it is best to just focus on one thing at a time.
4. Get rid of distractions
The current world we live in is filled with all kinds of distractions that always demand our attention. You need to identify things that cause you to divert your attention from work and put a pin on them. This can be anything from your phone, electronic devices, social media, and news websites, to external interruptions.
Think about all the times you were working productively only to be interrupted by a text message or email and it completely diverted your attention.
Rather than responding to the email on impulse, the smart move is to set aside some time during your day to deal with your inbox. If you need to stay connected to your email, check whether your email system has a snooze option that you can use for a short period.
5. Take a break
Your brain is like a muscle that also gets tired after hours of use. For athletes, the resting periods are equally as important as the training sessions. This is because the resting periods are when the body and muscles recover and prepare to take on the next challenge. The same goes for your brain.
Occasionally taking breaks helps to prevent fatigue which canbe detrimental to your productivity and efficiency and reduce how stressed you feel. Strategically scheduled 5-minute breaks can help you better deal with creativity blockages.
Keep in mind that you don't need to take long breaks to recover. Spending just a few minutes away from the desk every now and then will help.
Sometimes, working harder and harder doesn't always achieve the desired results. You need to take a step back and find out how you can work more efficiently by working smarter, making the most of your energy and abilities.
