15 amazing benefits of using a Productivity Planner

15 amazing benefits of using a Productivity Planner

A productivity planner has numerous benefits apart from improving productivity
A productivity planner has numerous benefits apart from improving productivity

If you are eager to improve your productivity, a productivity planner can really help. Theres is no doubt that the 10 minutes spent on planning something can save your 100 minutes from getting wasted. A planner for productivity is an awesome time management tool that will make you find what tasks you need to do, what is the total time you have for completing them and what task needs to be prioritized. As such, whatever your goal is, a weekly planner can actually help. The lack of cognitive ability to manage the demand of family, work and social life is quite common and this is where the role of daily planner comes in. If you’re planning to achieve something, go ahead with a productivity planner. These reasons will make you believe the power of productivity planners. Keep along this article to know about 15 surprising productivity planner benefits :-

Planners can improve productivity in every manner

Productivity planners improve productivity in every manner
Productivity planners improve productivity in every manner

Productivity planner gives you the benefit of an improved productivity. You will be easily able to complete tasks, meet deadlines and achieve your goals. This improved productivity is not limited to just professional goals but also personal goals. Whether it’s for an important work target or it’s for a weekend trip, a planner can be used anywhere. You can even plan to do household chores, shopping and meal planning to improve productivity at home with planners.

Planners can help reduce stress

Productivity planner gives benefit in reducing stress
Productivity planner gives benefit in reducing stress

The hectic schedule in today’s busy life has ruined our physical and mental comfort. Life has become quite stressful as we have to deal with multiple tasks simultaneously. But, a productivity planner gives you the benefit of organizing every single task you need to do. You can list tasks, rearrange them as per their importance and assign time required to complete each task. This gives you an idea of what’s there and if time isn’t enough, less important tasks can be eliminated. This reduces anxiety.

Planners make it less likely to forget something

Productivity planners give benefit of not forgetting something
Productivity planner gives benefit of not forgetting something

It is very difficult to keep track of all the to do activities, important appointments and coming deadlines in this stressful world. Hence, writing down whatever you need to do can make you remember it for long. Writing down all the tasks, deadlines, events and appointments in your productivity planner will give you the benefit of remembering it. Just a simple act of writing something makes it less likely to forget it.

Planners help in time management

Managing time easily is one of the benefits of productivity planners
Managing time easily is one of the benefits of productivity planners

Managing time in a busy environment can be very challenging. We develop the habit of doing multi tasking without analyzing it’s possible losses. Getting time for everything you want to do is quite tough. Productivity planners help in scheduling each task and activities you need to do. You concentrate on one task at a time according to this schedule. This helps in completing everything efficiently and you get more personal time.

Planners unleash your creativity

You can unleash your creativity with productivity planner
You can unleash your creativity with productivity planner

Productivity planners can save your time. This time can be utilized in learning a new skill or to do something creative that you didn’t get time to do. A productivity planner is in itself a tool to exercise your creativity. You can customize the looks of your planner pages as per your creativity. You can color it, doodle around, add photographs or whatever your mind says in your planner.

Planners can be used to share schedule with others

Productivity planners give benefit of sharing schedule with others
Productivity planners give benefit of sharing schedule with others

Sharing your entire schedule to the entire team or your family and friends can be a long time consuming process manually. But productivity planners give you the benefit of sharing your schedule to the team rapidly. Digital planner softwares have features that make it easy for your family, friends or colleagues to access your schedule while even your privacy is maintained.

Planners help in delegating the tasks

Productivity planner gives benefit of delegating right task to the right person
Productivity planner gives benefit of delegating right task to the right person

Delegating the right task to the right person is very important for reaching a goal. And, it can be very confusing manually. A task not delegated to the right person can make delay in accomplishing the goal. A productivity planner can benefit you with this also. As you can see the task calender of every person, you can delegate them the right task by considering their strengths.

Planners can break large goals into smaller tasks

Productivity planners give benefit of breaking large goals into small tasks
Productivity planners give benefit of breaking large goals into small tasks

Completing a big goal demands to do a lot of activities that look very confusing to do at once. Productivity planners give you the advantage of breaking out these large projects into smaller tasks. You can divide them into small easy to understand sub-tasks as such there’s no confusion about what are the activities you have to complete. Even communicating about complex projects to the team becomes easy by breaking it.

Planners can help spot tasks undone

You can easily spot tasks undone with productivity planner
You can easily spot tasks undone with productivity planner

Planners give you the benefit of quickly spot any task that is overdue. Getting too busy and forgetting an important task just because you had to do another activities is quite normal. Productivity planners make you spot these undone tasks in a flash. And if you are too busy to do that, you can timely assign that task to another person who can complete it.

Planners make you healthy

Productivity planners can make you start a healthy lifestyle
Productivity planners can make you start a healthy lifestyle

Productivity planners can make you healthy as well. Apart from the usual benefit that planner reduces your stress by avoiding any confusing hectic situation, planners can be used in a lot more ways for health benefits. If you have an important dental appointment, you can timely list it down on your planner. Planners also give you the freedom to plan your diet, sleep, exercise and fitness routine.

Planners put everything in one place

Productivity planner puts everything in one place
Productivity planner puts everything in one place

One benefit of productivity planner is that is can keep everything in just one place. Especially when you use paper to plan your day, you can eliminate any kind of fragmentation. You can write down everything in one place. Whether it’s your to-do list, or the important day to day appointments or some coming social obligations, you can use productivity planner to put everything in one place. This saves extra time.

Planners can improve customer satisfaction

Productivity planners can improve customer satisfaction
Productivity planners can improve customer satisfaction

Another interesting advantage of productivity planner is that it can be used to improve customer satisfaction. When you and your team collectively and individually do something according to the planner, there’s no need of any delays as everything will have it’s time and budget. When you do a project as per the customer’s plan, he feels satisfied and even lead to more revenues and growth for the business.

Planners can make you focus on important activities

Productivity planners give benefit of focusing on important activities
Productivity planners give benefit of focusing on important activities

Productivity is badly suffered when you spend your time on activities that are not too important for the whole project. Prioritizing activities is most important for completing a goal on time. Productivity planners give you the benefit of organizing the activities according to their importance. Tasks that help more in goal achievement are more important. If time available is not enough, you can focus on these important activities.

Planners give you a sense of accomplishment

Productivity planners give you a sense of accomplishment
Productivity planners give you a sense of accomplishment

Productivity planners are used to write down tasks you need to do for making a goal successful. When you complete the tasks written on your planner, it gives you a sense of accomplishment. When you cross the tasks you complete or mark them as done, you get a sense of accomplishment and you also feel motivated to do more complex tasks. You will also be able to completely enjoy the leisure time you get by completing tasks in planned time.

Planners help in monitoring employee performance

Productivity planner gives benefit of monitoring employee performance
Productivity planner gives benefit of monitoring employee performance

Productivity planner gives you the advantage of keeping a track of time that is spent on each task. This can be very helpful in monitoring the performance of employees. Time tracking means that employees will try to complete the task given on time as they know that they are being monitored. If the task is taking more time by employees than what it should take according to the planner, areas of improvements can be identified easily.

The importance of a productivity planner cannot be denied considering the above benefits it provides. A productivity planner really helps in time management as there’s not any space for wasting time on unimportant tasks and there’s everything written on the planner that avoids any misinterpretation. Even with such huge pros, these are also a few cons saying that productivity planners reduce flexibility and creativity. Planner prevent action and can lead to complacency. However, researches show that planning is good. Particularly in this technological world where everyone seems to be rushing, you won’t forget any necessary activity just with the help of a planner.

Expectancy Theory of Motivation – A Guide to Motivate, Encourage and Prosper

Expectancy Theory of Motivation – A Guide to Motivate, Encourage and Prosper.

Work won’t feel like a burden when you are motivated enough to achieve something special in life.

People make choices in their daily life including their workplace. Are the decisions that you make influenced due to some factors? In 1964, Victor Vroom proposed a theory to answer this question.

Vroom was a Canadian professor at Yale. He developed a concept called the expectancy theory of motivation while he was teaching at Yale. How this concept has helped people across the world is a thing to note.

Use of Expectancy theory of motivation at work.
Use of the expectancy theory of motivation at work

Source

What is the Expectancy Theory Of Motivation?

The expectancy theory of motivation is a helpful tool. It explains why a person prefers to act out of certain behavior. On top of that, the theory is about the mental process you go through for a choice.

Vroom’s theory describes that a person’s behavior is based on the outcome of the chosen behavior. So, people are much more motivated when they believe that their current actions will achieve the desired goal.

People who know the use of Expectancy Theory of Motivation are happier.
People who know the use of the expectancy theory of motivation are happier.

Source

3 variables of Expectancy Theory of Motivation

There are three variables for the expectancy theory of motivation. The three variables include Expectancy, Instrumentality, and Valence.

Expectancy

Expectancy is the first variable of the theory. It is one’s belief that an increase in the amount of effort will increase their performance. It is like saying if I work harder, then I will be able to perform better.

There are mainly three factors that act as a measure for the expectancy of a person. They are Past experience, perceived difficulty, and self-confidence. These three factors form the basis of one’s expectancy. On top of that, there is some driving factor acting when you see the expectancy theory of motivation.

Woman putting in her effort as per Expectancy Theory of Motivation.
Woman putting in her effort as per the expectancy theory of motivation.

Source

  • Competency: Competency is about the application of an individual. It is about how you apply your set of skills, knowledge, and abilities. 
  • Difficulty: If your goals are set too high or complex, then it leads to low expectancy. Usually, it occurs when you believe your expected results are not achievable.
  • Support: You need to know where to get the support from or whom to get it. To get the job done, you need the necessary support from peers or seniors. Thus, expectancy increases.
  • Perceived Control: You should have a certain degree of control over the expected results. Moreover, the higher expectancy is directly related to the degree of perceived control. Besides, if one thinks that the outcome is out of their influence, the motivation is low.

Instrumentality

Instrumentality is another variable in the expectancy theory of motivation. It refers to a person’s belief that you will achieve the desired results if you perform well. It’s like if I perform well, I will reach my desired goal.

For instance, the company uses it to increase the motivation level of an employee by rewarding. A company announces incentives and promotions as rewards. Take, for example; the company uses it to increase the motivation level of an employee. They do this by rewarding them.

Expectancy Theory of Motivation says one have to perform well if they want reward.
The Expectancy Theory of Motivation says one have to perform well if they want reward.

Source

A company announces incentives and promotions in the form of rewards. On the other hand, it is a way to reward good employee performance. So, it helps the employee to achieve their desired goal.

At the same time, certain factors are associated with this variable.

  • Trust: One must trust the system or the people who decide on who gets what. The trust that the outcome will be based on performance.
  • Transparency: Having a transparent system of rewarding should be a priority for any company. If the process of rewarding lacks transparency, then instrumentality will lower down.
  • Control: There should be control over how a decision is made. Also, it helps to determine who gets what outcome.
  • Clear Policies: Policies for rewarding should be laid out in clear terms. One should know the relationship between performance and rewards. Besides, it increases the motivation level as everyone knows the terms and conditions for achieving the rewards. 

Valence

The third on the list of the expectancy theory of motivation is Valence. As a matter of fact, Valence refers to the unique value that one places on outcomes. It is based on an individual’s needs, values, goals. It also depends on motivation sources. At the same time, the strength of one’s preference for a particular outcome is also a deciding factor in Valence.

Rewards have special palace in Expectancy Theory of Motivation.
Rewards have special palace in the expectancy theory of motivation.

Source

For instance, a bonus or a raise in salary may motivate and be desirable for one employee. But it may not be for others. Others may prefer recognition and flexible work hours as a more motivating factor. Thus, an outcome desired by one may not be desirable for others.

How To Apply The Expectancy Theory Of Motivation?

The expectancy theory of motivation has its usage both in the workplace and also in our life. At the same time, it is a principle that acts as a tool to improve your team’s motivation.

Application of The Expectancy Theory of Motivation in Workplace

The expectancy theory of motivation of Vroom’s works on perceptions. On top of that, you want to motivate them to fulfill the company goals. To achieve this, one must address the factors associated with the theory.

More often than not, you can motivate people by appreciating their work. It can be in the form of rewards, incentives, and promotions. Thus, you motivate your employees to put in more effort to achieve the company’s goals.

One can apply Expectancy Theory of Motivation at work.
One can apply the expectancy theory of motivation at work.

Source

Managers can use these steps further to improve the motivation of your team by:

Make Promises which align with company policies.

Promises which you make should be viable according to the company’s policy. If you don’t fulfill your promises, then it becomes difficult to establish trust.

Challenge your team with achievable goals

It is important to challenge your team to help them reach their full potential. At the same time, the expected outcomes should be achievable considering the skill set and available resources. It helps to keep the team motivated.

Assign work seeing the skill they have.

Not everyone is equal, so the potential and skills levels also vary. You must assign work that is part of their domain and skill set. The idea should be to use their skills to achieve the goals. Thus, you motivate your team to perform better next time.

Fair and logical reward distribution

In the end, when you achieve the results, then the rewards distribution should be fair. Also, there should not be a sense of partiality among the team. On the other hand, if you distribute rewards fairly and with a certain logic, you motivate employees to perform next time to get the reward. 

How to Apply The Expectancy Theory of Motivation in Life

You can apply the expectancy theory of motivation to your life too. Before you start, you should make sure you have the following three things. Firstly, a goal you want to achieve, secondly a clear plan to upskill and increase your domain knowledge. Lastly, the belief that if you execute well, you will reach the desired outcome.

Expectancy Theory of Motivation works in the normal life too.
The Expectancy Theory of Motivation works in the normal life too.

Assuming that you have found the goal that excites you, devise a plan to increase your performance. If you succeed and your hard work shows results, it’s a great sign. It means your instrumentality is high. On the other hand, if you fail, check your desire to achieve the goal and valence. If that is also high, then expectancy needs to be balanced. Lastly, if nothing is working, then it’s time to go to the drawing board again.

Sources

Expectancy Theory of Motivation Examples

The expectancy theory of motivation has many examples that define its usage in life. For instance, you start a business when you that your idea is disruptive. Also, it can change people’s lives for good; then, it’s valence.

You perform better to achieve the goal you have set for your company. The success can be monetary or in brand value. It is Instrumentality. If you succeed, it means your expectancy was good. Otherwise, you’ll learn, grow and widen your network for the next time.

Effort-Performance Tie

Managers use this method in the workplace to reward people. When you achieve a positive outcome, you want to decide whom to reward. Also, the rewards that are given for the desired performance should be of value to the recipient.

Otherwise, the motivation level will drop if the rewards are just for the sake and not valued. Another aspect of it is that the recipient should be well deserving. To ensure this company must spell out the performance expected from them for a reward if the outcome is achieved.

One should know how to use Expectancy Theory of Motivation.
One should know how to use the expectancy theory of motivation.

Source

Conclusion 

People expect a reward for their work. More often than not, their decision is based on the rewards they expect from their work. That’s why the concept of the expectancy theory of motivation helps you to gain insights. It also helps to understand different ways to motivate your team. 

On top of that, if you know what inspires others to work harder, goal setting becomes easier. Also, you can assign work better. Thus, the expectancy theory of motivation is helpful in the modern world.