Here are a few ways to get more done each day, leave work on time and go home satisfied you've achieved a huge amount without being frazzled at the end:
1. Set realistic, manageable goals.
We all have a ‘bucket list’ of dreams and goals we want to achieve. This is a great strategy for thinking of the big picture, but for day to day life management, it’s easier and more rewarding to set smaller goals. You will feel a sense of accomplishment when you tick the items off your list and track your progression.
2. Set time limits
Rather than starting a task and allowing it to take as long as it takes, decide in advance how long you are willing to spend on each activity. If you’re clear with yourself with what time you want a job completed by, you’ll focus and avoid distraction to make sure it’s done in time. Emails could take no more than 5 minutes; calls no longer than 10 minutes and meetings no longer than half an hour. If you don’t set time limits you can find yourself at the end of a day still trying to complete something you started first thing.
3. Take breaks
If you arrive at work in the morning and the day stretches out ahead of you as one big block of busy-ness, you can feel overwhelmed. Planning regular breaks means you’ll work effectively in short sharp bursts of productivity punctuated with slots of doing something that takes your mind off work and clears your head ready for the next round of activity.
4. Move on quickly
One person we worked with had a 40 minute time limit for everything he did during a day. Whether it be proposals, costings, meetings or lunches; whatever he was doing, he’d move on to the next task after 40 minutes. He claimed that after this time he stopped having useful thoughts on each task so he’d move on to re-energise his brain. He also built in a slot during each day to return to any tasks with thoughts that came into his head while he was thinking about other things.
The key to success with getting more done is to maintain energy and focus throughout each day. This is best achieved by making progress so always keep in mind how each task you take is moving you forwards. If at any stage you feel you’re not making progress, your energy and motivation will wane and results will slow.
You're at work to get things done and achieve a something, but you don't want to spend all your time there and hours thinking about the office when you get home.
Do it, Get it Done, Get home.
1 comment:
My own feeling is that work/life balance is a myth. The only way I've ever found "balance" is to ditch the full time job and work on a contract basis - it's the only way you ever get any real down time. The typical office environment doesn't really promote any kind of balance - you are sitting at a desk 8 or 9 hours a day and then maybe three hours a day sitting in a car - that's a huge chunk to lose out of the day. The typical working week simply takes up too much time to allow anything like true balance. My solution was to contract (which pays better), but limit work to a maximum of six months per year (ideally 3 months). If you downsize, simplify and cut costs it's doable. That freed up tons of time to do other things besides sit in an office and rot. p.s. just finished reading your life coaching book Jeff. I found it very useful on a couple of aspects - particularly the stuff on values and belief systems. All the best, Tony
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