Do you feel your productivity needs a boost? If you’re not completing tasks that are helping you reach your goals then productivity is an issue for you. What’s behind the lack of productivity could be any number of things, but today time management is what we’re going to focus on.
Time management is really a misnomer. There is only so much time in any given day. So the real, the only way to rephrase time management is by saying self management.
Take a look at the distractors in your work day. If you wake up late is your entire day ruined? When you are at work do you take long breaks between working on different projects. Do you have the skill and knowledge to complete the work you are working on? Do the office cronies come in and distract you by talking about personal issues or asking you to do something at the weekend?
These are all valid distractors at work. Think about how you would stop them from occurring.
The first one, waking up later than you should, as long as it is not a habit of being late to work should be okay if you still have time to focus in on what needs to be done. Just remember that “the early bird gets the worm” addage. If the boss is at work early, and he or she constantly sees that you have his or her work ethics of being there early then they may trust you more to be getting your work done and give you bigger and better projects.
Taking long breaks can break your concentration, but is at times unavoidable. We do need to restore our energy levels. I have been reading Life Hacker and found a neat 10 step blog entry on the Top Ten Ways to Stay Energized http://lifehacker.com/5054947/top-10-ways-to-stay-energized.
What you don’t want to do is to stand in the kitchen or at the water cooler and lose all focus. Certainly go out to lunch instead of staying in even if you brought lunch from home. If you can go listen to the birds, sit outside to eat and let your brain rejuvenate. It’s when we refuse to allow our bodies and minds to rejuvenate that we start to lose our edge in whatever we’re doing. Yes, I guess this means meditation is a good thing.
Know your stuff. If you’re given a project, a report to write or something similar and you do not know how to get started or how to complete it and you keep putting it off how does that make you look to the boss? The key here is to use those strategic alliances you have been building with all the networking you’ve been doing. Call or email someone who does know how to do what you’re seeking to learn. Is there any harm in asking? NO! Is there harm in not getting the project done? YES! So ask!
Cronies, friends, and family interrupting your train of thought when you’re on a roll and working as hard as you can, can destroy a thought process quicker than anything I know of. It can stop you dead in your tracks. Your mind will go off to Fiji with your cronie’s vacation plans or you’ll be stuck in the kitchen with the grandmother who can’t decide if your child should have soup or a sandwich for lunch.
Controlling interruptions is perhaps one of the hardest things to get past. Previously, I’ve written that if you can, turn off the phone ringer, close your door, hang signs that you’re busy or on a deadline, but the biggest one you need to remember is self-management. Only you can say to your co-worker, I’m busy. When grandma calls, and you answer, say to her, I trust your judgment. She will call less. Your co-worker will realize he or she should be working too and the boss will see that you don’t waste time.
Well try these things out and let me know how it goes. I’m always open for ways to help others get organized, be more productive and share them with others.
Denise
