Q # 8 - 30 Days of Insight

How can you work smarter instead of harder? Check out some tips and start thinking of your own ideas, too.  Visit with your friends to uncover more tips!

Do the hardest tasks when you are mentally sharp and energetic

Take advantage of the morning, if this is when you feel your best, and knock out a bunch of work related tasks. Notice when you are dragging yourself along. Working at a time of day when you are tired is a waste of energy. Realize this and do something else instead.  

Re-think your meetings

If your presence isn’t required in a meeting, see if you can delegate it to someone else, which could end up being a great way to encourage their growth and leadership skills.  Or, cancel the meeting and get the essential information with a simple phone call or short email. You can save a tremendous amount of time by reducing or eliminating unnecessary meetings.

Tune into your “why”

Focus on what connects you with your purpose, values, and goals. If you can’t figure out why you’re doing something, skip it and move on to something else!  What mattered a month ago might not matter today. 

Be open to new priorities

Focus on being productive instead of busy, Setting weekly goals and priorities is very helpful, but you may also need to be flexible right now and respond accordingly. Don’t resist this. Respond to the new priority quickly (such as learning new online meeting technology) and skip any drama about having to do it.  Just do it and move on.

Schedule your work - write it down in 30-60 minute chunks

Your calendar is your friend!  Use it to map out the next day’s schedule, in advance.  Or, do this for the entire week.

Stand up and stretch

Stand up and stretch, every 30 minutes, at the very least.  This will keep your body and mind more alert. Better yet, take a break outside, in nature.

Batch your activities to reduce “ramping up time”.

Group similar tasks together so you can dive in and get it all done before transitioning into a totally different activity.  For example, do all of your email checks once (or twice) a day and that’s it! Or, do writing activities all at once. Transitioning from one activity to a totally different one takes “ramping up time” so try to minimize the transitions you’ll need to make between activities.

Reduce distractions

You’re possibly working from home with other family members working or doing schoolwork, too.  Wear headphones (for silence or with music) and get rid of any other distractions such as your cell phone on the desk. Put it away.

 Be done with it.

A little known secret is that 8 hours at home isn’t the same as 8 hours in a corporate office. You can get MORE done in LESS time when you work from home since there are fewer ‘water cooler’ distractions.  Resist the urge to pile on more work simply to work a full 8 hours. Be OK working fewer hours, as long as you get your work done. No busy work required.

JOURNAL PROMPT:

Since quarantining at home, do you feel you've been working HARDER?  Or, SMARTER?  Looking at the tips above, and doing some thinking on your own, ask yourself how you can start working in a more efficient and less stressful way.  What can you stop doing to relieve pressure at work, for example?  Or, what do you need to start doing, such as scheduling your tasks?