Working Efficiently

Working efficiently takes focus and practice. The key to working efficiently is to develop good working habits. So what does working efficiently really mean and how do we do it? 

Working efficiently is getting the most out of your work day in the form of using your time wisely. Working longer days, working on weekends, is not working efficiently. Here are some ideas on what constitutes working efficiently and some tips you can try: 

• Focus on quality - Whether responding to emails, participating in meetings, or handling client phone calls, you need to focus on quality. Quality is important to your work and you need to focus. 
  • How? Time chunking - grouping like tasks together to complete at one time will increase your focus on quality not to mention saving you time. For example, set aside 20 minutes of your schedule to respond to emails a few times a day. During the time you are not working on emails, close your email program to reduce distractions allowing you to focus on the tasks at hand. 
• Set times for your open door policy - Having an open door policy for employees and colleagues is a great management tool. Employees know they can approach you when they encounter a problem to get help, but having the door open all of the time creates several problems. One, you lose valuable time working on tasks that you need to get done. Second, with frequent interruptions your work quality degrades significantly. 
  • How? Set open door times. One manager tells employees that on most days between 9 and 11am she is available for open door questions. She also sets a time immediately after lunch from 1-2pm. Employees know they can approach her during these times and actually feel better about asking questions to help them get their work done. During these times she focuses on minor tasks such as filing, scheduling, etc. Tasks she can't stop and return to easily. 
• Prepare in advance - Often overlooked is the need to prepare in advance whether it is a meeting, a phone call with a client, or even gathering important information to complete a work task. 
  • How? Yep, you guessed it...schedule time in advance of a specific task to prepare. For meetings, 15 minutes prior to the meeting start may be sufficient, or for bigger projects you may need to schedule time days in advance to gather information you need to finish a work product. The key is to understand that setting a time on your schedule to do one thing, may require several other tasks to be completed before you can finish it so plan accordingly.
    

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Overall, gaining control of your time will result in completing a better work product, reduce the time required to complete it, and will help you enjoy each day knowing you have accomplished what needed to be done. This equals Working Efficiently!