Do you often find that, at work, you seem to progress at a snail’s pace – with the result that, despite hour after hour of work time, a strangely high number of tasks remain undone? You are probably just suffering from disorganisation. There are many ways in which you can get your working schedule in good shape to boost your efficiency; here are just some of them.
Strip down to the bare essentials
No, wait, please stop loosening that tie – the stripping shouldn’t quite go that far. However, you can certainly benefit from reviewing the work equipment and supplies currently at your disposal and deciding which of them you genuinely need.
Time management expert Cory Cook advises you to “be ruthless and remove anything that doesn’t directly serve a function in your day to day activity”. She adds that keeping a few carefully-chosen ornaments for personalising your work space is “fine, but avoid too many”.
Make sure that all materials are at hand when you need them
Once you’ve narrowed down what items you definitely need for your work, make sure that they are stored in appropriate places for routinely ready access. What do we mean? Basically, that you should place items in the locations where you actually tend to use them.
Spare copy paper, for example, logically should be kept beside the printer. Meanwhile, you shouldn’t stock note paper where you can’t also easily find a pen. Finally, remember to always return items to their original locations whenever you have used them; that way, they will always be wherever you expect them to be.
Wrap up the day by planning for tomorrow
Once you’ve finished work for the day, squeeze in time for drawing up a “to-do” list for the next day. You don’t need to go into too much detail with this plan – or, indeed, spend more than about ten to fifteen minutes on it. However, the plan should still be sufficiently detailed to ensure that, when you get up the following morning, you will know exactly what you should do and when.
This can also be good advice if you are pursuing any new jobs. Looking for work can be much more fruitful if you actually treat it as work in itself; therefore, remember to keep all of the above-mentioned tips in mind as you look for work opportunities. You will likely find plenty such opportunities listed here on the Rowlands Recruitment website.