9 Tips to Make Your Workday Better - Part 2

Making our workday better with regard to efficiency, effectiveness, and productivity is something we all want to do. In part one of 9 Tips to Make Your Workday Better I suggested that you...

· Schedule Your Work Time

· Don't Start Your Day with E-mail

· Jump Start Your Day with 2 or 3 Quick and Easy Tasks

· Do the Small Stuff When You Deal with it the First Time

In this second installment we'll look at five other tips for improving our workday.

Stay Focused on the Current Task

This is the age of multitasking. Most of us have several unrelated activities ongoing at any given time. Rarely are we able to work on a single task from start to finish, except for the small stuff. We must work on our larger tasks and projects while simultaneously handling many other activities and duties.

While working on a project or complex task that requires more time to complete, we are often distracted or interrupted. These distractions and interruptions hinder our ability to focus on the task at hand, dividing our attention and redirecting our thoughts. These distractions and interruptions come from two sources.

First, there are external distractions and interruptions. These include things such as a colleague stopping by to chat or your boss scheduling a last minute conference call. You did not cause these interruptions; nevertheless, they halt your work, disrupting your focus.

Second, there are internal distractions and interruptions. The adversary here is you. Your own thoughts impede your ability to concentrate. Your focus is disrupted as your mind wanders and your attention is diverted to thoughts of other things.

Here are some common internal distractions that can interrupt and hamper your ability to focus:

· Constantly allowing your mind to wander, thinking about other subjects

· Aversion to the current task

· Being overly preoccupied with thoughts of all the other things you must do

· Thinking about things you'd prefer to be doing

· Daydreaming

· Stress

· Fretfulness due to an imminent deadline

· Anxiety, worrying about job related issues

· Anxiety, worrying about family issues and other personal matters

· Negative self-talk

· Illness

· Fatigue

Those who are most effective and productive have learned how to resist and limit these distracting thoughts, enabling them to maintain their focus on the task at hand. You must learn to do the same. Developing the ability to intently focus while minimizing interference from distracting thoughts will take time and practice, but the payoff is worthwhile.

I developed my ability to focus by gradually training my mind to be mentally "on alert" to any distracting thoughts. By being immediately cognizant of the distraction I can consciously choose to disregard it. I then refocus my thoughts on the task at hand. By the way, I should say "I am developing my ability to focus" because I am still working on it!

Developing your own ability to intently focus will take time. Practice always being mentally on alert and eventually you will do so unconsciously. Your mind will immediately recognize any distracting thoughts and will automatically keep your thoughts focused on the immediate task.

As your skill to remain focused on the current task increases, there will be a corresponding increase in your productivity. You will get more work done and in less time.

Batch Routine Tasks for Efficiency

You will save time and be more productive when you batch many of your routine tasks. Batching simply means doing like tasks at the same point in time.

Here are examples of tasks that you can batch:

· Checking voice mail

· Making and returning phone calls

· Faxing documents

· Copying documents

· Reading and replying to e-mail

· Signing letters, forms, and other documents

· Opening the mail

· Sealing envelops and affixing postage

· Filing documents

· Filing e-mails

· Labeling file folders

· Running errands

For example, as a branch manager one of my responsibilities was to approve time off requests. My inbox often contained several request forms. To approve or deny a request required these actions for each request:

· Checking the requested dates for availability

· Checking the employee's available time off

· Approving or denying the request

· Completing and signing the request form

· If approved, adding the information to the time off calendar

· Preparing the employee's copy of the form

· Filing the request form

Processing each form individually as I removed it from my IN tray would have been less efficient than handling them all together at the same time. By getting all the request forms together first I only had to prepare once for processing them.

Think about the many routine tasks that you do and determine which ones you should do by batching. The real benefit is the time you will save by only having to prepare for the process once. The more tasks and processes you can complete by batching the more time you will save.

Schedule a Regular Time for Processing Your Mail

I recommend you process mail as soon as possible after it is delivered. Because a lot of mail is junk you might totally ignore the mail on some days. To prevent that you should schedule a regular time to open and process your mail everyday.

Of course, all mail is not junk. Mail delivered today may contain important, even urgent, communications. If a letter is time sensitive and you ignore it for too long, you risk missing the deadline, which could have serious consequences. Even if your failure to open the letter is unintentional - you simply did not get to it - the consequences of missing the deadline will be the same.

In the first tip (in Part 1 of 9 Tips to Make Your Workday Better) I recommended that you actually schedule your work periods on your calendar. Likewise, schedule the processing of mail on your calendar; and, perhaps you will want to add a reminder as well. Schedule your mail processing at time that works best for you.

For instance, if your mail is normally delivered by 11:30 AM, and you typically go to lunch at 11:45, you might schedule your time to process the mail first thing after lunch. You know when your mail is normally delivered. Schedule an appropriate time to process your mail and do it routinely.

Take a Couple of Breaks and Don't Skip Lunch

There is a saying "Hard work never killed anybody," but the truth is hard work has killed a great many people. Our minds and bodies are subject to fatigue and overworking them can result in poor health, physically and mentally.

By my nature I am one of those individuals who can work for hours without stopping. I have already confessed that I used to start my day by reading email, often as early as 5:00 AM. (I don't do that now.)

However, if I allow myself, I will work without a morning break, sometimes skip lunch, then continue all afternoon, and often into the evening. I do not say this to boast, rather, I am confessing that I am still prone to overworking if I am not careful.

That is one extreme. The other, of course, is being lazy and slothful. I assume that since you have purchased this book you are not lazy.

If you are a high energy, super-charged individual who often works without a break, you will benefit by slowing down enough to accommodate lunch and at least a couple of breaks during your day. If you go full blast continuously, you run the risk of eventually breaking down.

Taking a break in the morning, stopping for lunch, and taking another break in the afternoon, yields many benefits, including:

· Your mind can relax

· Any mental tension is diminished

· Your mind can be refreshed

· Your body can rest

· Your muscles can relax

· You are preventing excessive fatigue

· You can return to your work feeling better and with more energy.

Working continuously without any breaks may seem like a good thing, but it is actually counterproductive in the long run. As your fatigue increases, your efficiency and productivity decrease. You can get by with this for a while, and in certain circumstances it may even be necessary for a day or two. However, you should not adopt laboring without breaks as your normal work style.

By taking a break, even if it is just ten minutes, you will benefit. So, take those breaks!

It's Okay to Stop and Go Home at the End of the Day

Yes, it really is okay to stop working, turn out the light, and go home at the end of the day. If you are one of those people discussed above (and I am one of them) you should give yourself both the command and the permission to stop working at a reasonable time.

The purpose of this article was to share a few tips that will help you become more efficient, more productive, and more organized. As you do you will accomplish more work, in less time, and with less effort. That will make it possible to end your day at a reasonable hour.

As you become more efficient and productive during your workday, you will be able to go home in the evening without any guilty feelings about work left undone. You can head home with confidence that your important and urgent tasks have all been completed.

What remains is the unimportant and non-urgent stuff, which will be there in the morning. Turn out the light, lock the door, and go home!