Office Management: Focus Your Work Time

Every one of us has the same amount of time in our lives, from a stay at home mom, to a corporate executive, to the baker down the street. Balancing work and home life is challenging for almost everyone. Managing a corporate office for over ten years has taught me to be a smart organizer of my time at work.

Everyone wears different "hats" in life - the mom hat, the employee hat, the spouse hat. One of the tricks to organizing your time at work is to keep your focus on the work hat while you're at the office. Remove any distractions that will pull you away from work - a cell phone (unless used for emergencies from home) or your home bills.

Realize that you're being paid to be at work, and your goal is to do the job you've been hired to do. If you organize your time efficiently, you can leave each "hat" in its proper place. If you're at work, you focus on your work and complete your tasks. When you're at home, you focus on family and leave the office behind you.

One of the biggest threats against focus in the office is the internet. Many employers have strict policies regarding their employee's use of internet access for personal reasons. Although most of us feel more relaxed after a few short games of computer Solitaire, it's best to stay away from on-line internet games, which can gobble up our time.

Limit your visits to chat-rooms and forums, as they can literally suck hours away from your work life. The internet can be a great tool (both personally and professionally), especially if you're chained to your desk all day long. Learn to know your weaknesses, and how to stay focused on your tasks and hand, and not being consumed by internet surfing. If you're consumed with finding your great-great grandmother's birth certificate records on-line, limit your searches to your home computer.

Another great to time organization are the chatters in the office. We all know who they are - they stop you in the hallway and inform you in great detail about their dog's flea problem they had the weekend before. Of course you want to build good relationships in the office, its part of being personable and friendly. When you allow chatters to dominate your time so that you're not getting your work done, it's time for a change.

Set limits on how long you're willing to listen. After a few minutes of dog/flea details, gently tell the person that you need to finish a project or you need to complete a task. This skill takes some finesse, especially of the chatter continues to talk even when you've given them some big hints. Practice this skill, and use different strategies for different personalities. If you're really under a deadline, close your office door for a while, or stop answering your phone until the project is completed.

Time management professionals suggest breaking down larger projects into smaller "chunks" of work. Break the task down into smaller, manageable tasks. This way, you can focus on one area, giving it your complete attention, move on to the next area, until you've finished the project.

If you're computer savvy, using on-line tools such as Microsoft Outlook can help you focus on your tasks. Using Outlook, you can organize your e-mail, calendar, contacts, and tasks all in one program. If you're not computer friendly, an old fashioned wall calendar will help you organize deadlines, and vacation schedules.

Creating work-time focus is not a natural skill for all people. With a little patience, however, even the least focused employees can learn to focus on the work at hand. For employees needing training, Fred Pryor offers a number of good seminars, including one on managing multiple priorities. The Priority Management system also works well for both computer and non-computer personalities.