It is almost the end of the year. We are all working our last few days before the Christmas season is upon us and we are able to spend a few glorious days eating amazing food, opening presents and spending time with the family.
However when we return to work in the New Year, it’s back to the grindstone where we need to get our minds ready and get things done for 2018. If you want to find ways to make your working days go smoother in the new year, then look no further.
Focus
Don’t let that little voice in your mind tell you that you have 10 other things to do, focus on the task ahead and squash that niggling voice down. If you are someone whose mind runs at 100 mph, it can be hard to focus on one thing for too long because you will want to do lots of others things too- but try your best to ignore those distractions and get the job ahead done and dusted before moving on. This way your working day will end up being much more successful and your quality of work will be better too.
Close email
It is all too tempting to keep going back and checking your email when you should be doing something else, but resist the urge. Even if you aren’t using your email at the time, close it completely so that any incoming emails don’t distract you from what you are doing. Set yourself a time in the morning and the afternoon to check your emails. Outside of this time, turn the emails off and carry on with your day.
Tackle noise
People are all different. Some people function better when they are in a white room with no sound or sights, whereas other people need some sort of background noise to help them concentrate. Try and figure out which one of these people you are and amend your sound levels accordingly. Sometimes having the radio in the background can be a great way to help you concentrate on work, although try to avoid songs you will want to sing to.
Manage meetings
Meetings can either be the most productive hour of the week, or they can be a total waste of your time. If you are in control of meetings and you have the power to plan them, you may want to look at some of the following ways to make your meetings more productive for everyone:
-stand up- it might sound a bit strange at first, but sitting down for long periods of time often makes us feel tired, and it can mean that by the end of your team meeting half of your workers are asleep at the table. It will also mean that your meetings isn’t drag on because everyone will want to go and sit at their desks again!
-agenda- always set yourself an agenda for the meeting, you can email this out to everyone a few days in advance to give people chance to add notes and things they’d like to discuss. This way when you all sit down you won’t forget anything.
-Time limits- if you’ve got a total of 6 things to talk about within an hour meeting, give each topic no more than 10 minutes. This way you will be able to talk about everything in enough detail but you won’t take up all the time on one subject.
– discuss work schedules- it is important in meetings to find out what your employees are doing and how they are managing with their workloads. Find out How To Create The Perfect Work Schedule For Your Team
by asking them what things they struggle with and what tasks could be pushed to the end of the week.
Don’t multitask
There are certain situations in life where multitasking is exactly what you need. For example, when you are in the kitchen it is often smart to put things in 5e oven at the same time and also clean as you go along, but when you are at work the same rules don’t really apply.
Think about all of the different tasks you need to complete each day and think about what time you have. It is incredibly important to write yourself a list of things you need to do each day, and prioritise tasks. Focus on the most important tasks first, then the medium ones, and if you have time you can do the mundane ones. You might think multitasking would make your day go better, but we need to focus all of our mental energy in one place to really be successful.
Dealing with interruptions
You will often be disturbed during your working day. It is unfortunately part and parcel of working in a place with other people. If you find that you are often interrupted as you try to let, you will need to learn how to make up the time you lose. You need to learn that you cannot avoid them, and they will often make you lose track of what you were doing. To get back on track you can start on a new task for the time being until you get your head back in the game, or start over with the current one if you are struggling. Don’t worry, there’s nothing you can do about being distracted, it’s not your fault.
Learn to say no
One of our instincts as human beings is to try and please everyone, but this isn’t always possible. If you are incredibly busy and the task you are currently working on is time sensitive, you may just have to say that you’ll get back to the task at hand later on. It can feel as if you are failing at your job, but at the end of the day you are only human and you cannot be expected to pull off a miracle. Don’t feel guilty about only having a certain amount of hours in the day and hands to complete work.
