Cultivate highly effective habits for the workplace

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DO you constantly have to work overtime in order to finish your work? If you have good and effective work habits, you might actually find that you can work more efficiently and reduce the need to work overtime.

Sometimes you cannot finish your work on time merely because you may take a long time to start the job, or you spend too much time procrastinating or you are simply disorganised.

Hence, take some time to examine your work patterns and look out for the areas where you can improve so that you can leave behind the overtime lifestyle.

 

Clear the difficult tasks before lunch

As your mind is more active in the morning, it is better to tackle the difficult tasks first. You are able to think more clearly and faster when your mind is more active.

After the lunch break, you might feel sleepy due to your heavy lunch. Your mind will tend to be less active too as it has worked the whole morning. This would be the time to do the work that requires less brain power.

 

Prioritise your work

Spend your energy and time on the more important tasks. Instead of giving equal attention to all the things you need to do, learn to differentiate what needs action immediately and what requires your attention only.

For instance, when your colleagues update you on the progress of a project, it does not necessarily mean you have to take any action but you are just being kept in the loop so that you know what is going on.
But if you start getting involved in every project, not only will that waste your time but some colleagues might feel that you are crossing over into their territory.

 

Stay focused on your work

If you have the habit of jumping from one task to another without finishing them, then you need to cultivate the habit of completing a task first before moving to another project. Stay focused on your work and do not think of other tasks while you are working on one.

Do not entertain interruptions and let them distract you. When there is an interruption, tell yourself that you need to get back to your work unless the interruption is of utmost importance and urgency.

 

Organise your time

Some people spend a lot of time just reading and replying email. Do not entertain your emails as they come. You should set aside a certain time slot to attend to your emails – for example, first thing in the morning, before you go off for lunch, right after lunch or before you knock off from work.

If the email is very urgent, the person will call you up when you do not respond. So do not waste your time waiting for some urgent emails that may not exist.

 

Stop relying too much on email

There are certain things that simply cannot be settled over email. So when there is any issue that involves discussion, just pick up the phone and settle the issue. It is better to come to a solution through verbal communication instead of wasting hours over emails to reach a conclusion.

 

Get sufficient rest

Do have enough rest so that your mind and body can have a breather and recharge the energy. Only when your mind and body feel rejuvenated would you be able to work more efficiently.

 

Stop worrying about the maybes

Some people like to worry about things that may not happen. What if it rains? What if the building tumbles down? What if there is a traffic jam? They spend so much time worrying about all these things and thinking of ways to overcome them when the possibility of these things happening is less than 5 per cent.

Rather than spending time worrying about them, it would be wiser to take action to prevent those things from happening. For instance, if you are worried about traffic jams, go to the place earlier and you will not have to worry about the jam.

 

Priscilla Hiu is a career guidance consultant of Gracia Management and a certified behavioural consultant of DISC Personality Profiling System, Institution of Motivation Living, USA and Extended DISC Personality Profiling System, Extended DISC Northgate.