4 Simple Techniques to Be More Efficient at Work
8 May 2013
Read by 1863 persons
Long working hours are not the only way to be productive. It's also, and more simply, about being more efficient at work. Besides methods to improve personal efficiency and intervening during the action, there are also some techniques in addition to the action itself. They will surely help you to be more efficient and to remain so.
Intuitively, we all think that hard work, for hours on end, will lead us more surely to the realization of our objectives. And that's also what we've been told for a long time. You have to work hard to succeed…
To a certain extent, this is true. But by proceeding in this way, it is very easy to let yourself be absorbed by long working hours, chaining activities, ticking off tasks on long lists, lists that you lengthen immediately, … without being efficient or approaching real successes.
Working long hours leads you where?
Working for hours can very well bring you neither recognition nor success. Of course, you will be up to date with all your emails… But does that deserve a promotion? Will it allow you to start your own business? Nothing is less certain.
Moreover, “working long hours” is often synonymous with “neglecting other aspects of one’s life”.
Do you eat properly? Do you exercise? In the short term, it may seem like a good deal. But in the long run, you could lose out and be forced to correct this disastrously.
Do you have a social life? Do you relax? Long hours, and the pressure to keep doing more, can lead to stress, exhaustion, depression. Or simply wonder “is that all there is in my life”?
Instead of simply chaining working hours, what if we considered working smartly?
I propose 4 techniques, all simple, that will allow you to save time and maximize your chances of success.
Rest more
The beautiful completely counter-intuitive idea… Working less to achieve more?
And yet… If you do anything that requires creativity or concentration, you will not be at 100% of your capacity if you have not had enough rest.
This does not only mean getting a good night's sleep.
This means regularly getting good nights’ sleep, taking regular breaks and taking time to relax. This is not called “wasting time”. It’s just making sure you’re in top form during your working hours.
Obviously, since days are not extensible, taking time to recover means reducing your working time. You will have to deploy other treasures of ingenuity that we will see right away.
Prioritize priorities
“Prioritizing priorities” is one of the 7 habits that Stephen Covey promotes in his work The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. This means:
taking care of the most important elements of your life;
doing the most important tasks first.
Taking care of what is important before turning to the rest.
If you tend to first deal with emergencies (emails, phone calls, etc.) and then, and only then, try to accomplish the really important tasks, you will not get very far.
So do the opposite: use the first hours of the day, when you are fresh, for your priority tasks and activities. Emergencies will wait.
The method is very simple: at the very beginning of the day, define the tasks to be accomplished absolutely today. Then execute them!
Limit your objectives
Of course, to prioritize priorities, you must already know what your priorities are…
By clearly defining your priorities, you can choose, from all the objectives you wish to achieve, those that are priorities and limit yourself to achieving these few objectives. Any task not related to these priority objectives will not itself be a priority.
Having many objectives is generally not a good strategy: it disperses your attention and energy, and therefore reduces your chances of success. It also lengthens the time it takes to achieve each objective… unless you devote all your time to it. Limiting your objectives thus participates in the strategy of saving time and improving efficiency.
Rather than trying to do everything at once, choose 2 or 3 key objectives and focus all your energy on them. It is better to have 2 to 3 full successes than a dozen semi-successes.
Ask for help
Asking for help or delegating: getting others involved allows you to save time.
You might take great pride in doing everything yourself and boasting about it. But that would mainly be showing pride.
The truth is that cooperation is a much better solution. To progress faster, more efficiently and also more serenely. To share and learn as well.
There is no shame in not knowing how to do something. And it is showing intelligence to delegate certain tasks to someone more efficient. Or more prosaically to delegate in order to devote one's own time to tasks with higher added value.
Conclusion
Here are 4 techniques to start being more efficient. And I think we can say that they are simple!
Deviendragrand.fr
Posted online May 8, 2013.
Intuitively, we all think that hard work, for hours on end, will lead us more surely to the realization of our objectives. And that's also what we've been told for a long time. You have to work hard to succeed…
To a certain extent, this is true. But by proceeding in this way, it is very easy to let yourself be absorbed by long working hours, chaining activities, ticking off tasks on long lists, lists that you lengthen immediately, … without being efficient or approaching real successes.
Working long hours leads you where?
Working for hours can very well bring you neither recognition nor success. Of course, you will be up to date with all your emails… But does that deserve a promotion? Will it allow you to start your own business? Nothing is less certain.
Moreover, “working long hours” is often synonymous with “neglecting other aspects of one’s life”.
Do you eat properly? Do you exercise? In the short term, it may seem like a good deal. But in the long run, you could lose out and be forced to correct this disastrously.
Do you have a social life? Do you relax? Long hours, and the pressure to keep doing more, can lead to stress, exhaustion, depression. Or simply wonder “is that all there is in my life”?
Instead of simply chaining working hours, what if we considered working smartly?
I propose 4 techniques, all simple, that will allow you to save time and maximize your chances of success.
Rest more
The beautiful completely counter-intuitive idea… Working less to achieve more?
And yet… If you do anything that requires creativity or concentration, you will not be at 100% of your capacity if you have not had enough rest.
This does not only mean getting a good night's sleep.
This means regularly getting good nights’ sleep, taking regular breaks and taking time to relax. This is not called “wasting time”. It’s just making sure you’re in top form during your working hours.
Obviously, since days are not extensible, taking time to recover means reducing your working time. You will have to deploy other treasures of ingenuity that we will see right away.
Prioritize priorities
“Prioritizing priorities” is one of the 7 habits that Stephen Covey promotes in his work The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. This means:
taking care of the most important elements of your life;
doing the most important tasks first.
Taking care of what is important before turning to the rest.
If you tend to first deal with emergencies (emails, phone calls, etc.) and then, and only then, try to accomplish the really important tasks, you will not get very far.
So do the opposite: use the first hours of the day, when you are fresh, for your priority tasks and activities. Emergencies will wait.
The method is very simple: at the very beginning of the day, define the tasks to be accomplished absolutely today. Then execute them!
Limit your objectives
Of course, to prioritize priorities, you must already know what your priorities are…
By clearly defining your priorities, you can choose, from all the objectives you wish to achieve, those that are priorities and limit yourself to achieving these few objectives. Any task not related to these priority objectives will not itself be a priority.
Having many objectives is generally not a good strategy: it disperses your attention and energy, and therefore reduces your chances of success. It also lengthens the time it takes to achieve each objective… unless you devote all your time to it. Limiting your objectives thus participates in the strategy of saving time and improving efficiency.
Rather than trying to do everything at once, choose 2 or 3 key objectives and focus all your energy on them. It is better to have 2 to 3 full successes than a dozen semi-successes.
Ask for help
Asking for help or delegating: getting others involved allows you to save time.
You might take great pride in doing everything yourself and boasting about it. But that would mainly be showing pride.
The truth is that cooperation is a much better solution. To progress faster, more efficiently and also more serenely. To share and learn as well.
There is no shame in not knowing how to do something. And it is showing intelligence to delegate certain tasks to someone more efficient. Or more prosaically to delegate in order to devote one's own time to tasks with higher added value.
Conclusion
Here are 4 techniques to start being more efficient. And I think we can say that they are simple!
Deviendragrand.fr
Posted online May 8, 2013.
