Ten rules for better work efficiency.
6 May 2014
Read by 2903 persons
How to avoid wasting time and improve performance? Bilan interviewed specialists and selected ten recommendations. Some are obvious, others less so, but all are easy to apply.
Finding ways to waste time is simple. No guide needed. But exploring ways to avoid waste and improve efficiency is a different matter.
With the help of time management and coaching specialists, Bilan has retained ten recommendations. Since everyone works differently, some will be perfectly suitable for some, but useless for others. All are applicable, adapting them to your work environment.
1. Rewind the film
"Ah, today I worked well!" Even if these moments seem rare, who hasn't said or thought that from time to time? We were able to make quick progress, handle a mountain of work like never before. We finish the day relieved and pleased with ourselves.
Next time you're discouraged, rewind the film! "You need to remember these moments of efficiency, and analyze what worked well," advises Nicole Picthall, a coach in the Nyon region. "It's then a matter of recreating the right conditions and amplifying them." Look at the scene from the outside, and focus on the solutions you already have within yourself, rather than on the problem that prevents you from working.
2. Interrupt... the interruptions!
Phones, SMS, email alerts, notifications of all kinds... Not to mention physical interruptions when working in an open space. So many opportunities to be sidetracked. Start by removing alert functions.
"I compare alerts to mail deliveries," explains Jérôme Boujol, a coach and advisor in team management. "It's a bit like the postman ringing ten times a day! If that were the case, you'd want the letters to arrive grouped together, wouldn't you?"
For the phone: why not use an answering machine or call forwarding for at least an hour a day? As for physical interruptions, "it's more complicated, especially in open spaces," says Jérôme Boujol. "You have to find ways to signal that you don't want to be interrupted. A "Do Not Disturb" sign on your desk, for example. Shops have opening hours, you too impose your schedule..."
Timothy Ferriss, in his best-seller The 4-Hour Workweek (Pearson Editions), recommends the strategy of headphones on your ears. "If someone approached me despite this dissuasive maneuver, I pretended to be on the phone," says the author. "Your reflex should be the same as when you answer the phone: "Hi invader. I'm finishing something. What can I do for you?" If it's not clear in thirty seconds, ask them to send an email about the problem."
3. Manage your emails well
A chapter in itself, since according to Timothy Ferriss "they are the number 1 source of interruption in our modern world." However, it is difficult to impose a system.
"Read your emails at a frequency adapted to you and your work," suggests Jérôme Boujol. "Evaluate how many times it's really necessary. Few people really need to be connected all the time." Timothy Ferriss gives a recommendation which, according to him, "can be enough to change your life. Under an unremarkable guise, it has a considerable impact."
It's about never starting the day by checking your inbox, to be able to "complete your most important task before 11 am." Quite feasible and very effective for educating the people you work with: the automatic reply, specifying the time at which you check your mailbox.
4. Break down projects
Imagine a long list of tasks for the day. Several that take a few minutes of your time, and one being the big chunk to finish in two months. It's highly likely that you'll tackle the small tasks first, and the project will be postponed until tomorrow.
A good tip recommended by Jérôme Boujol: "Break down your project into small tasks to move it forward. And already identify the first step, which can be a simple phone call to make an appointment. Between this phone call to make and the current email to process, the competition will already be fairer!"
5. Avoid unnecessary travel
Don't travel for anything and everything. Distinguish when a face-to-face meeting is really necessary. "Work via Skype or phone instead of wasting two hours in traffic," reminds Jérôme Boujol.
According to Timothy Ferriss, this distinction is essential to gain efficiency: "Make the decision, given that most problems are only urgent in name, to direct people to one of the following means of communication, in order of preference: email, phone and appointment."
6. Allow yourself telecommuting days
For many companies, outsourcing is a must. Delegating certain tasks or sectors to external professionals doesn't seem to pose too many problems. So why not use telecommuting more often?
Isolate yourself to make progress on a project, without the pressures of your professional environment, avoiding being sidetracked by colleagues for all sorts of "good" reasons (including coffee breaks).
According to Jérôme Boujol, the brake on telecommuting is partly linked to the fear of not being able to have all participants on hand during meetings. "You should try to schedule meetings on a specific day! And show managerial courage..." Moreover, those famous interminable meetings are also a source of complaints.
7. Too many meetings kill the meeting...
Interminable meetings, timing not respected, unclear process, no decision-making... Enough to annoy anyone whose schedule is timed down to the minute. And around these famous meetings: strong social pressure. "The summoned person has difficulty resisting this," estimates Jérôme Boujol. "Am I indispensable? There's nothing to stop challenging the organizer to see if I'm really useful."
Also ask how much time you need to block out. "If you have to participate in a meeting that is going to last a long time or whose duration has not been defined, inform the organizer that you would like to start with the part that concerns you because you have another appointment fifteen minutes later. If necessary, simulate an urgent phone call," suggests Timothy Ferriss in the pages of his best-seller. The author believes that "nine times out of ten, a meeting is not necessary."
If you are the organizer, it's up to you to structure it. Only invite the people concerned, clearly communicate the topics to be discussed, be punctual, set a duration and do not exceed the timing, even if it means organizing an additional meeting.
"The rules of the game must be clear!" reminds Jérôme Boujol. Including regarding decision-making. "A good organizer should be able to say how they will proceed. It is also possible to have the debate and to warn that the decision will be made by another instance. But this allows people to know where they are going."
8. Leave on vacation tomorrow!
How to get to the essentials? A very simple recipe suggested by Jérôme Boujol: imagine that you are going on vacation, "tomorrow or next week. How are you going to organize the following days? This helps to quickly determine priorities. Suddenly, people know how to dedicate themselves to tasks that are both urgent and important. A report that has been dragging on for months will be finished quickly. If our time frame is large, we have a tendency to waste. And when there are constraints in the system, our efficiency increases."
9. Be aware of your reptilian brain
The oldest parts of our brain, in evolutionary terms, are responsible for the survival instinct. They activate when a potentially dangerous situation arises.
"Sometimes, this alarm goes off for things that may seem innocuous, like a list of emails that is too long!" underlines Nicole Picthall. "There is a feeling of panic, linked to a lack of control over the situation and oneself. Our brain is in "survival" mode and doesn't reason very well anymore. The alarm rings, whether we like it or not. So it's not a matter of struggling against it, or ignoring it. Influencing what triggers it, and understanding what helps it calm down when it succumbs to pressure proves much more useful."
10. Go back to childhood
Yes!... Knowing how to say no can save you precious time. You absolutely must set boundaries and reframe requests that come from everywhere. "Over the next two days, do what all children do and say "no" to all requests," recommends the organization king Timothy Ferriss.
His credo: refuse anything that won't get you immediately fired! The ultimate goal is not to eliminate what makes you waste your time, but to learn to say no. Following this exercise,
you will have less trouble being selfish and will certainly be able to find the best possible balance!
Camille Destraz.
Bilan.ch
Published February 3, 2014.
Posted online May 6, 2014.
Finding ways to waste time is simple. No guide needed. But exploring ways to avoid waste and improve efficiency is a different matter.
With the help of time management and coaching specialists, Bilan has retained ten recommendations. Since everyone works differently, some will be perfectly suitable for some, but useless for others. All are applicable, adapting them to your work environment.
1. Rewind the film
"Ah, today I worked well!" Even if these moments seem rare, who hasn't said or thought that from time to time? We were able to make quick progress, handle a mountain of work like never before. We finish the day relieved and pleased with ourselves.
Next time you're discouraged, rewind the film! "You need to remember these moments of efficiency, and analyze what worked well," advises Nicole Picthall, a coach in the Nyon region. "It's then a matter of recreating the right conditions and amplifying them." Look at the scene from the outside, and focus on the solutions you already have within yourself, rather than on the problem that prevents you from working.
2. Interrupt... the interruptions!
Phones, SMS, email alerts, notifications of all kinds... Not to mention physical interruptions when working in an open space. So many opportunities to be sidetracked. Start by removing alert functions.
"I compare alerts to mail deliveries," explains Jérôme Boujol, a coach and advisor in team management. "It's a bit like the postman ringing ten times a day! If that were the case, you'd want the letters to arrive grouped together, wouldn't you?"
For the phone: why not use an answering machine or call forwarding for at least an hour a day? As for physical interruptions, "it's more complicated, especially in open spaces," says Jérôme Boujol. "You have to find ways to signal that you don't want to be interrupted. A "Do Not Disturb" sign on your desk, for example. Shops have opening hours, you too impose your schedule..."
Timothy Ferriss, in his best-seller The 4-Hour Workweek (Pearson Editions), recommends the strategy of headphones on your ears. "If someone approached me despite this dissuasive maneuver, I pretended to be on the phone," says the author. "Your reflex should be the same as when you answer the phone: "Hi invader. I'm finishing something. What can I do for you?" If it's not clear in thirty seconds, ask them to send an email about the problem."
3. Manage your emails well
A chapter in itself, since according to Timothy Ferriss "they are the number 1 source of interruption in our modern world." However, it is difficult to impose a system.
"Read your emails at a frequency adapted to you and your work," suggests Jérôme Boujol. "Evaluate how many times it's really necessary. Few people really need to be connected all the time." Timothy Ferriss gives a recommendation which, according to him, "can be enough to change your life. Under an unremarkable guise, it has a considerable impact."
It's about never starting the day by checking your inbox, to be able to "complete your most important task before 11 am." Quite feasible and very effective for educating the people you work with: the automatic reply, specifying the time at which you check your mailbox.
4. Break down projects
Imagine a long list of tasks for the day. Several that take a few minutes of your time, and one being the big chunk to finish in two months. It's highly likely that you'll tackle the small tasks first, and the project will be postponed until tomorrow.
A good tip recommended by Jérôme Boujol: "Break down your project into small tasks to move it forward. And already identify the first step, which can be a simple phone call to make an appointment. Between this phone call to make and the current email to process, the competition will already be fairer!"
5. Avoid unnecessary travel
Don't travel for anything and everything. Distinguish when a face-to-face meeting is really necessary. "Work via Skype or phone instead of wasting two hours in traffic," reminds Jérôme Boujol.
According to Timothy Ferriss, this distinction is essential to gain efficiency: "Make the decision, given that most problems are only urgent in name, to direct people to one of the following means of communication, in order of preference: email, phone and appointment."
6. Allow yourself telecommuting days
For many companies, outsourcing is a must. Delegating certain tasks or sectors to external professionals doesn't seem to pose too many problems. So why not use telecommuting more often?
Isolate yourself to make progress on a project, without the pressures of your professional environment, avoiding being sidetracked by colleagues for all sorts of "good" reasons (including coffee breaks).
According to Jérôme Boujol, the brake on telecommuting is partly linked to the fear of not being able to have all participants on hand during meetings. "You should try to schedule meetings on a specific day! And show managerial courage..." Moreover, those famous interminable meetings are also a source of complaints.
7. Too many meetings kill the meeting...
Interminable meetings, timing not respected, unclear process, no decision-making... Enough to annoy anyone whose schedule is timed down to the minute. And around these famous meetings: strong social pressure. "The summoned person has difficulty resisting this," estimates Jérôme Boujol. "Am I indispensable? There's nothing to stop challenging the organizer to see if I'm really useful."
Also ask how much time you need to block out. "If you have to participate in a meeting that is going to last a long time or whose duration has not been defined, inform the organizer that you would like to start with the part that concerns you because you have another appointment fifteen minutes later. If necessary, simulate an urgent phone call," suggests Timothy Ferriss in the pages of his best-seller. The author believes that "nine times out of ten, a meeting is not necessary."
If you are the organizer, it's up to you to structure it. Only invite the people concerned, clearly communicate the topics to be discussed, be punctual, set a duration and do not exceed the timing, even if it means organizing an additional meeting.
"The rules of the game must be clear!" reminds Jérôme Boujol. Including regarding decision-making. "A good organizer should be able to say how they will proceed. It is also possible to have the debate and to warn that the decision will be made by another instance. But this allows people to know where they are going."
8. Leave on vacation tomorrow!
How to get to the essentials? A very simple recipe suggested by Jérôme Boujol: imagine that you are going on vacation, "tomorrow or next week. How are you going to organize the following days? This helps to quickly determine priorities. Suddenly, people know how to dedicate themselves to tasks that are both urgent and important. A report that has been dragging on for months will be finished quickly. If our time frame is large, we have a tendency to waste. And when there are constraints in the system, our efficiency increases."
9. Be aware of your reptilian brain
The oldest parts of our brain, in evolutionary terms, are responsible for the survival instinct. They activate when a potentially dangerous situation arises.
"Sometimes, this alarm goes off for things that may seem innocuous, like a list of emails that is too long!" underlines Nicole Picthall. "There is a feeling of panic, linked to a lack of control over the situation and oneself. Our brain is in "survival" mode and doesn't reason very well anymore. The alarm rings, whether we like it or not. So it's not a matter of struggling against it, or ignoring it. Influencing what triggers it, and understanding what helps it calm down when it succumbs to pressure proves much more useful."
10. Go back to childhood
Yes!... Knowing how to say no can save you precious time. You absolutely must set boundaries and reframe requests that come from everywhere. "Over the next two days, do what all children do and say "no" to all requests," recommends the organization king Timothy Ferriss.
His credo: refuse anything that won't get you immediately fired! The ultimate goal is not to eliminate what makes you waste your time, but to learn to say no. Following this exercise,
you will have less trouble being selfish and will certainly be able to find the best possible balance!
Camille Destraz.
Bilan.ch
Published February 3, 2014.
Posted online May 6, 2014.
