Some of us spend more time at office because we feel that it's a great place to be and we think it is meaningful.
Now some will argue that if you must spend a little more time at work to do your job, it will be positively recognised by the boss and may contribute towards an annual bonus.
However in reality, working extra hours imply that you are not capable of completing a work within the stipulated time period.
As Franz Kafka so efficiently put it, 'Productivity is being able to do things that you were never able to do before.'
If your performance is assessed biannually, by the time each half-year review comes around you’ve potentially donated up to 100 unpaid hours to the workplace.
In the present age of ‘flexible work practices’, that extra time spent at work is not always looked upon favourably, nor a guarantee of reward.
In fact, the ‘for the love of the company’ justification for spending more time at work risks over emphasis of ‘duration of work’ over ‘value of work’.
Sometimes employees value duration more than the value of the work done. This is more often seen with new managers trying to impress.
The logic of starting earlier in the day or working back late to accommodate more work is sometimes necessary for occasional bursts of work. But when it has become a habit, you are at risk of being overworked and underpaid.
Who would not be willing to spend less time at work and be more productive at work.
Here are a few suggestions that will help you to achieve it.
* The first on the list is to cut short meetings to 15 minutes, or atleast schedule them at appropriate times. Imagine the response if you told everyone that as today’s meeting is only 15 minutes you can all go home 45 minutes earlier?
* Set a defined time for the employees to contact you. This enables them to have your full attention when they do call, but not so much access that you are continually dropping and picking up your work between enquiries.
* Maintain flow and avoid dropping the balls. Everything you have promised to deliver could be progressed once every day until completion. You know the feeling when someone is waiting for your work and you’re dreading the call because the job hasn’t moved since the last call.
Before you begin to change your work practices to become more productive, set expectations with others about your new regime. Let them know what you are changing and how it results in you spending less time at work and achieving more.
The bottom line is you have a choice about how you work and how much time you end up spending at work. Continually assess and understand your productivity and you will get your job done with time to spare.
Courtesy: www.richtopia.com
