As I’m sure you’ll know, time isn’t an unlimited resource.
With a heavy workload, stress and worry can take over your brain, and makes it harder to get through the workload.
The best way to get around this is by planning.
A well-thought-out plan to ensure you’re making the most of your time.
How do you start?
Prioritise
Before you start developing an actual plan, you need to know where your priorities lie.
This is a good way to break things down and helps you rationalise, it isn’t a mountain of work.
It’s a multitude of tasks that can be tackled one at a time.
Think about deadlines, but also your goals.
What are the most important tasks for your success and the business as a whole?
What is truly important at this time?
Break it down, calmly think about it, and sort out what needs to happen first.
Plan ahead
Leaving everything to the last minute is never a good approach.
This is why planning on a larger scale is important when developing your daily plan.
If you set out personal deadlines and time budgets for yourself within a project, then you can split it up into daily tasks easily.
If you know you have a lot of meetings on a later day in the week, then you can plan your time around that accordingly.
A good thing to practice is acknowledging your work speed.
If you are regularly doing a task, time how long it takes you on average, it leaves a lot of the guesswork out of planning.
Simple things, such as going over your day the night before, mean that your mind is refreshed and aware of what you have coming.
Slow down
We know this might seem counteractive, but taking your time is helpful.
The way you work under stress may be faster, but the quality of the work won’t be anywhere near as high.
Take your time, and think about what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, and how you’re doing it.
This makes it easier to think about the future and plan accordingly.
You should also ensure that you aren’t depriving yourself of breaks.
Your brain needs time to refresh, and often you’ll work faster and to a higher level if you are taking breaks.
Allowing yourself to take time also helps with unexpected tasks that may pop up, if you’ve filled your day with tasks and no breaks, if something comes up suddenly, you can’t deal with it without ruining your schedule.
Avoid multitasking
To conquer a whole range of work, multitasking may seem like the obvious choice.
Flick between, and get everything done at once, in theory, it can work.
But in reality, it’s just confusing and overwhelming.
If you aren’t fully focused or committed to one thing, you’re never gonna get into the flow of it and give it the full attention it needs.
Of course, multi-tasking is sometimes unavoidable, but limiting it when possible will improve your workflow.
Track in a way that suits you
Tracking your work day is helpful as it’s evidence to back up your plans.
It gives insight into the daily workload you encounter, so you know how to plan and manage projects around that.
But, it’s important to track it in a way that suits you.
For some, it’s simply noting down the tasks you do within a day, in a notebook or document.
There are also software and applications you can use to track your workload, many of these also allow you to track your time spent on these tasks.
Research and find what’s best for you.
Actually follow your plans!
No matter how reluctant most are to admit it, I’m sure we’ve all made plans and schedules that have been followed for a week and then abandoned.
You need to create the habit of planning, and then follow your plans consistently.
Decide on how you plan your workday, you can go old-school with a notebook or physical day planner…
Or use a digital calendar or application made for planning.
Don’t plan in your head and hope you remember, solidify it so you can refer to it throughout the day.
You’ve broken things down and made plans so that your days can be easier and less stressful, remember that simplicity is your end goal.
As tough as it may be to try to follow plans and schedules, you’ll get used to it and it will benefit you in the long run.
For more tips and tricks on office work, take a look at our blog, it’s jam-packed with helpful articles and advice.
If you’re looking for office space in Fife, contact us at Itek House and see how we can help you.
