Nine Ways to Improve Your Work Life
"Desperate maladies require desperate remedies"
French Proverb
There are times when we have so much to do, that work is no longer fun. We start to feel a bit panicky and desperate inside. We all get these feelings from time to time.
To counter these feeling I've come up with a practical way to help you take control of your situation.
I've called the process DESPERATE.
Each letter in the acronym represents one of the nine areas for focus to keep you at the top of your game.
Before you ask, I do not profess to be perfect in any of these areas myself, and would fail the "do as I say, don't do as
I do" test. That said ,they have helped me improve my own work life dramatically and I'm sure they can help you too.
Just give them a go, you desperate people.
(it does not pay to be rude to your audience, sorry about that, just got a bit over enthusiastic there)
So lets go through them:-
D is for Desk Organisation
"Order is humans first law" Alexander Pope 1688 - 1744
If you want a stress free work life, one of the first places to focus your energies on is on sorting your desk. If we are being totally honest with ourselves, most peoples' desks are full of clutter with out of date and irrelevant information. Yes, that means me, you and the person next to you. We waste time searching for information. We waste time picking up things ,reviewing them and then putting them back down, without actually doing anything. A cluttered desk leads to clutter thinking and sloppy personal performance.
A great tactic is to apply the 3S's to your own workspace. Sort, Straighten and Sustain.
We need to remove all of the items from our desk and then decide what we actually
need and what we don't need.
|
|
 |
|
Desk before 3s |
Desk after 3s
|
We then need to maintain our desk so that we only have information relevant to the current task on hand. The final tip is to only do one piece of work at a time, complete it, as planned, and the put it away and prepare for the next task. Easier said than done. Absolutely.
E is for E-mail
Here are 3 ways that you can immediately improve your work life around e-mail.
1. Turn off your e-mail pop up. When that sound informs you both visually and audibly
that you "have mail". Guess what. We immediately stop what we are doing and open up
our e-mail program to read our new mail. We are e-mail monkeys.
Do it now. Turn the alert off. The world will not suddenly end, and you will be far more
focused, productive and stress free.
2. Check your e-mail only twice a day. Say 12pm and 4pm.Don't check your e-mail first thing. You will only get distracted. Instead start the day with your biggest challenge and get it out of the way. That report you need to write; that information you need to pull together for your boss.
3.Use an auto responder to acknowledge people's e-mails and tell them when you will be reading
them. Most of us don't have a problem using auto responders when we are away from the office, so why not use them when we are in the office.
It could be something like this:-
Hi there,
Thanks for your e-mail. I check my e-mail messages twice a day at 12pm and 4pm.
If you require an urgent response please call me on:-
T:01698 308309
M:07967 113881
Thanks
Graham Ross
P. s. I've found this approach helps me, to help you, by getting more done.
S is for Systems
Use a systems approach in your work life wherever possible. Try to create systems for routine tasks, so that you don't have to think about them. Don't waste time by doing routine tasks slightly differently each time. Set up simple procedures that work for you, and then use them.
Let me give you an example. In my office, I've set up a system for storing all of my hard copy information. All of my hard copy information is stored by main subject and then by sub subject. Each main subject is colour coded and the information is stored in envelope files, in clear box containers, on open shelves that can be easily accessed. I don't allow the individual files to get too big. That's part of my system. This system allows me to see all of the information at a glance without having to open anything. The other simple part of the system is that I put back information into the left hand side of the box; that way, I know that the most current piece of information that I've been using is always on the left hand side, and it is generally the bit I need.
The point is not the system. The point is, that I've actually created a "system" that works for me. It took a bit of time to set up. I had to purchase the right type of storage ,decide on categories, decide on colour coding, decide on the maximum file size, decide on my storage criteria and storage system.
Ooh aren't you a wee clever clogs, why don't you take a bow and give yourself a big pat on the back.
No I'm not saying that. What I am saying is that by creating a "system" I've made one part of my work life easier.
So the bottom line is, try and create "systems" for yourself using the lean principles. It does take time and effort ,but that time and effort will repay you in spades.
P is for Prioritise
This idea comes from Stephen Covey. There are basically four categories that work tasks can fall under
Category 1 Urgent and Important e.g. Deadlines on projects
Category 2 Non Urgent and Important e.g. Developing new opportunities
Category 3 Not Important and Urgent e.g Some meetings you attend
Category 4 Not Important and Not Urgent e.g. Surfing the internet without a purpose
To improve your work life you need to think about all of the things that you do and decide which category they fall under. If you find you are spending a lot of time on Category 3 and 4 items then it's time to think again about what you are up to.
To improve your work life you really need to prioritise completing Category 1 and 2 items with an emphasis on Category 2.Often Category 2 items become Category 1 because you haven't paid enough attention to them.
E is the Eighty twenty rule
Simply put, there is a true ism that seems to hold water for many situations.80% of our results come from 20% of our inputs i.e. there is 20% of our work life where we are really effective at what we do.
That 20% of effort creates 80% of our results. If we can identify that 20%, guess what, we can become even more effective by doing more of it. Simply put, concentrate your efforts on the things that you do well and that make you happy in your work life. Examine the 80% of you work life where you are potentially not being as effective as you could be .
R is for Review the day
Take some time at the end of each day to review how things have gone. What did you achieve. Could you have achieved more. What went well. What went not so well. Write them down and keep a diary. Create a will do list for the next day so that you are ready to start with a bang.
A is for Avoid negative people
Make a conscience effort to avoid negative people. We all know them. It seems to be a particularly United Kingdom thing. There are just some people who have been genetically modified to include a moan gland. "That will never work". "We've tried that before". "Why should I do it, it's not like I'm going to get paid any more".
If you know people like that just avoid them. If you do need to get them involved here is a technique that I learned about from Jack Black, the personal development coach in his book "Mindstore".
The basic idea is this. If you are dealing with someone particularly negative, you imagine a large glass bubble coming down over you, to protect you from their negativity. You can still talk to them but their negative comments just bounce off the bubble and don't get through to you. Negative people can be really exhausting. I'm not suggesting here that you ignore practical constructive criticism. That is important and useful. I'm talking about the type of people who are always moaning and haven't ever got a good word to say about anything or anyone. You do have a choice. Just avoid them.
T is for timer
What I am about to suggest to you may at first sound a little awkward. Please bare with me, as if you take this next idea on board I believe it will really help you. Just keep it between you and me and everything will be fine.
Hold on. Here I go. Clench your teeth.
Go out and buy yourself a small kitchen timer. You the know the type. A small discrete digital one.
Ok, Ross you have really lost it now. You are asking me to go out and buy small domestic appliances.
I purchased one and it has really helped me.
Has it improved my cooking? No.
Has it made my work life more organised and stress free? Yes.
Let me explain
You block out some time in your diary for a specific task. You are not going to allow yourself to be distracted during that "protected time". You have given yourself just enough time to complete the task. You set the timer to the amount of time you've allocated. You prepare your work area for the specific task. You press the start button. And your off and running. It is amazing how adding this challenging time element adds a bit of self competition and focuses your mind.
Not exactly the same thing, but I remember how using this time element in dealing with a specific task gave me a wee adrenalin rush when I was away on business. I was staying in a hotel and I had an e-mail to get out to a client with an important attachment. This was the first time I had gone wireless.
Prior to this I had used the cocoa tins and string approach.
Anyway, I signed up to buy internet access from the hotel.
At that time they were asking a kings ransom for the privilege of using the worldwide web .Being from north of the border (Scotland) I signed up for the minimum of 30 minutes. Don't you just love the blatant use of stereotypes. I had only 5 minutes left as I pressed the send e-mail button. The e-mail and attachment loaded up and started to be transmitted. As I sat in the foyer of the hotel with my laptop on my knee, I honestly felt like James Bond. The codes to disarm the madman's plans were being transmitted .Would I save the world? My e-mail completed transmission with literally 10 seconds to go.
I had saved the world from destruction.
Ok, I hadn't actually saved the world from destruction. I had only sent an e-mail.
The main point is that the use of the 30 minute clock had really added a bit of spice to the task.
I would be lying if I said I used my timer from the start of the day till the end. What I do find it really useful for is adding focus to specific important tasks throughout the day. Try it yourself.
E is for Enthusiasm
I genuinely think that enthusiasm is one of the most important things that you can posses if you want to make your work life stress free. If you treat every task with enthusiasm then it becomes just a whole lot easier.
Let me give you an example. Much as I believe that all of the people at Her Majesties Customs Office are very nice people, filling in my VAT return every quarter was not my favourite task. It did not get my heart racing. So what did I decide to do ? Set myself a goal of finding a better, easier and quicker way to do the return. This in turn created (ok I'm not going to over egg this) a bit of a sense of enthusiasm for the task. Over several months I've found ways to refine and improve the process and now I have a simple system that is really straightforward and easy to complete. If I hadn't created a bit of enthusiasm for improving this task I would still be sitting be-moaning and grudging my time being used to fill in VAT returns.
Obviously the fact that you are reading this article suggests you are probably already a very enthusiastic individual.
Not all of the tasks that we have to do in our work lives are ones we love.
Here are a few ideas to help you generate some self enthusiasm for them.
Pretend you are doing the task for your best friend who you would hate to let down.
Set yourself a challenge on how quickly and efficiently you can complete the task. Try and improve on it every time you do the task. Once you've refined it, document it and then try to automate as much as possible so that you can spend time on other things that you love to do.
Summary
So if you are ever feeling a bit desperate, use these desperate ideas to help you.
Even just focusing on one of them could make a difference in creating a better work life for you.
Hope this helps.
Best regards,
Graham Ross
Back to Lean kaizen Welcome Page from the Nine Ways to Improve Your Work Life article
Get free Lean Kaizen Toolkit
Back to Lean Kaizen Articles
| 
