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The views of this article are the perspective of the author and may not be reflective of Confessions of the Professions.
Making Life and Work Easier
Make your life simpler with these 10 tips for the office, as told by the experts at Ellenborough Park, a five-star hotel and home to some of the finest meeting venues in Cheltenham.
Nobody likes faff and hassle that takes up important time. Unfortunately, it has become synonymous with working life and there is always an allowance for “ineffectual time”.
But there shouldn’t be. There’s no need for it.
These 10 incredibly simple tasks could shave days, months or even years off your workload.
1. Automate Things
Computers are getting cleverer, but not all humans are realising their potential. If you have a repetitive task that makes you regularly think “I wish a robot would do this”, then programme one to do it. There’s a programme for everything: from automatically replying to emails, to organising work calendars and even generating those tedious monthly reports.
2. Focus on One Thing at a Time
In a time where multitasking is rife, we’re telling you to stop doing it. While you may think that you’re being more productive, switching between several different projects means you’re more likely to make mistakes and, overall, it’ll probably take you longer to complete them. Stop multitasking, start focusing – you’ll be amazed by how much time you save.
3. Keep Up to Date
Sounds easier than it is. Making sure you know the latest changes in your industry, as well as those that are connected, can save you time going back and fixing outdated issues. Taking an hour or two a week to read up on the latest industry news could save you months of ‘tweaking’ past projects.
4. Delegate Tasks
Despite what you may think, you don’t have to do everything yourself. This is a common problem for high achievers and trusting others to do the work you need to the standard you want it can be a risk. But nine times out of ten that risk will pay off with deadlines met and everybody smiling.
5. Book Venues for Meetings
How many pointless meetings do you have on a weekly basis? Probably a lot. Start booking meeting rooms and conference venues that aren’t in your office to put a financial cost on these meetings. Most high level executives aren’t going to have meetings for the sake of meetings if they know that there’s a cost involved – hey presto, now you only have important meetings.
6. Take Time to Prioritise
If you’ve ever found yourself spending far too long on an insignificant matter, then this tip should help prevent that. At the beginning of every month, make a list of all the things that need to be done, then quickly reassess every Monday. You’ll find yourself flying through the important tasks and leaving the little ones for the end of the month.
7. Bounce Ideas
This may sound like it goes against number 5 with pointless meetings, but this could simply be talking to one other person about what you’re planning. Not only will this help to iron out any obvious faults, but you will find yourself saving lots more time down the line than if you’d just tackled it by yourself.
8. Take a Break
Another task that seemingly goes against pervious advice? That’s where you’re wrong. You aren’t a machine and when you start to get tired you begin to make mistakes and don’t think clearly. Structuring your time so you have set breaks throughout the day will make you much more productive in the long run.
9. Eliminate Distractions
Your phone, social media, Carol from HR. All these things are distractions and can easily eat up hours of your time. Every. Single. Day. Turn off your phone, sign out of social and… well, how you deal with Carol is up to you! If you can do this, then you’ll be amazed at how much time you’ve freed up for yourself.
10. Start Saying No
Similar to delegation, but not really. Instead of passing work around, turn it down completely. If it isn’t useful or necessary then tell whoever it is giving you the work, (even a client) that you won’t be doing it. Taking 10 minutes to explain why it would be a waste of your time will still save you from 50 minutes of completing an inane task.
About the Author
Ellenborough Park have some of the best meeting rooms Cheltenham has to offer, and will ensure that your corporate event is as productive as possible. With vast experience offering corporate packages, you can rely on Ellenborough Park as an exceptional provider of corporate venues for team building.
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