Career

How to Prioritize Your Work Week

I’m as guilty as the next person for working long hours. However, I’ve learned to recalibrate whenever I begin to slip into that mode. I’ve learned a few good tips from others that help with that calibration.

Quality not quantity: I once worked with someone who liked to brag about all the hours they worked. Unfortunately, the person seldom completed assignments and she certainly wasn’t giving more than 100 percent. That’s always stuck with me. I try to deliver quality. When I need to focus I close my office door. If you don’t have an office door, stick a note on your cube that you can’t be disturbed or put on headphones (even if you aren’t listening to anything). For me, the act of closing myself off focuses me to concentrate on the task at hand. With concentration I can deliver a good product in a few hours, rather than taking 10 hours.

First Things First: Each evening before I leave, I note the one assignment I must complete the next day. Ideally, I start my day working on it, although sometimes, I confess, I get sucked into my emails immediately. When I stay focused on my priority, I feel better, in part, because the completion of the assignment usually means I’ve advanced a strategic initiative. Once it’s completed, I move onto other tasks on my ongoing list.

Five Days: A work week has five days, yet I often try to cram all of my meetings onto Monday. Once I started thinking about a 40-hour week and not an 8-hour day, I was able to make the calendar work for me. I space out meetings so that I have time following each meeting to provide the follow-up I agreed to and to type up notes.

Take Vacation: At some point, we all need an infusion of energy. In college, breaks were built into the academic calendar but that doesn’t happen in the work world. Sure, there is a day here and there for a holiday, but I’m talking about a week, or at least a few days, away from the office. In December, I plan out my days for the coming year. I like to provide myself a break every three months. I may alter the days some but just knowing I have time off scheduled makes it easier to plow throw the work.

What are your tips to prioritize your work?

Reflections on International Women’s Day

Friday was International Women’s Day.

While in Brazil, I was given a piece of chocolate in observance of International Women's Day.

While in Brazil, I was given a piece of chocolate in observance of International Women’s Day.

The day is celebrated worldwide and celebrations range from those of appreciation to those celebrating women’s economic, political and social achievements.

I was in Brazil on Friday and was handed a piece of chocolate by the front desk staff in celebration of the day. Later, I watched as a large group of women marched down a main street in the city of Belo Horizonte proclaiming their rights.

The day before I heard from a woman who spoke passionately about the garden she and the other women tend. That garden is more than a plot of earth with vegetables. The garden is independence. Because of it, the women can feed their families. They sell the extra vegetables and have an income. They use the funds to buy other necessities and to help their children with school.

In the United States, Accenture, which conducted Defining Success research, found that the top three qualities women want in a job are work-life balance, positive workplace relationships and job stability.

The women in Brazil want the same thing. International Women’s Day is a good day to remind everyone worldwide to celebrate the achievements of women.

5 Tips to Improve Productivity

I don’t know about you, but I’m doing more now than I ever did. With all the new tools and techniques it’s easier than ever to increase our productivity, but sometimes it’s good to stop and figure out if the tools are working for us or against us.

I know I couldn’t be as effective as I am without email and tracking tools, for example, but I’ve also realized that I have to be careful how I use them.

In no particular order, here are my top 5 tools to improve my productivity.

Cut Back on Meetings This one won’t work for everyone, but I’m at a place in my career where I can often decide if I should be in a meeting or if another member of my team can attend. Whether the meeting is at work or for an outside activity, I want to know what the purpose of the meeting is and if it’s possible to simply discuss by email or a quick phone call. Sure, it would be great to see everyone on the committee, but most likely, we’ll also end up chatting, which can cut into valuable time.

Tame Email I think we all continue to battle this one. At home, I’ve removed myself from most of the catalog emails or I have them delivered to an account I set up to receive those types of emails. I don’t respond to emails throughout the day as much as I used to. Instead I tend to check in the a.m., again mid-day and then at day’s end. Each week, I’ve been reducing the inbox by an additional five from the previous week. In the past few months, I’ve gone from more than 500 to less than 50. I no longer feel panicked that I am missing something critical because I have reviewed everything in the inbox. I still break the rule of using my inbox as a reminder, although I’m getting better with that, too, thanks to software like OneNote and EverNote.

Create Digital Lists I use OneNote to keep my lists. According to Microsoft, OneNote is “a digital notebook for capturing, storing and sharing all kinds of information.” I’ve found it particularly useful for keeping multiple lists going. I have one for each vendor with whom I work. I have another notebook with tabs for each person who reports to me. This allows me to easily track information and make notes about information I’d like to share. Not only does it keep me organized but it keeps me from sending one-off messages to individuals.

Prioritize On any given day, I know what I need to do. Sometimes, though, the most important item is the one I put off doing because it’s challenging or not fun to do. However, knowing that it’s my key priority and doing it first means the rest of the day should go smoothly. Before I leave at the end of each day, I write down the three things I must do the next day. When I come into the office, I know what my priorities are for the day and that’s where I stay focused (or at least try to).

Exercise We all know exercise is good for us. Sometimes, I exercise to clear my head or to think things through. There is nothing like an hour-long cardio workout to clear cobwebs from the mind. Just the other week, I was on the treadmill and I figured out how I needed to handle a project. I didn’t want to stop, though, so I grabbed my cell phone and recorded a message so that I could follow up when I got off the machine.

What’s your top tool to improve productivity?

Are You Stretching in Your Career?

During a recent global communications meeting, I used the theme “Stretch” to guide our work.

Prior to this meeting, we had been working to lay the foundation. We had done a good job. At the first meeting, we didn’t even have staff in all of the regions. Now we do. We’re still continuing to build on those foundations, but it was time for us to stretch.

A colleague of mine often spoke about leapfrogging, but I didn’t think we were ready for that. So on the first day I handed everyone a rubber band. Anyone who joined us throughout the week also was given a rubber band.

Rubber bands are a visual reminder to stretch in one's career. (Photo by Cynthia Price)

Rubber bands are a visual reminder to stretch in one’s career. (Photo by Cynthia Price)

I asked each person to look at the rubber band. Within the space of the rubber was what we were currently doing and our skills. But if we pulled on the band, just slightly, suddenly we could do more. Of course, if we stretched too far, we could lose focus and, even worse, break. That was definitely not the intent!

Throughout the week we examined issues from different angles by stretching our viewpoints. We considered how we could work more optimally.

At the start of each day, I challenged myself and the others to consider how they had stretched the previous day during the discussions.

By week’s end, we all agreed that if each stretched just a bit, we could accomplish so much more, both individually and as a team.

I’m keeping the rubber band on my desk as a reminder to not be complacent and to stretch.

What Do You Love About Your Job?

Tomorrow is the day of love. What does that have to do with a blog about communications and personal growth?

A lot, actually. We all have good days and bad days at work, and on those bad days it’s good to have a reminder of what it is about the job that works for you or what attracted you to the position in the first place. If you haven’t recently, why not take a few minutes and write down what you love about your job? If you don’t have anything to say, then you know what the next step is. If you have a strong list, keep it handy for those days that can be frustrating.

Whenever I look for a job, I’m looking for one where I will feel as if I’m making a difference. In one job that was reporting on my community. In another, it was helping to prevent crime. Today, it’s about impacting the lives of vulnerable children. Anytime, I consider a job where it’s only about the title or the paycheck, I know it’s not the job for me.

My current job brings with it lots of responsibilities. It also allows me to travel and to learn about other cultures. It’s become one of the best parts of my job for me. Sometimes, when I’m on a 32-hour flight, I have to remind myself of what’s at the end – new food, new culture, seeing the work first-hand.

At the top of my list are great colleagues. We don’t have to socialize after hours, but I want to enjoy their company at work. I want to learn from them and be inspired. I don’t want to work in a negative environment. I’m fortunate to work with great people.

My final one is to work in a challenging environment, one that affords me the opportunity to learn new skills and to stretch the ones I haves. I volunteer to work on projects if I know I will learn something new. I like being exposed to other ways of thinking. I still must successfully perform my core job, but having other opportunities available makes the job more rewarding.

What do you love about your job? I’d love it if you’d post a comment to this blog and share with others. You might inspire someone else.