A Blog by West Hartford Coworking
Be More Efficient (and Effective) at Work
By Jennifer Hoffman, LCSW-life coach, and therapist
I love being efficient. Any opportunity to streamline, simplify or systematize something, I’m down for it. Whether it’s my German heritage, or my tendency toward OCD, I don’t care. They both have served me well, especially as a solopreneur and mom/stepmom to five kids.
“Ordinary people think merely of spending time, great people think of using it.”
~Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher
When I worked in agencies, I found I finished my work faster than my peers. I seemed to have more downtime at work for research, organizing and planning. Where they seemed to toil late into evening hours, I was out as soon as the bell rang and on to my personal life. I used to worry I was doing something wrong until I started hearing from my colleagues about how they approached the same projects and work.
Here are some things I learned make me more efficient at work:
1. Make lists. I make lists for everything. I also love crossing things off lists. So very satisfying. I know, what a dork!
Life Coach Jennifer Dawn taught me a great way to prioritize my to-do lists using ABCDE:
A=these are things that work toward our vision statement. Keep it posted and refer to it often. These may feel harder or more time-consuming, but if we tend to them first, they will build our business future more solidly.
B=the things that will get done anyway. The client calls, the blog post, the social media posts, the business lunch.
C=things that can wait. Usually emails, return calls, someone else’s “emergency”.
D=things we can delegate. Don’t forget to delegate. As entrepreneurs we can lose sight of when to hire help. A virtual assistant, a social media manager, a website developer can all be worth the investment in exchange for your time.
E=things we can eliminate. Do you really need a meeting about the meeting or another document to attach to the document? I think we as humans can make things more complicated than they need to be.
“The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.”
~Stephen Covey, American educator, author and businessman
2. Create systems for everything.
Make templates for rote tasks and copy/paste next time. File papers immediately or throw away. Read and respond to calls and emails only at set times during the day. Make your communication as thorough as possible the first time so there isn’t a need for back and forth answering questions and providing details that could have been included first.
Keep things routine. Have you ever worked in a restaurant? There’s a routine and system for everything from filling the salt and ketchup containers to cleaning the bathrooms. Base your routine on when you feel most energized and make that time your “A” priority time.
“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”
~James Clear, author, Atomic Habits
3. Is it busywork or productive?
We are very invested in the idea of productivity in America and especially in the Northeast. The busier we look, the prouder we feel, and the more we are rewarded either intrinsically or extrinsically. But I beg that being busy doesn’t always mean more productive and hardly ever better.
In one job, a colleague and I had the same task of collecting and documenting daily data to submit each week. It was tedious and annoying but had to be done. My colleague’s way of handling this task was to wait until Friday end of day and try to recall her data, recreate the week, and spend two hours or more getting it done right before the deadline. Me, on the other hand, knew this was a must do task I hated, so I would spend 15 minutes at the end of every day to input that day’s data while it was fresh in my mind. I can do any mind-numbing task for 15 minutes. But my bosses thought my colleague was such a dedicated employee spending those extra hours at work. What they didn’t know was how overwhelmed and miserable she was. Was she productive and efficient? Not until she adopted my simple system.
“Focus on being productive instead of busy.”
~Tim Ferriss, American podcaster, author and entrepreneur
4. Multi-tasking is an illusion
Yes, I listen to podcasts while driving or exercising and I may do work or writing while waiting for my son’s fencing class to end, but multi-tasking on real tasks at work makes us the least efficient. Focusing on one thing at a time will make us feel we accomplished more. Set a timer and commit to it. You don’t have to finish the task, but knowing you had an hour of focused time on one thing will make you feel more motivated for the next thing on the list.
Also, make a list of things that pop into your mind that you need to remember for later. Some call it a distraction list. I put it in my Reminders app and return to the task at hand.
“It’s not always that we need to do more but rather that we need to focus on less.”
Nathan W. Morris, author and finance expert
5. Take breaks
Working through lunch can lead us to burnout faster than you think. Pushing through doesn’t promote productivity. It robs us of our creativity, it taxes the brain and the body.
What would you think of me if I said I got a massage every other week instead of seeing clients for two hours? Gasp! Or that I take walks midday?
I’d argue showing up for the rest of my day, calm, relaxed, grounded and present makes me a far better life coach and therapist than if I had seen clients back-to-back for 8 hours.
And, I really do think the Spanish siesta has a lot going for it!
We are not designed to be churning all the time. We need time to process information and assimilate it into the designated parts of the brain. Which reminds me, get those 8 hours of sleep!
“Efficiency is doing things right. Effectiveness is doing the right things.”
~Peter Drucker, management consultant
6. Clean up your workspace
Every evening when it’s time to leave my office, I shut everything down, make sure things have been filed, or tucked away, and leave my list for the next day. Again, this is a routine that only takes minutes, but when I come back in the morning it feels like a fresh start, a new day. I don’t feel burdened mentally by yesterday’s mess strewn in front of me. It helps with motivation and positive attitude especially if there is a demanding day ahead.
Remember that being more efficient will make you more effective. Both will have you tackling your day with more enthusiasm and remembering what you love about your work. Once you put in the time on the front-end to develop these skills, your workday and your life will feel much more fulfilling on the back end.
Let me know what you discovered after trying these suggestions. You can follow my blog for more tips and tools and subscribe to my emails at: www.strongwomengetstronger.com
@JHoffman_Coaching
