Offices can be very productive environments but also places that drain a lot of time. It’s easy to become distracted if you work in a loud office or you are constantly being asked questions and being summoned to meetings.
So how do you make sure that you are at your most productive at work and can manage your time in the most effective way?
Make meetings productive
Meetings can be incredibly time consuming, just the whole process of arranging a meeting, getting everyone together and then getting something constructive out of a meeting is time consuming in itself.
If you are arranging the meeting, before you sit down with everyone come up with an agenda that you want to go through and a clear list of points you want to get out of the meeting. This gives the meeting focus and allows you to go through each point one by one getting what you want out of each one. It will save you a lot of time having to arrange other meetings or asking people questions afterwards.
Try to reduce email time
Emails have their place and they can be very effective, however in many office situations people email colleagues rather than actually speaking to them. This is especially true if you are sitting in the same office as someone. By actually speaking to someone face to face rather than emailing them you can often get a lot more information. Emailing backwards and forwards takes up time and is less efficient, especially when the person you are emailing is in the same room as you.
Plan your time
Before you start every day make a plan for what you want to achieve that day. Look back at that plan at the end of the day and review what you have achieved. This can be quite motivating as you are making yourself accountable for what you have managed to do during the day. You will find that you will start automatically managing your time better to get things done from your plan.
Another advantage of this is that planning gives you focus on the work you are about to do. Before you start any task plan it, you will find it a very effective way to get the job done quicker and more efficiently because you will be following steps you have set out rather than starting it blind.
Have a clear system for managing deadlines
Set up automatic updates on your computer for when projects have to be completed. If you have a lot of deadlines it can be useful to have an online calendar and reminder system so you know when there is an upcoming deadline. This is one of the most effective ways of managing your time in an office when lots of things are coming at you all the time.
Block out other distractions
There are already enough other distractions in an office without having Facebook, other social media websites or the internet distracting you in the office. Set aside a certain time each day to look at these sites or browse the internet.
This is guest post by Patrick Martin. Patrick is a writer for Clarendon who offer serviced apartments in various locations in London.