When I say I can help improve their productivity, some people get uncomfortable. Productivity is not a cuddly term in the non-profit sector. So instead I say I can help make their jobs easier.
They tend to like that. It’s more understandable. And also more accurate.
So here, as the first of an occasional series, are five tips that might help make your job easier. Adopt them, modify them, and if they don’t seem useful, ignore them.
- Get another monitor. Only useful for people who spend a lot of time at a computer. It stops you covering up your active work so much with reference or other material. You can use your second screen to browse the internet, check emails, read a pdf document or whatever. Meanwhile your work-in-hand stays visible in front of you – keeping you focused and cutting distraction time.
- Create a stop-doing list. That’s like a to-do list. Except that it contains things you used to do but aren’t going to anymore. Listing them means you have accepted that taking on new projects and doing them well means dropping some things to make space. It also raises the spirits to be reminded of stuff you don’t have to worry about anymore.
- Find out where your time goes by keeping a time-tracking log. This is standard advice for anyone struggling with financial problems. Knowing where the money is going is crucial to working out a realistic budget. Discovering exactly where the money is going usually contains some surprises, even for people who think they already know. The same is true of work and time. The mere act of keeping a log is likely to cause you to tighten up on some of the waste.
- Never leave a read email in your inbox. This might sound like making your life more difficult, rather than easier. But for most people it’s a change of habit that repays the effort. Deciding what to do with an email now, and then doing it, won’t take as long as you think it will. The pay-off is that you’ll avoid building up a backlog of hundreds of emails that you feel guilty and stressed about and that one day you’ll have to work late to plough through and clear.
- Take a look at the list of things you’re working on and identify the jobs that repel you. Work out why you find them so unappealing. Thinking about why you don’t want to do something will point you to what you can do about it. That might be to clarify it more precisely, redefine it, stop doing it, or delegate it. Or just make peace with the idea that you have to do it. Whatever happens, you should feel better about it.
