A) Never
accept a bad job. You know when a job is going to be great. A client or boss
who pressures you into areas where you are not comfortable, either because it
is an unreasonable expectation or because it's outside your scope, needs to be
made immediately aware of your discomfort with the job as proposed. If you are
self-employed, declining a job like this is much smarter even though it's hard
to let money go.
B) Delegate
to the right people at the right times. Make sure your team is well-ordered. If
one person is faster, put him or her on the part of your task that will take
longest. If one person is more skilled and accurate, put him or her on the part
of the task that is most critical.
C) Consider
your materials. Don't take shortcuts on the quality of your materials. Cheap
materials or tools are harder to work with because they aren't as sturdy or
nice. Trying to save a few bucks, but spending an extra hour or two because
those cheap things didn't install properly doesn't make any sense.
D) Re-bid
if necessary. Don't accept so many changes that you end up doing a much more
complicated or expensive job than you bid for. When you realize you're into new
territory, stop work and draw up a re-bid, showing the entire job as originally
envisioned and overlay the scope of the new work. Let the client know it will
cost $x more than the original bid to proceed. It's the client's decision how
much to pay. How smart you want to be while you're working for them is your
decision.
E) Evaluate
your methods. You want them to be as efficient as possible. Do your work when
you have no distractions surrounding you. Try to do things in one batches
rather than one at a time. You want your efficiency to be maximized as much as
possible.
F) Look for
shortcuts. This does NOT mean taking the easiest method for the sake of it or
being lazy. For example, if you respond to numerous e-mails per day and answer
the same questions again and again, save your responses. When those questions
come up, you can cut and paste your canned response. You might have to make
minor edits, but the bulk of it will already be written.
G) Control
clients by communicating properly. Make sure your clients will understand what
the normal turnaround time will be for a project. Do not be influenced by their
insistence that their job requires a big rush. Most businesses have more than
one client, yet many clients forget that their job is not the only one you're
working on.
Give one to
three choices - never more. Handing a swatch book to a client and saying,
"Tell me which colors you are interested in" is deadly. Too many
choices will cause horrible delays as the customer peruses ALL possibilities
and later tends to second-guess every decision. Instead, say things like,
"Do you like this blue or this green better?"
H) Avoid
procrastination. Every time you surf the net or needlessly check e-mail at
work, your day becomes longer. Push yourself hard to do work when it's time to
do work and enjoy these activities once you're done for the day.
I) Be
flexible. Your day will not always go as planned. Be open to trying new methods
and doing new things.
J) Create
organizing systems. Being organized saves tons of time, and you don’t have to
be the most ultra-organized person in the world either. Systems aren’t
complicated to implement.
Create a
filing system for documents. Make sure all items have a place to be stored in
your dwelling. Unsubscribe from e-mail lists if you don’t want to receive their
content. Streamline, streamline, streamline.
K) Do
something during waiting time. We tend to have a lot of down-time where we
don’t try to do much. Waiting rooms, lines at the store, time on the subway, on
the elliptical at the gym, etc.
Find things
to do during this time.
L)
Eliminate the non-essential. Our lives are full of excess. When we can identify
that excess and remove it, we become more and more in touch with what is
significant and what deserves our time.
M) Rest.
You should ideally be getting eight hours of sleep every night. You can
certainly pull continuous 12 hour days at work, but it's not sustainable. After
a certain point, your body becomes tired and your mind wears down, leading to
more frequent lapses in concentration and careless mistakes.
N) Periodic
breaks. Even at the office, you need to allow time for your mind to regroup and
recharge. Push yourself hard for the first 50 minutes of every hour and then
reward yourself with a 10 minute break.
O)
Recognize the point of 'diminishing returns.' The above steps do not imply that
you should work yourself to the point of exhaustion. You need to protect your
health and the integrity of your job. Working yourself to a frazzle constantly
makes you prone to mistakes. When you're so tired that you realize it's taking
you twice or three times longer to do a job than normal, you need to call it a
day. Rest at least a few hours and come back fresher, so that you can be strong
at the end of the job.
P) Delineate
a time limit in which to complete task. Instead of just sitting down to work on
a project and thinking, “I’m going to be here until this is done,” try
thinking, “I’m going to work on this for three hours”.
The time
constraint will push you to focus and be more efficient, even if you end up
having to go back and add a bit more later.
Q) Assess
everything that needs to be done. Before you plunge into something headfirst,
remember that enthusiasm needs to be tempered with wisdom. Look over every
aspect of the job, and allow yourself ample "pondering time" so that
you can be sure that every detail is accomplished on time and accurately.
R) Make an
outline. Whether it's in your head or on paper, you should have a checklist in
mind and follow it in order. You don't want to repeat steps, duplicate the
efforts of others, make mistakes or forget anything.
S) Learn to
say no. Avoid over-scheduling yourself and be realistic about what you can
accomplish in a single day. Sometimes you just have to cut yourself off because
in most professions, there is almost always something that could be done.
T) Limit
your goals. Try to avoid multi-tasking because you often get less done since
your brain is switching back and forth between tasks. Pick one thing to work on
and put your best effort into that until it is accomplished.
Credits:
Source: WIKIHOW
