“ARE YOU WORKING 24/7 AND IT’S STILL NOT ENOUGH?”

by Jan Yager

“Sometimes I work until two in the morning, have no social life and I still don’t get everything done,” says Nomiki Konst, a 25-year-old single woman who executive director of Alliance Hollywood. Is Nomiki’s refrain familiar to you? With the tough economy, cutbacks in staff, and the feeling that if you are lucky enough to have a job you had better look like you are working hard, toiling 24/7 describes life for more and more people and  not just workaholics.

However, devoting all your time and energy to work is not the answer. Besides the obvious risk of burning out or making more mistakes because of exhaustion or sleep deprivation, you have little or no time for a romantic partner, children, getting together with friends, or that all important “me” time. Who wants to live like that?

Here are six ways to get more done:

1.      Delegate.

A paid assistant with experience and the promise of a long term commitment is the best solution, but what if you do not have the money to pay for an assistant? Consider offering an unpaid internship for credit only to a student at a nearby college who will work for one or more semesters.

2.      Set clear and specific priorities for what you have to accomplish each day so you can also have a natural end point to your work.

If you lack a plan for your day, it is easier to let the hours slip away so that you have to work longer just to get done what you needed to accomplish.

3.      If possible turn off your computer after a specific time and only answer personal or emergency work calls on your cell phone.

4.      Be careful of “distractionitis,” especially when it involves constantly checking incoming e-mail so you break your concentration.

            Whether it is because you are curious, need to find out who is thinking about you, or you are not that engrossed in what you should be doing, constantly checking incoming e-mail has become a big time wasters. As California-based Beth Shaw, founder and president of Yogafit Training Systems Worldwide, Inc. puts it: “I am chained to and addicted to my e-mail.”

To resist the temptation to frequently check your email, create an auto-responder that advises those who write to you that you only answer e-mails at certain times of the day. Another solution is to discipline yourself to respond to e-mails on a periodic basis, as a reward of getting a specific required work task done.

5.      Use technology to multitask safely and effectively.

If you have calls to place, or receive, consider using a cordless headset that will enable you to talk on the phone while still doing other things, such as filing or taking notes related to the conversation.

6.      Only meet if it’s essential and make those meetings worthwhile.

A survey conducted for Office Team, a staffing service specializing in placing administrative assistants, found out that the 150 senior executives surveyed at 1,000 major U.S. companies stated that 28% of their company meetings were unnecessary. Make sure each meeting you attend is really necessary rather than a routine gathering that has outlived its usefulness.

Finally, if you still can’t cut down on the hours you work, make sure you’re doing work you love so if you do have to do a lot of it, you’re less likely to resent it. “For me, I don’t think of work as work” says Craig Morningstar, an Arizona-based married entrepreneur with two grown children. “Work is only too much work depending on the space you come from.” What does Morningstar consider “work?” “If I have to pick the weeds out of our front yard, it’s work when it’s one hundred degrees,” says Morningstar.

However, even if you love what you do, having a life beyond work will help you to have a more balanced life. At Grand Central terminal in Manhattan, there is a sign on the front door declaring that it is closed from 2 a.m. till 5 a.m. So if one of the major transportation centers in the world shuts down for a few hours every night, why not you?

 

Jan Yager, Ph.D. is a Connecticut-based sociologist, coach, speaker, and author of numerous highly-acclaimed books translated into 22 languages on business topics as well as relationships including three on time management, most recently Work Less, Do More: The 14-Day Productivity Makeover (Sterling Publishing Co., 2008). For more information, go to: http://www.drjanyager.com or send an e-mail to: jyager@aol.com.

  

Copyright © 2009 by Jan Yager, Ph.D. All rights reserved.