Work Smarter not Harder

I am not a particular fan of slogans like the title of this piece, but very often, they do have a point. I had intended, when starting this blog, for instance, that I would be updating it at least a couple of times a week. Hello?! So where does the time go? It is a question I frequently ask myself around 4.00am as I toss about sleeplessly. It would be nice, I often think, to make use of this time and creep along to the office, but disturbing husband and two terriers, one of whom has particularly strong views on undisturbed sleep (I refer, of course to a terrier, not the husband) - well let's just say it won't ever happen.

We do tend to be entrenched in the 9.00 - 5.00 syndrome though and that is not all bad news. It would not be healthy to spend every waking hour working; not only is it unhealthy for an individual, the quality of work produced is likely to be at best lacklustre. So how do we make the very best of these allotted working hours? Accepting that many jobs incorporate a good deal of travelling time in amongst it which I always relished as being thinking time, there are nonetheless tasks that need to be seen to be addressed.

Email, for example. The bliss of this communication medium is its immediacy; just one click of the mouse and your thoughts, responses, requests for information - whatever the content - land in the recipient's inbox. Trouble is, email has to be one of the worst temptations in any office. You've got a job you have been putting off for a while? You are going to get stuck into it right now aren't you........? Well of course you are. Just as soon as you have checked your email which might just have some vital or urgent message that needs to be dealt with.
Oh yes and the fact that you checked your email less than half an hour ago (before you went for that cup of coffee that was going to set you up to deal with the unsavoury task you can put off no longer) - it matters not. I will hold my hands up and admit to being guilty of this - email to me is like a mythological siren I find difficult to resist. The fact that I lived without even knowing what it was for the first twenty or so working years of my life might have given me the cerebral wherewithal to keep it at a healthy distance but sadly, if anything, it has had the opposite effect. And I am by no means alone. I try very hard to discipline myself to accessing email no more than two or three times a day if I am working in the office. I don't 'do' wireless which does help when I am out on the road. It isn't easy but I do try. I know some very disciplined people who access first thing in the morning then leave it alone until the next morning. If it works for them, fine but personally, I feel morning and evenings are minimal in a business environment. Within that of course, you have the strictly business emails and the non-business emails and be honest, everyone has those. It should be everyone's discipline in an ideal world, to leave those unopened until the business of the day is complete. How many of us do?

Another discipline much heralded from the rooftops these days is the OHIO principal. Only Handle It Once. Now I for one would love to get my head around this one and make it work for me. I can obviously see the benefits and of course it does take discipline. But as I gaze at the piles of papers scattered around my office, I think I might have more chance of running a marathon. (In my indigenous stillettos, obviously.) You get the picture. The thought of opening an envelope or printing off an email/document, dealing with the contents and (here's the real challenge,) filing the thing - before moving on to the next item is, frankly, alien to me but some people work that way and jolly efficient they are too.

Blogs are supposed to be sharing things so please post your comments. What disciplines have you introduced to your working day that have enabled you to work smarter but not harder?

I look forward to hearing from you.