When you look around, you notice the usual buzz of high-pressure work has diluted. With it we are gifted with abundance of time. Though it’s a gift that we have received in abundance, a lot of us don’t seem to have realised so. Here are some simple tid-bits about how we can make the most of the present, which is “now”:
1) Increase your Network: While I was attending a conference titled women 2:0, the senior speaker was mentioning how she also networked with various people within her organisation despite her hectic schedule. She would fix lunch sessions with different people everyday. I know, lunchtime is precious for you to relax and don’t want to include business. Why not mix business with pleasure? Its not everyday you go and have lunch with unknown people. Consider doing it once a week. Fix up to have lunch with a colleague from a different team. Think about the gain in return. Firstly, you get to know your colleague better and you never know you may just discover you and him share passion for a same thing. Secondly, you are not going out of your way spending your time to do this but utilising your lunchtime. Thirdly, you build your network. Fourthly, you are taking a first step to come out of your comfort zone and making an attempt to feel comfortable with strangers. Try it and see the results.
2) Develep hobbies: Each one of us is gifted with 24 hours of time every single day. When you look around, you find how some people are multiskilled while some are not. Sometime back, this is what our VP Jan had to say in one of his meetings with the team. He insisted we pick up one hobby every year and excel in that. Just imagine the number of skills we would have picked up after 10 years. It is going to be astonoshing imagine 10 new skills apart from climbing your regular career ladder. For this to happen, you have to devote at least 30 minutes to 1 hr every day religiously from your schedule. Are you saying, “Where is the time”. Save time and invest in these hobbies. This surely will take you a long way.
3) Multitask: Another best way to increase your productivity at work or at home is by multitasking. It’s an art that you can gain expertise with lot of practice. Look for various things around you that can help you multitask. Lets say you have sent a document for a print out and the printer is 20 meters away from your desk. Combine this with a micro break from your work, to network with a colleague on the way and pick up your print out. You have done 3 things at a time than doing 3 things individually.
4) Reskill: “If you want what you never had, do something that you have never done” so goes a saying. In order to reach more heights in your life, make skills development as your religion. Along with your regular work, enroll to a course, which will add another degree to your career but also gives multidimension to your life. This way, your primary goal of climbing your career ladder is taken care of. Also you will achieve your secondary goals of adding more degrees. At the end of it all, you are more skilled than people around.
5) Productivity: If you want to know how productive you were at your work, take a look at your activities on a day-to-day basis. Though your productive hours at your work need to be 9 hours, we all know we are not putting in all 9 hours. There is some wastage time in the process. Considering all that, your productive hours at work will be anywhere between 5-6 hrs only. You need to fill in as many activities as possible in these 5-6 hours. Make the most of 5-6 hours to get all that you want out of 9 hours.
6) Avoid time stealers: They say, “Time is like a coin. Don’t allow somebody else spend your penny”. What I mean by this is, don’t allow somebody else spend your time. These could be unwanted emails, interruptions for calls, invitation for casual conversations or any of these sorts. Find out what is stealing your time and put a full stop to it and save it for yourself. Make your own judgement to say “no” for any stealers.
7) Use calendar: One of the very best ways to save time and make the most of it is, use the calendar. It not only works like your personal organiser, but also helps you plan your day. One of my colleage uses the calendar diligently. At the end of every week, when he looks at his calendar he knows very well what he did best, where he erred and what has to be the scope of improvement for the coming week. On the day he takes off, he strikes the sheet. This I think is the first step to becoming great in your own life.
8) Discipline: Consider this. You want to take a break from work and walk into the cafeteria. It is up to you if you want to spend an hour there or stick to 10 minutes break. Discipline goes a long way in shaping your outlook towards time. That’s why it is said “invest time and not spend. Investment leads to returns”. Discipline your usage of time and invest it in various other streams to see the returns.
9) Read one article per day and use it: Develop this brilliant habit of reading one article per day apart from your regular dose of newspapers and books. Subscribe to articles that are widely available on the net free of cost and read them atleast one per day. The insight that is gained through these is unmatchable to any learning that you get.
The author of this article has been with the Oracle India Recruitment Team for the past three years and can be contacted at pushpalatha.sreenivasan@
1 comment:
great article to have at all times. keep it up.
Post a Comment