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When you finally got promoted to be the manager of your office, you were very excited about the opportunity, right? It was a chance to show off your work skills and run the office the way that you wanted to run it, but it also included an increase in the hours and time spent working. One of the many famous quotes from author Robert Frost is, “By working faithfully eight hours a day you may eventually get to be boss and work twelve hours a day.” While he may be correct in some cases, there are ways to get around some of the seemingly-inevitable longer hours.
As a manager, you don’t always have to work longer in order to get everything done. You do, however, need to work intelligently and more efficiently so that you’re not spending half of your life behind a desk. There are few different ways that you can maximize your time at the office, though. Here are some ideas:
Plan Your Day
You don’t have to do all of your planning a the same time of day. You can plan the following day at the end of the present one, or you can plan the rest of your day when you first arrive at the office. However, no matter when you do it, it needs to be done. You should have a detailed schedule of when you plan on starting and finishing tasks, and you should do everything in your power to work hard to fulfill that schedule. At the same time, try to remain flexible, so that emergencies and pressing issues don’t throw off your entire week.
Stay On Task and Work Intelligently
When you’re at your job, you need to go to work. Don’t let yourself get caught off task or in a long conversation at the water cooler. You’ve set up your plan for the day, now you need to stick to it. Do what you’ve planned on doing, and you should be able to get out of the office at the same time as everyone else.
Finish Your Tasks
Starting, staying on, and finishing tasks are all completely different things. Staying on task is good, but some people will lose their focus or motivation soon after starting. If you don’t want to be working for 12 hours a day, you’ll need to finish what you start in a timely manner. Complete your work, and go home at a decent time. It’s that simple.
Prioritize
With so many tasks to focus on, it can be a little overwhelming. Instead of trying to multitask and accomplish a lot of things at once, you should prioritize, and get the most important tasks done first. Priority can vary by due dates, or the time that is needed to actually accomplish the task. No matter how you prioritize, you do need to figure out which tasks take precedence and which you can safely put on the back burner. If you correctly prioritize during your daily planning, you will be able to better stay on task, and work more efficiently as a manager.
Take A Break
When you’re a manager and you have a lot more on your plate than people realize, it’s important to give your mind and your body a break. You can’t expect yourself to be able to handle being stressed and on-edge for at eight hours a day, five days a week. That’s not fair to you, nor is it healthy. Taking a break is important so that you can relax and refocus, and it’s vital to your day-to-day managerial success.
Working as a manager is hard. It’s very easy to lose focus and see your 40 hour week become a 60 or 70 hour week. To prevent that from happening, you need to follow these tips and find out how you can work more intelligently and effectively as the manager of your office. Once you find out what is best for you, don’t stray from it. Stick with what works, and you’ll see your work week get much shorter than what it used to be.
3 Flares Twitter 0 "> Facebook 0 Google+ 1 "> LinkedIn 2 "> Pin It Share 0 Reddit 0 "> Email -- Email to a friend"> 3 Flares × The following two tabs change content below.- Bio
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Robert Cordray
Robert Cordray is a freelance writer for Income.com and expert in business and finance. He has received many accolades for his work in teaching solid business practices and giving entrepreneur advice.
Latest posts by Robert Cordray (see all)
- Work Intelligently as a Manager - 01/11/2014
- Crucial Things To Consider When Starting a Business - 12/31/2012
