Staffing

In any organization… People make the difference. Being properly staffed means having the right amount of people for the amount of work. Being overstaffed, or understaffed, negatively impacts the bottom line. Being overstaffed is an unnecessary burden on overhead and tends to breed mediocrity. Being understaffed can place an unreasonable burden on key personnel, causing them to make unnecessary mistakes and become burned out. Understanding your staffing needs is part of proper planning. Always be recruiting. Good people have always been, and will continue to be, hard to find. It’s too late to start looking for people when you need them. You must think ahead and plan your staffing requirements. This is especially important in the start up and wind down phases of a projects life cycle.

Paperwork

With responsibility comes paperwork. It is important to keep the paperwork process flowing efficiently. Whenever you find too much paperwork on your desk, take time out to reorganize. Review all the papers on your desk just once and divide it into the following classifications: [Do this, while standing over the waste paper basket]

– Do it now
– Action pending
– Reading material
– Round file [Garbage]

Try to put the highest priority item at the top of your Do it now pile, then act on it immediately. This way, you will not feel overwhelmed with disorganization by having a large volume of paperwork laying around. Clearing your desk completely, or at least organizing it before you leave the office each night, should be a standard practice. This helps to get you off to a good start the next morning.

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Communication

One of the major causes of failure is the lack of clear, direct communication between people. Too many times we miscommunicate with our boss, subordinates, fellow workers or customers. We tend to communicate in terms of what we think we should say, or in terms of what we think the other person would like to hear, instead of expressing our real thoughts and feelings. Open, clear communication is better for everyone concerned. It avoids a lot of wasted time and problems that miscommunication creates.

This is not to say that one shouldn’t be diplomatic. For instance, telling an employee that they are not doing well is far less productive than coaching them in the areas that will help them to improve. Be clear with your expectations of everyone that you deal with. Know where you’re going. Act with purpose and try to avoid frivolous communication. That only steals your time and inhibits your ability to accomplish. Listen to others first. Understand their position. You don’t have to agree with it but you should at least understand it.
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Home Work

Although there are times when taking work home with you will be necessary in order to get the job done, it is generally not a good practice. Do not make a habit of bringing work home with you. It is a sign of either poor time management at work or being a workaholic. This is inconsistent with leading a successful, well balanced life. If you find that you are consistently taking work home with you, something’s wrong. Try to delegate the work to someone else, or organize your time more efficiently so that you can get your work done during normal working hours. You need to get away from work at the end of the day, both physically and mentally. Doing office work at home tends to be counter-productive, draining you of energies and alienating your loved ones.

It is also a dangerous habit because if you can’t get something done during the day, you’ll start to believe that “there’s always tonight”… It isn’t worth it.
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Time Outs

Working for long periods of time without taking a break is not time effective. Energy decreases, and physical stress and tension accumulates. Irritability, fatigue, and anxiety can all be caused by the failure to take a time out during a normal work day. Periodic breaks can rejuvenate, invigorate and stimulate a person to be more productive. Don’t be the workaholic who thinks that if you are not always working, you are not being productive. On the contrary, taking a few well timed breaks, with a change of venue, some isometric exercises, or a little bit of social interaction, can make all the difference in the world. Not only will it be refreshing, but it will also increase your efficiency.

Remember, anything that contributes to your health and well being is good time management.

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Behavior

Your behavior and attitude dictate the results you will get in your life. The key to forming good productive behavior is to form good productive habits and eliminate negative, unproductive habits. A habit can be formed, or eliminated, in approximately [21] days of persistent repetitive action.

Positive reinforcement is the key, whether you are working to eliminate a bad behavior, or trying to acquire a positive behavior. Do something to reward yourself for acquisition of a behavior that will improve your life. Do something for yourself when you eliminate a bad habit. Try not to punish yourself for slipping into old habits or failing to maintain good ones. Just simply get back on track and try to maintain the behavior you wish to adopt for approximately twenty-one days.

You have to make the change first. If you always do what you always did, you’ll always get what you always got.

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Tape Recorders

The advantages of using a tape recorder to dictate notes and memos are without question. It saves time. The least effective method of written communication is to write letters in long hand for transcription later. No one who writes more than one letter a week can afford to waste such time. If you do not have a dictation machine, then get one. You can speak and think faster than you can write. Speaking into a tape recorder allows you the flexibility to capture your thoughts without skipping a beat. Keep your tape recorder handy at all times so that you can capture any thoughts or ideas, rather than possibly forgetting something important. For those of you who wake up in the middle of the night with a great idea and do not want to go through the anguish of trying to remember what it was in the morning, keep a tape recorder on your nightstand. Remember to also be appreciative of your secretaries as they work to transcribe your thoughts and ideas.
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Management By Objectives

“Management By Objectives” means keeping your focus on achieving results [the end in mind], rather than the means or policies and procedures required to accomplish them. It is important not to confuse hard work with accomplishment. Working super hard in the wrong direction is self defeating. It is too easy to become preoccupied with policies and procedures. Policies and procedures should be used as a guide with the end result in mind. If you can reach your objectives without the bureaucracy, effort, or red tape, then do it. Follow up by making suggestions to upper management on how the organization can be more effective with less effort.
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Commute Time

Time is irreplaceable. Time spent commuting can be utilized efficiently by listening to motivational or educational tape recordings. Listening to the radio in your car can sometimes be therapeutic. However, there may be more productive uses of this time, including getting your thoughts in order for an early morning meeting, analyzing your personnel or business opportunities, or just mentally preparing for your day. For the very skilled, you can actually complete your educational goals by studying and preparing course work during your commute. This is not recommended for the average commuter as the consequences for not paying strict attention to your driving can be severe.
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Contribution

You are here to make a contribution. That means defining your purpose, establishing your goals, and planning to succeed. The contribution you owe to your employer is to produce more than you are being paid. Always keep in mind that your contribution makes a difference. Do things that will make a long-term difference for your future and the company’s bottom line. Never waste time. Wasting time is stealing from your company, but most importantly, it’s stealing from yourself. Lost time is unrecoverable.
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