Accelerate Your Career Using Simple Time Management
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by: MichaelAdams
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Often just a little more productivity at work is all that you need in order to get a promotion or a raise.
Taking steps to advance your career isn't as hard as it seems. If you adopt a few of these straightforward time management techniques, you'll see some real and positive improvements in the work you do and the results you get. Your boss will notice and this is a good thing when it comes time for him to hand out promotions and raises. Here are a few suggested techniques to get you started.
1. Clear the clutter. If your desk is cluttered, and your papers are all a mess, your boss is going to notice. They may not say anything, and maybe won't even consciously notice, but come promotion time, it will be in their mind. Consider this, if you have two candidates, equally qualified for the promotion, but one had a clean and neat desk, while the other's desk was a mass of clutter, who would you promote? "Mr. Neat and Tidy" or "Clutter Boy"?
So clean up the clutter. The first benefit is that in doing so will make you more efficient because you won't have to go sorting through all your clutter just to find that important paper. The second benefit is that when you boss stops by your formerly cluttered, but not neat and organized office, he's going to take notice. It may even spark a conversation where you get to introduce the idea that you're serious about your work and want to move up in the company. Whatever it takes, just clean the clutter and keep it that way.
2. A supportive physical environment is best. So often people forget about the quote from Bucky Fuller "Environment is stronger than willpower". It's true so why not use your environment to your advantage? Try this simple process. Pick five different things that occupy space in your office. For each of the 5 different things, ask the question "Does this 'thing' support my productivity goals or does it hinder my productivity goals?". When you answer that question honestly about each of the things you pick, you'll be taking the first step towards improving your chances of getting promoted.
When you tell yourself the truth, you'll see what you should do with each object. You want to eliminate any object in your environment that does not clearly support your time management and efficiency goals. You should listen to your own answers and follow through. You only want objects in your office which support your goals, nothing else. So right now bite the bullet and get rid of any "non-supportive" objects in your environment and you'll immediately feel the difference.
Your increased energy and higher productivity is what managers look for when it comes time to hand out promotions.
3. Handle emails, calls, and request efficiently. So much communication happens all day at the office and it's easy to get buried and let things like email pile up in your inbox. You can improve your chances for promotion if you respond quickly and efficiently to any and all emails, phone messages and conversations.
An overflowing inbox is a problem for everyone these days, but if you want to improve your chances of being promoted, you have to figure out a way to keep it under control. Every email client has sorting or organization features you can use to sort your email according to where it comes from. The simplest thing you can do is sort mail from your boss, your peers and your friends into separate categories. From there, you should answer the emails from your boss first, writing short, intelligent and effective messages that demonstrate how you are keeping your commitment and will take care of the matters under discussion.
Use the same style of reply to your coworkers, but answer their emails after you answer the emails to the boss. If they tease you because you answer emails from the boss before you answer their emails, simply say "Yes, of course, isn't that what everyone is supposed to do?" and move on to your next task. When promotion time comes around, your boss will see you as the one who communicates quickly and efficiently and that's a good thing.
The last thing to mention about email is that you need to have a personal, non-work email your friends can use when they want to send you an email. Most people don't realize that emails sent to their work address essentially becomes property of the company. If you have a private non-work email address you only check from home, you won't have to worry about the possibility of a friend sending "career damaging" information to you at work.
These simple steps may seem "too easy", but don't let that stop you. When you start doing them, you and everyone else, including the boss, will see an improvement in your work and how you get things done. It will be clear and obvious that you are ready for more responsibility and a promotion. Get to work right now and you'll be surprised at how fast things change for you.
About the Author
For additional strategies on time management, be sure you claim your copy of Michael Adams' exclusive free report on tips for managing your time and multi-million dollar projects. Visit us at www.smart-time-management.com.
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