Being busy can often be more destructive than productive. You can work yourself into an early grave whilst simply struggling to make the right decisions you were once able to make with a clear head.
To avoid this, we’ve compiled some top tips for you to have the best of worlds – a life and a business.
Employ a good team
We’ve found that employing a strong workforce immediately solves one of your greatest problems time.
Sourcing a talented team immediately frees up time from both hours in the office and sleepless hours worrying about how you’re going to get it all done. After all, many clever hands make light work.
Furthermore find people who are better at tasks that don’t come to you naturally e.g. finance or logistics bolsters your output considerably. Leaving you free to concentrate on the tasks you are good at.
Don’t be a busy fool
Being busy does not always mean you are being productive. Today’s culture implies us that ‘I work more hours than you’ one-upmanship is the best way to get ahead. This is a fallacy.
Instead you need to have a healthy attitude to work. For example I have set hours I work between – hours in which I know I can be productive. It really does makes sense to set realistic parameters for what you can achieve within a day. Bums on seats does not equate to success!
Beat Stress
Stress is destructive. You can never make a clear decision if your mind is hazed with panic.
It’s further escalated when faced with a mammoth cliff face of a one-year plan. Instead break down this one-year plan into a series of manageable tasks – and complete each before moving onto the next. There is happiness in progress. Especially when you realise that each one adds up to a collective whole and each day you’re closer to a goal what seemed unattainable.
Don’t feel you have to stick to the original plan
Sometimes, jobs arise that you could never plan for. So don’t stick to your original plan for the sake of it. We are constantly revising plans to manage obstacles in the road and to exploit oppostunities that arise.
To effectively manage these changing priorities, our senior staff meets each morning for a conference call to keep each other in the loop. It’s not a time consuming – just 20 minutes – but very effective in making sure we’re on track as a team.
Get out of the office
Keeping fit and healthy is essential – so I won’t tell you how to such eggs.
Instead I want to recommend getting out of the office. New ideas can often be sparked simply by changing the setting you’re in. It keeps your mind fresh.
I’d also recommend working from home. It’s a simple way of changing environments and what’s more, there’s no commute. So as soon as you close your laptop you can start your homelife.
It’s worth just keeping three simple things in mind to make it as effective as possible. Firstly, keep to the hours you’ve set yourself to work as it can be easy to lose track of time when holed up in your office. Secondly, make sure your family are aware of these hours and not calling on you to empty the bins while you’re trying to manage end-of-year budgets.
Finally, try working from home two days a week – if you’ve allocated tasks to your trustworthy workforce, you can be confident that the work is getting done, leaving you time to focus on your own job list.
Sean Blanks is the Marketing Director of www.cartridgesave.co.uk, the UK’s largest dedicated printing company.
