How to Improve Your Work
How to improve your work - it's something that any serious business owner or professional wants to know.
Let's start with an area of work that's a real time-suck: email.
You know what email creep is...
It's when the number of incoming messages in your inbox grows and grows and grows - just like kudzu (And if you don't know what kudzu is - well, it's an invasive vine that grows like a foot a DAY.
Kudzu just overtakes everything and strangles the life out of anything it covers).
Kind of like email.
"Enough!" you shout (inside and quietly, so that you don't scare employees, co-workers or your spouse).
It's time to wrestle back control of your email! In a fit of frustration, you decide to tackle it early one morning, when it's quiet, before the workday starts and before people begin interrupting you with fires, their problems, or other seemingly urgent matters.
Maybe you decide to work late into the night to get it handled.
Or (horrors!) you spend an entire Saturday reading, responding, sorting, and filing.
Now...
hit the repeat button, right? How often do you go through this exercise? It might be two weeks later.
It might be two months later.
But it happens, doesn't it? Again and again...
You betcha! And how's that working for you? Not so good, huh? So what's a busy professional supposed to do? In the "how to improve your work" bucket, it goes something like this...
First - enough with the over-emphasis on the importance of email.
Email is a simply a communication tool.
And there are other tools available! (Try the phone - it's WAY faster and efficient in most cases.
) Second, go for brevity yourself if you need to respond.
Answers that are clear, brief, and to the point are appreciated by everyone.
Third, have a system for getting those emails OUT of your inbox and into a task, reminder, or To Do process.
Fourth and finally, use your delete key regularly and often.
So much so that you wear the word "delete" right off the key.
And while on the subject of how to improve your work, make sure you're not taking on other people's problems.
DELETE.
This goes back to priorities and boundaries - know what yours are and use them for email and all your other work.
Just like kudzu, you must control your email or it WILL overtake your life, your sanity and your sense of humor.
And this should answer at least part of the "how to improve your work" conundrum without adding other work.
Let's start with an area of work that's a real time-suck: email.
You know what email creep is...
It's when the number of incoming messages in your inbox grows and grows and grows - just like kudzu (And if you don't know what kudzu is - well, it's an invasive vine that grows like a foot a DAY.
Kudzu just overtakes everything and strangles the life out of anything it covers).
Kind of like email.
"Enough!" you shout (inside and quietly, so that you don't scare employees, co-workers or your spouse).
It's time to wrestle back control of your email! In a fit of frustration, you decide to tackle it early one morning, when it's quiet, before the workday starts and before people begin interrupting you with fires, their problems, or other seemingly urgent matters.
Maybe you decide to work late into the night to get it handled.
Or (horrors!) you spend an entire Saturday reading, responding, sorting, and filing.
Now...
hit the repeat button, right? How often do you go through this exercise? It might be two weeks later.
It might be two months later.
But it happens, doesn't it? Again and again...
You betcha! And how's that working for you? Not so good, huh? So what's a busy professional supposed to do? In the "how to improve your work" bucket, it goes something like this...
First - enough with the over-emphasis on the importance of email.
Email is a simply a communication tool.
And there are other tools available! (Try the phone - it's WAY faster and efficient in most cases.
) Second, go for brevity yourself if you need to respond.
Answers that are clear, brief, and to the point are appreciated by everyone.
Third, have a system for getting those emails OUT of your inbox and into a task, reminder, or To Do process.
Fourth and finally, use your delete key regularly and often.
So much so that you wear the word "delete" right off the key.
And while on the subject of how to improve your work, make sure you're not taking on other people's problems.
DELETE.
This goes back to priorities and boundaries - know what yours are and use them for email and all your other work.
Just like kudzu, you must control your email or it WILL overtake your life, your sanity and your sense of humor.
And this should answer at least part of the "how to improve your work" conundrum without adding other work.
