Do you feel like you continually waste time on small stuff? This article is designed to provide you with some tips on saving time during the day and avoid staying late at work. Specifics may vary from person to person; however, the following information includes helpful and important guidelines from which everyone can benefit. Most people don't realize it, but with all the tasks you perform every day in the office you may be wasting several minutes simply by not performing those tasks most efficiently. Fact is, the time you may be wasting could otherwise be put to better use. Furthermore, you might not realize that the unnecessary minutes you're spending can quickly add up to hours of unproductive time each week! Here are some easy suggestions for saving valuable time on five tasks that are common to just about everyone who works in an office. Use macros to automate word processing functions. Things you do over and over in a document such as indenting paragraphs in a certain way, assigning bold or italic to names that are used in the document again and again, or creating headings for your pages...as well as a myriad of other functions...can all be performed in a fraction of the time by assigning macros to automate those functions. There are many short courses available that will help you learn how to create macros using Microsoft Excel. Email instead of paper memos. It's much faster, and more environmentally friendly, to simply click a memo to a co-worker rather than go to the trouble of physically putting the information down on paper then arranging for the memo to be routed. But beware of over using email! Use color in your files. We've talked about the value of color many times in our newsletters. Here's a reminder of how vital using color folders can be: studies have shown that color-coding your files can reduce the amount of time it takes to find specific papers by 33% or more. Maintain a neat desk. Obviously, a messy desk can be a real time-stealer. Think about it, how many times have you wasted several minutes searching for a missing document that was buried the whole time under a pile of papers? Sure, it's not easy to keep your desk neat when you get especially busy, but making the effort to do so can really pay-off in time efficiency! Write things down. You might be amazed how many people go about their business day with absolutely no plan in place. Often, they spend many minutes each day just trying to gather their thoughts and remember the next task they need to complete. Solution? Spend a few moments making a list and you'll be rewarded in the long run with less downtime. Don't bite off more than you can chew. You may often feel the urge to take on more work than any human being can handle, maybe as a way of impressing your boss. Working hard and striving for promotions is great. But think about it, does your boss really expect you to handle more than you can all the time and stay well past 5 pm each and every evening? If so, you might consider speaking with him or her about their stance on quality of work vs. quantity of work.
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