Prioritize!! It is IMPORTANT

Ever wondered why managers fail to cope up with their work load? There is only answer: The do not know how to prioritize their work. And in fact it is the drawback that many a manager suffer from despite their qualification, experience and efficiency. 

Prioritizing one's activities and goal posts is a constant process. A thing that was important yesterday, may not be so today, likewise an event or a goalpost important today may be far below in the list of priorities when the new day dawns. 


It is therefore incumbent upon ever manager to keep evaluating everyday's activities viz-a-viz the market trends, organization's aspirations and client demands to smartly and consistently get over with the most important than the lesser ones. If one carries out this drill continuously and regularly, one can have one's productivity level enhanced manifold.


However to correctly prioritize one's activities, one has to have:


A very clear perception
Up to date market reading and analysis
Detailed knowledge of market trends
Client requirements and mindset 
An update on Technological advancements and developments directly or indirectly affecting one's sphere of business
If one adopts the prioritization approach correctly to his everyday routine work in the office, or even otherwise in one's life, one can see things getting better and paying back handsomely - both in kind and appreciation, which are pre-requisites for efficiency and smart work.
Remember, if you prioritize your work correctly, you get focused attention on the things that require priority handling, which saves time and give better results. But also remember EVERYTHING can not be Priority One. One has to have a clear mind and analytic approach to sift activities that require precedence over others. And the prioritized list must be in accordance with the company's policy one works for. One should not be at tangent to company's policy.

It doesn't take long to prioritize things - so why not do it now? It is for your own benefit.

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A manager should first manage his/her work area

Yesterday I visited a friend's office. Prior to visiting his office, my friend always sounded professional, smart and a real manager. But when I entered his office, I could not find him as his work table had piles of files, disarrayed office chairs, ash trays full of cigarette buds and the whole office smelled like a brick making factory as it was smoky, smelly and uneasy.

And then to my surprise, a head appeared from behind the files and I saw an equally disarrayed person, trying to smile to welcome me.

Now imagine, if this is how a client encounters a company representative, what impression he is going to carry about the person and the company itself. It shows overworled work environment, non-professional managers and I-don't-care-I-want-results type bosses.

We fail to realise that unless we have a conducive workig environemnt, clean and well kept office and fresh faces, neither can we produce nor achieve the goalposts given to us. As managers we have to first ensure that our office looks as clean and tidy as we would like our homes to be.

A research on office management concludes that a neat and tidy workplace can increase one's efficiency by 50% or in other words manifold.

So how to go about it? It is simple and difficult as well. If we want to to do it, it is simple - but if we want a staus quo based on Newton's first law of motion "The velocity of a body remains constant unless the body is acted upon by an external force," meaning by if we do not apply ourselves to the situation around us, there is going to be no change in our situation or environment.

The first and foremost action of ours should be to break the inertia and make a resolve to keep our workplace as a living example for others.

Secondly, start from the peripeherals like telephone, pen stand, day planner, table lamp, photographs(if any) and keep these according to their usage and accessibility. Normally people keep the telephone to the right and when it rings they pick up with the right hand but have to shift it to the left hand if something is to be written. Therefore telephones should always be placed to the left and attended to by the left hand (since mostly people are right handed) - this will allow easy use of telephone and taking notes if required.

Thirdly, keep only those things which are essential - rest all be placed in shelves under the telephone desk for easy access.

There should be nothing in the drawers except directories, calculators, stamps or ready-reckoners- becasue if once you start dumping things in the drawers, then these will have things you would have never used even in months. So keep only those things in the drawers that are handy and are required occasionally.

Always clean your office of files that have been used and referred to - these must go back to their cabinets as early as possible, lest these are misplaced or dumped under other files and erroneously taken away.

 

Some managers are in the habit of placing visiting cards under the table glass for 'easy and quick reference.' Believe me, these are seldom used. Have these visiting cards in the custom made folders and kept in the drawer. The frequently consulted clients are even otherwise fed in your cellular phone, so have unnecessary contact information cluttering your office outlook?

And the last thing - clean up once you leave. When in my earlier post I talekd of having a 'flex time', keep a part of the flex time for the end of the day for cleaning up. Clean your desk and table to from all files taken out during the day and put these back where these belong. If these are to be consulted again, stack them or better would be to tie them in specially made folders and place these on one side so that when you come the next day, you confront with a clean and healthy hellow from your work station rather than a messy and ugly looking site.

Well that is all about today. But what about your cellular phone - is it well organised too? I am sure in most cases it is not. We will talk about it some other day. In the meanwhile, why not get out of the inertia and start a cleaning - rather a cleansing operation rightaway: it wont take long but would leave you refreshing and smiling. Say Cheeeez 

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Don't kill yourself everyday: Leave some free time in your work day

If you talk to some experienced hand or a mentor of your about success in life, the reply will be to devote every bit and second of your life in the office to be devoted to the office work. Or in other words, the advice means that one's office schedule be so tied up that not a single second is to be wasted away.

But would this startegy leads to smartwork, efficency, optimum out or does it leads to heartburns, frustrations and stress?

But does working with throttles on at supercharge speed on a road with no curves, road bumps or traffic lights leave one with one's office work fully accomplished or finished. Try it one day and you will find that such a strtaegy would soon drain you out of all your energies, making you stressful when finding that even this strtaegy still leaves a lot of things unfinished on your office table.

Even if one is working optimally but with every thing tied to each other, packed in tight schedule would have its bugs - an uncalled meeting or a an invited customer with lots of complaints may distrub your entire thought process and in turn the tightly packed, though nicely planned, work schedule.

Well many, as compared to the old hands, believe that one must leave some free time in one's busy and hectice schedule of work for free air - for it relieves stress, crampness and gives air to new and refreshing ideas that may help one in reshaping one's startegies or modus aperindi for achieving optimum output.

Therefore, may managers now suggest to have aflex time emodied in your work schedule, which muct cater for the unforeseen and unplanned activities. 

I remember oonce I planned on a very tightly planned schedule to prepare and deliver a very important assignment. I had even planned on to finish the last part just an hour before the assignmen subission as at that time the boss was scheduled to meet some other gues, allowing me my 'one hour' to fisnish he assignment. But to my horror, when I came to the office next day, I fould that the meet of the boss has been cancelled and I was to present the assignment one hour in advance. 

This is what happens when there isn flex time is intentionally left out to just sit and relax before the commencement of a meeting or a seminar or presentation.

Likewise, a meeting may prolong longer than scheduled, which may be infringing on an activity that you had planned on. Such tight scheduling thus disrupt everything - form finishing the work in time . So always plan on time bonuses - time you can make up for important things and relegating the unimportant things later.

By carefully planning your events with adequate flex time catered for, not only you wll be able to finish most of your planned things, but may also find 'additional time' to finish the previously left out unimportant tasks with lesser hassle and with a high sense of achievement and no heart burns or undeue stress involved.

Such flex-time scheduling would make you more happier, less stressful and more productive. It will also afford you time to give plenty stress-free time to your family and kids without anything botehring your mind or haunting to be taken care of right first thing next moring.

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How To Get Lucky At Work

by Julie Bort / Business Insider

You looking for a lucky break? You aren't alone.

Some 84% of 7,000 professionals surveyed by LinkedIn say they believe that luck plays a part in a booming career.

Lucky breaks seem random. It's a tip on a new job; a chance meeting with a prospect that leads to a big sale; overhearing details of a business deal while at the coffee shop.

But oddly enough, the survey discovered that luck is less random than it seems. It's almost like a job skill.

Five factors were named by a significant number of poll takers as contributions to luck, with women and men both saying the single most important factor to luck is hard work.

Top 5 factors that contribute to career luck according to U.S. men:

• Having a strong work ethic:  named by 71%
• Having strong communication skills: 55%
• Being flexible: 44%
• Acting on opportunities: 41%
• Striving to be the best at what you do: 39%

Top 5 factors that contribute to career luck according to U.S. women:

• Having a strong work ethic: 68%
• Having strong communication skills: 65%
• Acting on opportunities: 54%
• Striving to be the best at what you do: 47%
• Being flexible: 44% 

The survey also discovered that Japan is the luckiest country, meaning people from Japan rated themselves luckier compared to those from other countries. The U.S. ranked seventh luckiest. But hey, seven is a lucky number.

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10 Awesome Work Station Accessories to Organize Your Office

Spring has nearly sprung. If you plan to take advantage of the fresh start to get your workspace sorted, we have found 10 terrific accessories to help organize your office.

Some of the innovative Work Station Accessories for the coming spring

From cable management to tidying paperwork to writing implements, our stylish solutions will add some geek chic and a little bit of witty design to your work space.

These accessories include:

LEGO Stationery Art Carousel

Inbox

Set Of Four White Boards

Bluelounge Mini Dock

Cloud Pencil and Eraser Set

Pantone Wallstore

Russian Dolls - Robots and Ninjas

Memo Mountain

Funky Colored Apple USB CablesSpooled - Wound for Sound

Take a look through the slide show at Mashable to view the gallery of selections, fresh for spring. 

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What All Employees Need to Know About Social Media [INFOGRAPHIC]

Shared from Mashable

Who needs an expensive social media consultant when you can train your employees in Twitter, Facebook andLinkedIn best practices yourself?

This Mindflash infographic breaks down the types of social media users you’ll find in your company — the digital native, savvy technologist, reluctant user, digital newby and digital contrarian — and how to approach training each of them.

This guide also highlights an important fact: 76% of companies do not have a clearly defined social media policy. Whether or not you have an explicit policy, make sure you’re aware of the way everyone in your company represents your brand.

What do you think its most important for companies to teach their employees about social media? Share your best practices in the comments.

Thumbnail image courtesy of iStockphoto, narvikk

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Are you being paid well?

Employers and employees never seem to be at ease with each other. While organizations make fortunes due to hard work put in by the employees, the employers still want them to do more, and more and still more so employers could buy new coffers to stuff in the profits.

On the other hand, the employees lament of long work hours, lesser facilities, non-stop work hours and absence of good words from their employers for earning profits for them. 

it seems no one is happy - perhaps the do more notion has crept into everyone's mindset so hard that no matter how much hard work is put in by the workers, it fails to satisfy the employers.

However trends are changing for good. As per the survey below carried out by PayScale.com, a postive trend seems to be setting in and employers seem to be realising the plight of their workers and may provide them relief. As per the survey carried out, almost all employers seemed to be willing to provide compensation and relief to their employees.

If we go by the survey below, we see 2012 as a welcome year for the employees and a true gift to them by their employers:

Infographic shared from Mashable

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The Mercedes S350 Diesel - Possibly the Perfect Car (Especially For A Banker)

For decades, the Mercedes S-Class has been the standard by which all other luxury cars are judged.

Mercedes S350 Diesel

The S-Class has always been a technical wunderkind; a test-bed for the latest and greatest automotive technology that Mercedes has to offer.

The current model has everything from massaging seats to lane departure warnings and voice commands to a night vision camera. Yes, you read that right, the car has a night vision camera.

This generation of S-Class is due to be replaced for the 2014 model year. But thankfully, Mercedes finally brought the best version of the car to America.

The S350 BlueTEC is the first diesel fueled S-Class to be offered in the USA in ages. We think it is absolutely magnificent. This is easily the most expensive car we have had the privilege of parking in the BI Garage. And if you need to take a client to dinner, drive the kids to boarding school, or want to be a chauffeur in your spare time, there is nothing better.

Read more: Business Insider

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