Latest News
The Simple Way To Gain One More Day A Week
“At what stage are we taught the skills of time management and being productive?”, says PEPworldwide Managing Director Kathryn Anda. “We’ve been forced to develop these skills ourselves, and no doubt many of us have picked up some bad habits along the way - it’s not surprising that our workplaces are unproductive.”
“At what stage are we taught the skills of time management and being productive?”, says PEPworldwide Managing Director Kathryn Anda. “We’ve been forced to develop these skills ourselves, and no doubt many of us have picked up some bad habits along the way - it’s not surprising that our workplaces are unproductive.”
PEPworldwide helps individuals and businesses improve productivity and personal efficiency through a number of coaching programmes. The results are an average increase in productivity of between 20-30%.
“This can mean the equivalent of up to one day a week of time gained. For a small to medium business owner, who may wear HR, Finance and CEO hats, being more productive can help free up more time to focus on developing their business. Or it may mean reduced work hours and more time spent with family,” says Kathryn.
Making meetings more efficient is one way to free up time. Kathryn says many businesses have monthly meetings where 75% of the time is spent discussing the past month’s activities. A more productive approach would be to use 75% of the meeting towards planning next month’s activities.
With the amount of information we now consume in a week adding up to more than would have been consumed in a person’s lifetime 100 years ago, it’s not surprising the results of inefficient work are higher stress levels. Kathryn believes a high proportion of workplace stress is a result of the expectation of ‘urgency’.
The way people use email is a prime example of bowing to the pressure of urgency. People check their email on average every 15-20 minutes or 30-40 times a day without prioritising responses.
“Many people open emails and just glance at them without taking any further action. This is time wasted. We encourage people to begin checking their emails three times a day and when they do open an email, to action it and do something with it – not leave it in the in box!,” says Kathryn.
The challenge is to change expectations around urgency and perhaps look back to the days before email for guidance.
“We’ve developed a work culture where it is now expected to answer emails within 30 minutes or else you have your colleague coming over and asking “did you get my email?” The reality is, if something is really urgent, your colleague or a customer will call rather than send an email,
“When you checked for traditional post in the past, you would do it once, or maybe twice a day. You also wouldn’t glance at a letter and then put in back in your mailbox to look at later. We can change our email habits if we clearly communicate to others that a reply will come, but not necessarily straight away,” Kathryn says.
Kathryn’s top five tips for better efficiency
- Be organised to be efficient - check your email at the same time everyday and minimise the times you go back to it
- Plan to plan - put aside time to plan your projects and make sure you plan realistically/efficiently when you do.
- Make meetings count - only conduct a meeting if there is a real purpose and think about how long you need. Do you really need 3 hours when with preparation it could be completed in 1 hour?
- Work on the important, not the urgent - step back from what others may tell you is urgent and consider how important it is for you to do this now.
- Take five on Friday - Take five minutes to plan for next week. This ensures a stress-free weekend and a more productive Monday morning