Taming office clutter requires daily effort; but the good news is that it only takes a few minutes today to save you many hours of shoveling out tomorrow.
Use bins to restrain your paperwork, including an "in bin" for everything you need to act on; an "in bin" for completed paperwork; a "read bin" for articles, lengthy memos or reports; and a "to file bin." You might also create a "meetings bin" and use a different color folder for each meeting you regularly attend.
Manage your "in bin" twice a day, by sorting paperwork into the other bins, completing it or delegating it. Keep your "to file bin" in control, too, by dealing with it on a daily basis.
Avoid inefficient paper shuffling, by touching each document only once. When this isn't possible, keep P.P.B. in mind: Process it, Put it away or Bin it. (But never procrastinate!)
Keep newspapers and magazines from ganging up on you by immediately clipping items you want to keep and filing them. Rip out long articles you don't have time to read now and put them in your "to read" folder. (Grab material from this folder to read while at lunch, traveling or waiting).
How to be a successful 'Lazy Manager'
Nowadays being a successful manager or leader involves all sorts of skills and most people believe that one of the first pre-requisites is to work every waking hour and then work some more when really you should be sleeping too.
But a new theory has surfaced which says that in many ways, this amounts to the very worst way to lead and manage - not just bad for the organization you own or work for, but bad for the manager too.
The Classic Manager
The traditional, Classic Business Manager will work hard, day and night if required. And in doing so he/she believes that they are setting a great example to their workforce. The same manager will also probably feel that if they don't do the job then it 'just won't get done' and sometimes that might be true. But there is a cost to be paid for this kind of approach, in fact a number of costs.
The first and most obvious drawback with the classic manager approach is that they will nearly always be overworked and overtired. This in turn leads to the manager performing below his/her full potential because of excessive tiredness or stress, and in turn this means that, by definition, the manager will not be leading his/her staff in the most productive and directed fashion.
The Lazy Manager
By contrast the so called Lazy Manager will always seek to find ways to delegate the workload to others. Okay so this sounds like laziness, but in fact there may well be good management reasons for working this way. This virtuous chain works something like this.
When work is delegated to others, members of the team often rise to the challenge and responsibility. Perhaps for the first time they feel valued and worthwhile in their positions. This can have the effect of motivating your staff. The manager in turn begins to lose the mindset of being the only one who can do the particular job, he/she learns to trust in the team as their collective confidence and experience grows. But best of all, the manager is left with more time on his hands, leading to less stress and the potential for better overall people management. Hey presto - a virtuous management circle and all from the so-called Lazy Manager.
Cope with mid-career crisis - a mid-life crisis can lead us on a search for everything from the meaning of life to a jazzy new sports car. We may even be tempted to make reckless changes abandoning our "old life" completely. Fortunately, though, this urge usually passes, and we're all the wiser for having lived through it.
Along the same lines, we can also fall pray to mid-career crisis (MCC) - a time in our professional lives that leaves us feeling stuck and restless. And while it can be just as uncomfortable as reckoning with the mid-life variety, the benefits of working through it are equally rewarding.
Keep these strategies in mind for coping with MCC, before making a radical career change you may later regret.
Be on the lookout for symptoms of MCC, which include chronic fatigue, apathy, boredom and a vague sense of discontent. You might also find that your creativity and productivity are suffering.
Look at your job with new eyes. Set your sights on the big picture and identify ways you're making a difference whether it's serving customers, saving your company money, improving productivity or contributing innovative ideas. Remind yourself that you have a vital role in your organization's success.
Take charge of your career. Find ways to take on more responsibility - either within the context of your current position or by advancing in the company. Take advantage of all opportunities to expand your skills and knowledge.
Talk about your feelings. Ask colleagues you trust and admire if they've ever experienced MCC and find out how they handled it.
Take a break. Even a brief getaway can lend perspective and renew enthusiasm. If it's been a year or more since your last holiday, it may be time to consider taking one.
Working in a Clutter
New research has gone further than ever before in suggesting that tidy people "get more done".
Apparently those people who clear their entire desks at least once a day, spend up to 30% less time searching for specific items and documents during the main part of their working hours. So assuming that most office based workers spend 8 hours a day at their desks, the research suggests that an organized person will be able to squeeze around two and a half hours more work out of each day.
Communicating Change to Customers
When change occurs within your company, your first consideration should be to customers, and how they will be affected. Once you’ve determined that these changes will not have adverse effects, remember to:
n Inform yourself first. Don’t attempt to explain a change you don’t fully understand. Gather as much information as possible on both the change and the reason behind it.
n Anticipate reactions. How will the change affect customers? Will they require extra attention?
n Communicate. It possible, let customers know about the change before it occurs. This may provide useful feedback and may even affect how your change will occur.
n Put yourself in their shoes. Be patient with the customers who find the change difficult.
n Thank customers. Particularly those who offer comments during the transition. Pass both positive and negative comments on for review.
If you are determined to fail - or go nowhere in a 'dead-end job' here is eleven foolproof steps to help you meet your goal.
Be totally content with the status quo. Never take a risk.
- Each time you're tempted to say or do something, ask yourself: "What will everyone else think?"
- Always tell your boss what you think s/he wants to hear.
- Be totally inflexible. Stay on course no matter what.
- Fear change, and do everything possible to avoid, or at least, postpone it, for as long as possible.
- Don't ever think for yourself. Rely on others to make decisions for you.
- Set as few goals as possible and keep the ones you do set very vague, so you can keep changing them to match your progress (or lack of it).
- Let your attention drift. Lots of distractions make work much more interesting.
- If there's nothing in it for you don't do it.
- Save your courtesies exclusively for those above you on the organizational chart.
- Memorize the formula TGE - That's Good Enough - set a ceiling on the quality of your work and a limit on the time and energy you spend on it.
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