To want to discover the secrets of extremely efficient work colleague

[crissymoomoo]

It's astonishing. You will email her at 9:02am asking for her to bring a report to you at her earliest convenience. 9:04 I get a reply 'of course. I am on my way'.

She replies to all emails within 30 mins max. Has all tasks completed within an hour max and she's super busy in a profession well known to be stressful and busy.

Anyone else know someone like this?

She is secretly twins. Or triplets.

Is she looking for a part-time employment? Is she in London? I am looking for a good personal assistant.

I don't procrastinate and am good at all things Microsoft Office. Use Outlook as a diary/notebook/organiser. But I do prioritize stuff - so if things aren't urgent may set follow up reminders for 24 hours.

I come from big family. We were expected to do our chores superquick. Everything had to be done right there and then . No hanging around.All my family are so quick at getting things done. Everyone at work laughs at me l get things done so quickly. ( except housework which lm too lazy to do!)

See, I can get through lots of tasks but there's aways more to do. For me, the value is in deciding what the priorities are, and actually thinking about things to make a real difference rather than ploughing through tasks. I guess it depends on your line of work though.

I'm polite, but if I don't hear back within a few hours I chase

This would fuck me right off 😂 I decide my priorities. Chase after a couple of days, by all means, but a couple of hours as standard is annoying. If something is this urgent (and yes, sometimes they are) I would expect to be told the timeline up front. If I didn't respond I wouldn't mind being chased after a few hours for something truly urgent (not that I would have left it in that case).

She lives for it, simple as that. Don't go there OP!

Heh, I did say I was annoying. It's my role though. It's impossible to organise departmental meetings with lots of people if half can't be arsed to send a reply that takes two seconds. There are obviously circumstances where it's not at all appropriate, and I know who to hassle and who to not.

I know a lot of people that think that if they ignore something long enough, it'll go away. Annoyingly, that prevents me doing my job. So I piss them off and chase them up

Christ Crissy, let it fucking go.

But OK, a few hours is a bit tight, fair enough, that was just today. This was a contracted agency I was chasing though, not a colleague, and they were being slack.

AlternativeTentacle - huh?

Fair enough! To be fair I am sometimes guilty of not always just doing something that would take me a minute. But I find it distracts me just as I'm getting somewhere on something more substantial.

Probably down to different types of job.

I do expect contractors to reply quickly!

You are describing me

I am super organised and efficient at work, but I have to be to get everything done.

I just wish I was the same at home.

Christ Crissy, let it fucking go

She already has. She fucked and ran on this thread after just one post. 😭😭😭

Wat??.

She already has. She fucked and ran on this thread after just one post. 😭😭😭

This has me laughing 😂😂 I always find late night threads have the comedy factor 10/10.

Think I may have lost the plot after a seriously long day in the office--

Jesus can't even do a strikethrough 😂😂

I'm like that. I just love to be busy and under pressure it's when I work at my best. Pile the work on me and it's top quality, let me get bored and I make mistake after mistake after mistake. Don't ask how to be like me because I mystify myself at times and it's frankly exhausting!

Keep lists, set reminders, keep excellent files.

Clear through emails every day and file efficiently.

Delegate. Prioritise.

I'm very efficient and the most on top of my workload despite being the busiest person in my department. There is no secret, there is nothing special about me - I just do stuff without chatting about it! I work with someone who seems to take pride in telling everyone she stayed late, is behind on her work, hasn't had lunch etc. It just makes people think she's incompetent because we all do the same job so know how long her tasks should actually take.

Cuntwagon-i worked with someone who used to stay 3 or 4 hours after hometime. She always looked busy but never actually got anything accomplished so would dump as much as she could on her juniors or leave to the following day/oncoming staff. Caused a lot of tension

I'm trying to be that person! Outlook reminders for everything, timeblocking in my diary, anything quick is immediately responded to with anything that will take longer receiving a holding response and projected timescale for the substantive answer. Not "sitting on" anything unpleasant or time consuming. I do not get it right all the time but if I did, I'd be your colleague so maybe she's just better at it than I am. Or a robot, obviously.

OP, do you spend half your day fetching coffee and chatting with coworkers?

I'm super efficient in the workplace. It's because I just get the job done. I get to work, headphones in, do the job, then leave. I don't join in the endless discussions about every inane thing (if I can avoid it).

I always find it bizarre/infuriating when coworkers ask me how I get the job done so quickly. I feel like screaming, "by not sitting here talking about it. Just go do your fucking job and shut up pleeeaaaase!!!"

Not to suggest that you're a talker OP.

I have days like that. I need to have one of them today.

Hence why I've been up since 530. I'll head into work for 730 and get at least an hour by myself.

Today though I'm not dealing with anything new. Emails will be checked and responded to as necessary once this morning, once after lunch and once at around 4pm.

Out of office is on although I will be there.

My big clients know that I do this from time to time and I let the biggest busiest ones know I'll be squirrelled away today Dealing with their paperwork.

I have a "to do" book with my task list on it for me and also a spreadsheet for the team. I like to know where things are and who's got them. Spreadsheet is mainly updated before holidays etc by me or the team.

I also use categories on outlook to flag tasks "to do" "waiting for response" "team members name 1/2/3" "payments" "tax" "compliance" depending on the task and have also (somehow) colour coded emails so they show in different colours per client.

I'm very efficient at work most of the time. Everything administrative is done via email pretty much. If it's a quick query I do it there and then, if it's more lengthy then I leave it in my inbox until it's dealt with and then I file or delete. It's my work motto to never go home with emails in my inbox. Anything that needs to be 'ticked off a list' so reports per year group etc, is written on a post it and stuck on the filing cabinet next to my head, then it's in my line of sight and I can cross each year group off when it's done and then throw away the post it. I have a copy of each term's calendar on the same filing cabinet and highlight events in different colours, so things don't take me by surprise. I also go through my planner at the beginning of term and (for example) two weeks before our spring concert I'll write a note saying 'do catering request for spring concert' meaning I won't forget to order tea and coffee two weeks before.

Oh and always take responsibility if you forget to do something/make a mistake. We're all only human, but trying to cover something up makes you look dishonest.