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?

Don't put stuff off ever.
I check and respond to emails first thing and last thing at night and work while travelling(and mumsnet).
Avoid politics as this can take up a lot of time!

@Anatidae What do you do? My job doesn't look task-based on the surface as it involves mainly long-running large projects that require creativity and lots of thinking time. But ultimately everything is task-based if I break it down into enough pieces. One email might generate five tasks - but they can still be logged and prioritised easily. And one project could generate a hundred tasks - or more - but once I've pulled together a project plan I ultimately end up with a dated to-do list.

Not saying this is necessarily the case for you - which is why I'm interested in what you do, because I think it works for most office-based work.

I'm a project manager for clinical trials. It's like herding cats. No time to think or plan, constantly fire fighting rather than being proactive (not my fault, it's just how the industry runs, in my last job when I left I was replaced with 4.5 full time equivalent people.) goalposts change constantly, multiple vendor companies to keep an eye on, in charge of a big team but not really enough power to actually make changes that would improve things.
It's known as being a high pressure job with a high burnout rate. Sucks to be honest but it's well paid and I'm lucky to have a job. I'm an expat and as yet my command of the local lingo isn't good enough to get a local job, so it's international companies only.

Impossible to truly plan a to do list. Of course I do it to the extent I can - but you never know what is going to hit you in the morning. The nature of the job is unpredictable - so there's a lot of ongoing stuff that you never really get on top of because you're sidelined constantly by emergencies. I dislike working so reactively.

I think it's the classic midpoint on the ladder where you do actually have a shitload of work, a lot of responsibility but very little power to change stuff or delegate.

(someone else also put this) Don't have an in-tray, paper gets touched once. Read it, decide: file it/pass it on/deal with it/bin it.

email is trickier - I deal with those 4 times a day with the same ruthlessness.

I also hide behind a set of headphones, looks like I am audio-typing, but really, they are not plugged in. People don't like to interrupt unless it is important.

Can she be my girl crush?

Or my life coach? Happy with either!

SheRaaargh I want to hire you as my PA!

I have a (virtual) sticky note list on my desktop. It's my 'when you get a sec can you..' list. Any random requests go on the list then I action and delete them as I go though the day so I don't forget any.

Agree with answering easy emails straight away.

Every client has a folder (usually with subfolders) in my inbox. All flagged emails stay in the main inbox until dealt with then they are filed.

Having a good memory helps too. I can remember the name of a potential client from Wednesday when they call back Monday and I only overhead a colleague take the call.. don't ask me where I put my house phone though I've been looking for it for 2 weeks and the batteries dead

Lists. Whether electronic, on excel or on paper. Lists. Review them regulalry through the day and after every task is completed or added. Review the list.

Don't let yourself be bored (see my first comment...when I'm bored I lose momentum and any will to work)

And yes a good memory really helps. If I'm asked a question on anything on my work log or from anything over the past 6 months or so I can usually give you a full run down on what went on with it.

Ask me to remember what to get in for dinner and I will completely forget though!

yes to answering emails straight away, but I sometimes use the 'delay sending' function if a response needs to be timed right.

Like others have said, get rid of the quick stuff. 1st half hour in the office (or often as I'm walking to work), I deal with the 30 second stuff. Often it's stuff I bounce back to the others requesting info so the ball is in the court not mine.

Truth is, I think that having a pretty good memory is key - I can respond quickly to lots because I remember the detail of the matter in hand. Or maybe being focused & engaged when I'm in work - I don't think about much else when I'm there. It's really hard to teach someone to have a good memory, though.

Heh, I was typing as others said about memory. Saves hours, judging by some of my colleagues who can't remember what they did 2 days ago and have to read 10 emails to get back up to speed. I could tell them, but that wouldn't lead to a harmonious atmosphere.

So true play it's a running joke on my behalf that I'm spot on at work but it all falls to the side at home!

@Anatidae Sounds horrible - so it's less the job itself (which should be very task-based) and more the unreasonable workload. You have my sympathies, it sounds very high-pressure indeed.

Word of warning on replying to emails immediately. Use it wisely or you'll end up being the go-to for contact. Depends on role of course

Ah yes as many others have said I do have an extremely good memory (at work at least). Can recall conversations from years ago if required.

Good point, although I am the go to person already, which is good and bad. I don't reply to all emails immediately, just the ones that can have a quick response, especially if it's for someone else to do something. That way, those emails don't play any part of a list for me.

Currently trying to get my assistant out of the to do list mentality for everything. It takes longer to record the item than it does to deal with some items there and then. But it goes back to memory - if you have confidence in the your knowledge of the matter in hand and what needs to happen next, then it's piss easy. If you have to review each time, then it's a proper task.

I keep an eye on emails and respond quickly to fast tasks, but not when I'm focussed on a project. I find constant emails very distracting when my job involves a lot of thinking and writing. I'll plug into emails properly 2-3 times a day. If something is an emergency, most of my team are a couple of metres away from me so they would shoat me in person.

I quite like being the go to, make yourself indispensable without being a doormat. When it comes to redundancies, this is important.

I was always the go to person but as I've got more senior I've had to delegate more and save my energy for the bigger more strategic/relationships stuff. But it's hard to unlearn the 'I'll fix it' mentality. I often find myself restocking the printer or handing out the post!

I agree the secret is to be busy. I'm never so efficient as when I've got lots on.

May I ask, is she very slim?

I have a friend just like this and she is stick thin. My theory is that it is her thyroid - she has a very fast metabolism and so lots of energy to 'get up and go'... please prove my theory! 😊

Interesting when efficient people say they have good memory.

Maybe I don't have a good enough memory and that is my downfall. When I come across a novel situation (which is often because my role is new), I try to make personal notes. It slows me down but I find it helps me to gain mastery of the subject, process and procedures much faster that way and build up a bank of knowledge. If I encounter the same situation, my review time is dramatically reduced because I just read my notes, not stacks of emails trying to piece things together, layer on the experience and quickly become an expert and resource on that issue.

Therefore, I don't seem to get through as much during the day but have a good grip on everything that passes through my desk.

My job is analytical (law) with processes (compliance) and project/change management (people and systems). It can be broken down into tasks, as posters say, but there is quite a lot of thinking and planning involved on a day-to-day basis. The balance of fast-paced daily queries, mixed with longer term reviews and project work is challenging to juggle.

I had a colleague who was my counterpart doing the same job. She is very much the person described in the OP - deal with every email quickly, either replying or shooting it off to someone else. Whilst she kept things moving, she did not follow through as much because her priority was to get it off her desk, it was sometimes at the expense of the quality of thought, helpfulness and eventual outcome. She also did not go back and fix processes as much if she discovered a gap, so long as she got the immediate task done.

There is a certain short-termism by being so reactive and responsive, which is a different style of working, I suppose. A balance needs to be struck. Speed per se is not always better.

Reminds me of a piece of advice in a self-help book, How to save an hour everyday.

The guy who wrote it explains that he once met a chap who did everything instantly. He went to a meeting and during this meeting several simple "to do" items came up but instead of leaving those things until after the meeting, the chap completed all of them as and when they came up. By the time the meeting was over the chap had completed all his obligations to his client and could attend his next meeting with no "to do" list hanging over him.

Seems your colleague follows the same school of thought. Although I suspect it is easier to apply this to simple tasks than to more complex ones that require decsions to be made based on careful analysis of various factors.