To ask how I can be more efficient/productive at work?

[lifeisweird]

It's my first ever office-based job. I've only been there two weeks but the workload has ramped up massively. I have lots of different tasks to do and I find it difficult switching between different tasks, I prefer to get stuck in on one and finish it perfectly before starting another, but that just isn't possible as I need to send drafts off to several people to get reviewed and I often have several projects and different stages all needing my attention.

I start a task and I feel like I waste so much time and I don't even know how. I'm usually such an efficient person but I think I over-think things and try and make it perfect from the get-go rather than just getting stuck in. My email and Teams notifications are constantly going off which I find really distracting. I have lots of unnecessary Teams meetings and it's like the whole 30 minutes before them I can't concentrate as I'm watching the clock making sure I don't miss joining them. I forget to eat and drink quite a lot on work days (I'm WFH) and I'm doing lots of extra hours, I log on at night and 'appear offline' and catch up on things.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to be quicker and more efficient?

Turn off your notifications, check your email / messages 1-3 times a day.
Set a reminder for 5 minutes before the teams meeting so you don't need to clock watch.
Ask your manager about attending essential meetings only.

Schedule yourself a times lot in the morning (maybe 15 mins) to schedule your day. Allocate time slots to different tasks/projects. Put a star by anything that is a priority to finish that day. Don't be over ambitious in what is achievable. Let people know early if the requested time frame is infeasible.

Have a project tracker so you know what needs doing, when.

Use the red flag function on outlook for anything urgent.

I'd you find yourself repeating the same info in emails, just copy and paste from another.

I need to send drafts off to several people to get reviewed and I often have several projects and different stages all needing my attention.

^

How are you prioritising this?

First - don’t panic!

It’s a new job, and you’re WFH, and that is tricky in itself. So that’s why you have anxiety around the meetings, and that will settle as you get established.

For lots of different projects at different stages (hello, welcome to my world!) you have to time-chunk. Do this however makes most sense to you.

E.g. I batch my admin-based tasks into a time chunk on Monday & Weds & Fri mornings. I hate admin based tasks with a passion and I’ll endlessly procrastinate them so I don’t allow myself to do anything - no checking email, no company social media, whatever- until dive cranked through the admin tasks. I batch my more creative tasks - work that needs a ‘flow’ state - too. You can’t have that interrupted by email or meetings - block your calendar with a fake ‘meeting’ with yourself if you have to.

Keep project lists with next action tasks.

Project: Publish Report on X date
Next action: Create document
Next action: Draft outline
Next action: Type up research notes

Etc etc. Break everything down to the smallest next action.

Maybe that’s ‘Set alarm for meeting’ and also ‘Eat lunch’ or ‘make cuppa’ in some cases - don’t neglect yourself. Make time to be a person not just robot employee.

@Susannahmoody

I need to send drafts off to several people to get reviewed and I often have several projects and different stages all needing my attention.

^

How are you prioritising this?

I prioritise in quite a chaotic way to be honest, whatever is stressing me out the most and whatever is being chased up the most frequently. I think that adds to my mental stress as well.

Thank you so much everyone, your replies are really helpful! Today was not a good/productive work day (worked until 8pm, skipped lunch, etc) so I'm looking forward to adopting your advice from tomorrow onwards.

I have spent some time organising my work laptop to hopefully make things easier for myself, just little things like saving important documents to my desktop and downloading my preferred internet browser so I don't have to use the Microsoft one and Bing...

I muted my laptop today which did help though so I didn't hear the constant influx of emails. The only annoying thing is my Teams chats are always very active so the whole side of my screen is constantly filled with chat notifications but I need to have notifications on as my manager/other senior staff use them to get in contact with me.

I love the idea of batching tasks, I'm definitely going to adopt that. I feel like I'm always stopping tasks midway because I suddenly remember some admin work that needs doing and then I can't get back into the flow state for the task I was doing.

Do as little as you can get away with, always

1. Done is better than perfect
2. If it'll take less than 2 minutes, do it now
3. Perfect the art of the to do list. Find the system that works best for you but use it to get all of the noise out of your head and onto the page

Write a list!

Give everything a priority.

Check the list, judge where the new task comes on it. Do the next top priority thing.

So sometimes the new thing goes to the top of the list, sometimes it doesn't. But you don't forget to do stuff.

Have a look at Microsoft OneNote. It is AMAZING at helping you keep on top of things
Hit the tab key after a word, it makes it into a table, then just drag the line up or down the list. Brilliant.

Or write on a piece of paper, but either way you need a list!

With minor things (under 3 minutes to sort) deal with them once only if possible.

This lady has some great time/ productivity tips and she’s very engaging

m.youtube.com/channel/UCPWgXayFlj6Cd5gLA4QW7eA

Time blocking is your friend and zero inbox 3x per day.

I needed to see this too today!
The only thing I do that I haven’t seen mentioned is to use the colour categories on emails to mark them in traffic light colours. Red for urgent, amber medium, green low. Plus I do purple for in progress.

You don’t say whether you have an external monitor screen as well as your laptop? I find having a second screen invaluable in helping me concentrate as I can have two webpages / docs for reference / reminder of content required / time plans etc open on one screen & actively work on another, stops me flicking between things & losing focus

Use the planner tool on Teams. It’s excellent for keeping track of priorities.

When writing anything from emails to reports only ever use the bare minimum of words.

File emails as you read them, so only emails needing action sit in your inbox.

Write a check list at the start of each day and assign approximate blocks of time to each task. At the end of each week plan key tasks for next week.

Only check emails and teams messages at set times in the day. For example, first thing, before lunch, mid afternoon.

Block time out in your callendar for tasks and colour code them according to the type of task. If you don't want to be interrupted during a specific task put that in your calendar too.

Again assign time for weekly and monthly regular tasks and put recurrent reminders into your callendar.

Use project planners and trackers for bigger projects, track every stage with key milestones. Add deadlines and assign tasks to specific people. Mark tasks as 'complete' 'in progress' 'not started' or similiar. I like gantt charts for this but I know other people use Microsoft Planner. There are plenty of templates and project management tools out there.

Don't be afraid to chase people (politely) for things you need from them.

Be realistic about how long tasks will take to complete. If the workload is genuinely too much you need to speak with your manager about it. You really shouldn't be doing lots of extra hours of work to keep up.

F

I use onenote, find it useful! I created some templates for myself that I use frequently and fill in the relevant gaps and email then to others. Also, when you keep receiving the emails and you tend to stop what you are doing and have a look at the new one in case it is more urgent. That puts on more pressure as you now piled up on two urgent ones already! I reply to the senders providing them with a time frame when they can expect that draft for instance from me, and put a reminder note on onenote which also links with outlook
Good luck!

I love the idea of batching tasks, I'm definitely going to adopt that. I feel like I'm always stopping tasks midway because I suddenly remember some admin work that needs doing and then I can't get back into the flow state for the task I was doing.

You can train your colleagues - and your managers too! - let them know it’s pointless to expect an answer to emails between 10-1 on Monday, or whatever works for you. Tell them you won’t be checking Teams between X and Y hours, because you’re working on Z task. (And on that note - emails aren’t insta-response. Train them that you won’t answer straight away! It’s OK and perfectly normal for people to wait between 2-48 hours for an email response … put an auto-reply on if you like, saying Thanks for the email, you’ll reply ASAP but if no response by X date to email again.

Disrupting ‘flow’ is the absolute killer for me - and I sabotage myself sometimes, because procrastination is the Instant Gratification Monkey thief

If my monkey tells me to remember to do X, but I’m supposed to be working on Y, I just write a note very quickly on a PostIt or something - strictly no opening a browser window to ‘quickly check’ something. If my monkey tells me to just look in and check email/Twitter etc - I mindfully notice the impulse but say No to the monkey and get back to work.

It takes practice. I am absolutely far from infallible!

Write lists: people to call or text; stuff to buy; emails to send; errands to run. That all helps.

What I’d say helps you the most is that you are new! So you aren’t in a pattern yet that you need to break. So that’s helpful / set expectations with your colleagues.

You say this is your first office-based role - don’t think you need to be the Uber Efficient Employee if you don’t want to.

Ooh Molly1418 I'm curious what your templates look like!

I'm using OneNote on a Mac so sadly I can't link reminders to outlook, that would be wonderful.

I do use the tag function, that is helpful.

OP turn your email 'ping' off, it is very distracting.

Plus OP- well done!

I've been in office jobs for 20 years and I'm still improving my systems and productivity!

If you have a growth mindset you will be fine! Lots of good tips to get you started on this thread.

Once you learn the job you will develop your own 'system' of doing the job.

This doesn't sound like a great job or company if you're experiencing this level of workload two weeks in.

You shouldn't be a new hire working until 8pm.

You can train your colleagues - and your managers too! - let them know it’s pointless to expect an answer to emails between 10-1 on Monday, or whatever works for you. Tell them you won’t be checking Teams between X and Y hours, because you’re working on Z task. (And on that note - emails aren’t insta-response. Train them that you won’t answer straight away! It’s OK and perfectly normal for people to wait between 2-48 hours for an email response … put an auto-reply on if you like, saying Thanks for the email, you’ll reply ASAP but if no response by X date to email again

This. If they want an answer from you about something now they should call you. Otherwise it can wait until your scheduled email time. I'd also add not copying every Tom, Dick and Harry to every email sent. Copy people in only if they need to know.

Where I work, we don't really have that culture, but it's really noticeable if you deal with someone where there office does, because you get copied in to all sorts of irrelevant shit, and then people complain they're too busy reading and responding to emails to do any actual work.

Email is a good way to get 'I need to tell X about Y' out of your head, but it shouldn't be seen as being at the top of their to do list, because sending the information is off yours.