Ways To Stay Focused At Work

by Arina Nikitina

You’re bent on finishing the work at hand, and suddenly something comes up. You don’t give thought to how pressing any distraction is — you just give it attention.

Five minutes, ten minutes. Sometimes it goes to over an hour.

When you get back to work — boom — you’ve no idea where you left off or why you couldn’t get your mind and heart into it. You can’t stay focused at work anymore and are becoming less productive. There goes your valuable time and effort. There goes your momentum and peak of creativity.

Because there’s no chance of shutting out the world while you’re busy, the decision to stay focused at work is in your hands. It’s about finding the right techniques, knowing your priorities, and sticking to them.

Stuck for ideas? Well, here are 15 ways to stay focused at work:

1. Always find what you do inspiring and fun

Any meaningful task or routine takes a large part of one’s focus. Before starting anything, ask yourself why you should do it. With your answer, there will be that output you so desire — and so you value the task. Then find ways for the task to become fun, like allowing your creativity and imagination to play in the process. Don’t stick within borders of “approved” output; have your options opened for new, fun ideas.

 
When you make something you can call your own, you’re more likely to stay focused at work.

2. Choose a great chair-and-table combo
Many people find working physically strenuous even if it’s done seated most of the time.
Don’t lose precious time and be distracted with discomfort. Get a really good chair with great back support; make sure your desk or worktable is well-structured as well. That way you can work for many hours and not find your body and eyes getting strained.

3. Get your work station organized
Too much stuff within arms’ reach or atop your desk can prove to be really distracting. To stay focused at work, only have the things you need neatly piled on your desk — put the rest away properly, like in a desk drawer or shelves. Have an area for food and drinks, your bag or purse, and other personal items.

 
But have them within reach so you can just grab a drink without losing focus on what you’re doing.

4. Make your computer distraction-free
This is very important for people who use PC for work: Have shortcuts for all routinely used programs.

 
Put in just one folder all files related to each project or task. Then ensure your PC is always virus-free to saved you the hassle of checks and repairs. Instances such as these cause stress and will wane your interest to finish the tasks.

5. Have enough water nearby
Drinking water isn’t only healthy, it refreshes you as well. Once you feel the first sign of fatigue or hunger, a glass of water can push them away. Then you can finish what you’re doing and rest at a later time. Besides, not all stomach rumblings are signs of hunger, and drinking a glass of water usually deals with it.

 
Just make sure you have water within arms’ reach. That way you stay focused at work instead of walking to the water station — and becoming prey to distractions!

6. Bring in the snacks
Like having water close by, the food that could settle a grumbling stomach must always be at hand. For the same reason of having 90% of your attention at work, eating within your workspace area will not expose you to unrelated activities. So make sure your snacks are within arms reach too!

7. Make a daily “to-do” list and keep it nearby
It’s always helpful when you have your list of tasks beside your PC (or at any conspicuous place in the work area). Having it in your PC or mobile phones often opens doors to checking other trivial tabs or windows, or responding to unimportant SMS messages.

 
So put your “to-do today” list where you can always see it, and cross out the “done” tasks. That way, you won’t be digging through your bag or finding that page where you wrote them.

8. Prioritize the tasks
The first hour at work is where most people are productive. This is because all energies are yet to be spent. So put all the taxing, difficult and challenging tasks on your agenda during the first hour. Follow these with the less pressing work, and then end with those routine tasks that you find boring.

 
Such methods makes you stay focused at work, without spending precious time on doing tasks you don’t like. Do this and you won’t be stressed with important projects at the end of the workday.

9. Let others know of your strict personal policies
If you’re bent on making your personal working system work, let others know it. Chances are, you’d be left alone on the hours where you’re focused on the really big, important work. When people at work know you’re on your “free time”, they will pose questions and talk during such periods. Unless there’s a very urgent matter at hand, they’ll leave you at work.
After all, they want the same.

10. Put on the headphones
In most offices, there are various sources of sounds that can prove distracting — like the floor polisher, the mail cart, workmates talking, phones ringing, and sounds of things dropped on the floor. Protect yourself with headphones so you can stay focused at work. The headphones will ward off surprising sounds — and those that get your mind wandering.

11. Be unreachable, busy, away…or “invisible”
Not all calls are about your apartment being burglarized, or a loved one being in precarious situation. So turn off your mobile phone to silent mode during hours where you really need all attention on your work. You can also opt to activate the voicemail service.

 
As for instant messaging, set the status to indicate you’re “busy” or stay “invisible” while you work. If you still get IMs, then just turn the program off and turn it on later when your current task isn’t as pressing.

12. Stay away from social networking sites
These sites aren’t meant to be checked all the time. So discipline yourself to log in only when you have extra minutes free.

 
There’s a strong tendency that you’ll stay much longer than planned because something new, interesting and perky always comes with most social networking sites. Not only will it defeat your purpose of staying focused at work, but there’s plenty of information there that could get your mind unnecessarily perturbed — like a friend’s status about her heartbreak, or someone from work getting a raise.

13. Organize your emails
Another really stressful and distracting activity is email. Let’s face it: You get a lot. Likely a heavy mix of personal and work correspondence, promos and updates from your sites, and 9undoubtedly) spam.
One good way to avoid this is to have a separate email address for work and one for your personal email. Have them both powered to filter all emails. Once you have free time on hand, check emails again and unsubscribe from senders who you could live without. Then, organize the emails you’d attend to later. Delete the rest.

 
Finally, check your emails only when you’re done with the most important task of the day. Make sure you limit your email time as well.

14. Redesign your phone use
Phones are meant for important concerns, chats about the previous night’s date are meant for long lunch breaks. Observing such rule would help you stay focused at work. You could also request your workmates to inform your callers you’d get back to them at a later time instead of always tapping your back or shouting out that you’ve got a call at any time. Once you’re done with work, call back the earlier callers and explain your situation briefly. In the next two minutes, ask about their concern, note it down and tell them you’d call them back for their needed action. Prepare and write all their needed details, bearing in mind their possible follow-up thoughts on the matter. Then call them back and always limit the phone conversation to less than three minutes.

15. Choose suitable music
The point of having music in the background while you’re working is to provide ease and inspiration. For some, listening to music pumps up their adrenaline so they can work with greater energy.

 
But not all kinds of music are pleasant for everyone — and some are not suited for one’s mood. So organize your music library accordingly. Apart from helping you stay focused at work, no distractions should take place. There’s nothing more jarring than suddenly hearing loud, heavy metal screaming after some relaxing jazz music.

Magic 3 letter word to SUCCESS

To Get Success; what are the kinds of questions to avoid? And how can we turn them around with just one magic word?

The closed questions we’re talking about here include ones like:

Can I be more creative?
Can I create in new mediums?
Can I overcome my creative blocks?
Can I be consistently creative?
Can I develop my talents and experiences as a creative artist?

Now on the surface these don’t seem overtly negative. And they’re not. But the way they’re asked all prompt a “Yes” or “No” answer. They’re closed, in that sense.

More often than not, you’ll likely answer “No”. Even if you say “Yes”, then where does it get you? It doesn’t actually move you anywhere. It’s like saying “Do I have the ability to do things I’m not currently doing?”. Of course the answer is always “Yes”, but it doesn’t get you doing them.

Here’s where you pull out your magic word! There are 3 simple letters that when added to the questions above instantly give you motivation and momentum to move your creative life forward.

The 3 letters? H.O.W.

Put “How” at the beginning of these questions and what do they become?

How can I be more creative?
How can I create in new mediums?
How can I overcome my creative blocks?
How can I be consistently creative?
How can I develop my talents and experiences as a creative artist?

By asking “How”, you make the question into a presupposition. You make the assumption that you CAN do these things, and move straight to working out how. When you just ask your mind a “Can I” question, it’ll answer in a split second “Yes” or “No”. End of answer.

But when you ask “How can I…” then your mind instantly switches into creative mode and comes up with ideas and solutions. You can’t switch it off, being creative is what your mind does naturally. You’ve just got to ask the right questions to give it permission to get creative!

Best of luck to you!

Be Productive & not busy

“Absorb what is useful, reject what is useless, add what is specifically your own.” – Bruce Lee

Being highly productive is not an innate talent; it’s simply a matter of organizing your life so that you can efficiently get the right things done.

So, what behaviors define highly productive people?  What habits and strategies make them consistently more productive than others?  And what can you do to increase your own productivity?

Here are some ideas to get you started…

Create and observe a TO-DON’T list. – A ‘TO-DON’T list’ is a list of things not to do.  It might seem amusing, but it’s an incredibly useful tool for keeping track of unproductive habits, like checking Facebook and Twitter, randomly browsing news websites, etc.  Create one and post it up in your workspace where you can see it.

Organize your space and data. – Highly productive people have systems in place to help them find what they need when they need it – they can quickly locate the information required to support their activities.  When you’re disorganized, that extra time spent looking for a phone number, email address or a certain file forces you to drop your focus.  Once it’s gone, it takes a while to get it back – and that’s where the real time is wasted.  Keeping both your living and working spaces organized is crucial. 

Ruthlessly eliminate distractions while you work. – Eliminating all distractions for a set time while you work is one of the most effective ways to get things done.  So, lock your door, put a sign up, turn off your phone, close your email application, disconnect your internet connection, etc.  You can’t remain in hiding forever, but you can be twice as productive while you are.  Do whatever it takes to create a quiet, distraction free environment where you can focus on your work.

Set and pursue S.M.A.R.T. goals. – These goals must be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely. 

Break down goals into realistic, high impact tasks. – Take your primary goal and divide it into smaller and smaller chunks until you have a list of realistic tasks, each of which can be accomplished in a few hours or less.  Then work on the next unfinished, available task that will have the greatest impact at the current time.  For example, if you want to change careers, that goal may be driven by several smaller goals like going back to school, improving your networking skills, updating your resume or getting a new certification.  And each of these smaller goals is supported by even more granular sub-goals and associated daily tasks.  And it is these small daily tasks that, over time, drive larger achievement.

Work when your mind is fresh, and put first things first. – Highly productive people recognize that not all hours are created equal, and they strategically account for this when planning their day.  For most of us, our minds operate at peak performance in the morning hours when we’re well rested.  So obviously it would be foolish to use this time for a trivial task like reading emails.  These peak performance hours should be 100% dedicated to working on the tasks that bring you closer to your goals.

Focus on being productive, not being busy. – Don’t just get things done; get the right things done.  Results are always more important than the time it takes to achieve them.  Stop and ask yourself if what you’re working on is worth the effort.  Is it bringing you in the same direction as your goals?  Don’t get caught up in odd jobs, even those that seem urgent, unless they are also important. 

Commit your undivided attention to one thing at a time.  – Stop multi-tasking, and start getting the important things done properly.  Single-tasking helps you focus more intently on one task so you can finish it properly, rather than having many tasks started and nothing finished.  Quickly switching from task to task makes the mind less efficient.  Studies have shown that changing tasks more than 10 times during an 8-hour segment of work drops a person’s IQ by an average of 10-15 points.

Work in 90 minute intervals. – In an interview with The Globe and Mail, Tony Schwartz, author of the NY Times bestseller The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working, makes the case for working in no more than 90 consecutive minutes before a short break.  Schwartz says, “There is a rhythm in our bodies that operates in 90-minute intervals.  That rhythm is the ultradian rhythm, which moves between high arousal and fatigue.  If you’re working over a period of 90 minutes, there are all kinds of indicators in your physiology of fatigue; so what your body is really saying to you is, ‘Give me a break!  Refuel me!’”

Reply to emails, voice-mails, and texts at a set times. – This directly ties into the ideas of single-tasking and distraction-avoidance.  Set specific time slots 2-3 times a day to deal with incoming communication (e.g. once at 8AM, once at 11AM, once at 3PM), and set a reasonable max duration for each time slot.  Unless an emergency arises, be militant about sticking to this practice.

Invest a little time to save a lot of time. – How can you spend a little time right now in order to save a lot of time in the future?  Think about the tasks you perform over and over throughout a work week.  Is there a more efficient way?  Is there a shortcut you can learn?  Is there a way to automate or delegate it?  Perhaps you can complete a particular task in 20 minutes, and it would take two hours to put in place a more efficient method.  If that 20 minute task must be completed every day, and a two-hour fix would cut it to 5 minutes or less each time, it’s a fix well worth implementing.  A simple way of doing this is to use technology to automate tasks (email filters, automatic bill payments, etc.).  Also, teaching someone to help you and delegating work is another option.  Bottom line: The more you automate and delegate, the more you can get done with the same level of effort.

Narrow the number of ventures you’re involved in. – In other words, say “no” when you should.  The commitment to be productive is not always the biggest challenge, narrowing the number of ventures to be productive in is.  Even when you have the knowledge and ability to access highly productive states, you get to a point where being simultaneously productive on too many fronts at once causes all activities to slow down, stand still, and sometimes even slide backwards.

Top 9 Successful People who have Failed

by Steve Scott

That is a word that most people dread.  Everyone wants to be a success.  We want to be liked and admired.

But that dreaded “F” word always pops up. Failure.  This experience is strong enough to make you want to quit and start a new life.

Success takes time and effort.  Yes, many times you will fail before you are successful.  Ask just about anybody who has become successful if they have ever failed at any aspect of their journey.  Chances are you will get quite a few stories of missteps and blunders.

The difference between long-term success and failure is the reaction to it.

People who, as Charlie Sheen says are “Winners,” overcome the obstacles.

Yes, failure happens.

Live with it.

Learn from it.

There is a need to change the view on failure.  It is not something that needs to be avoided.  It is a chance to learn something that does not work!

It is not always reaching the destination that defines the man (or woman), but the journey that is taken to get there.  The biggest successes have gone through the biggest failures.

To illustrate the point, here is a list of 9 people who were all hugely successful in their fields.  All of them failed.  Not only did these people fail, but they failed on a massive scale. Yet history still views these successful people who failed as great success stories because they bounced back and succeeded in the end.

Successful People Who Failed:

Thomas Edison: Chances are you have heard of Edison in relation to overcoming failure before.  He was a master of “trial and error”. When asked about the many thousands of failures he had when trying to create the light-bulb he famously said, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.“  But there is even more to it than that.  As a child he was thought to be dumb and told that he would never be a success by many of his teachers, because his mind would often wander in class. Good thing for us that the greatest inventor in history did not listen.

Elvis Presley: You do not need to be a Elvis fan to acknowledge the impact he has had on popular music.  They don’t dub somebody the “King” of a form of music without a great amount of success. But even for Elvis success came after failure.  His first recordings went nowhere.  After that he tried to join a vocal quartet and was told he, “couldn’t sing”.  Finally, right before he became popular, he was told, “You ain’t goin’ nowhere, son. You ought to go back to drivin’ a truck.”

Michael Jordan: It is hard to imagine it, but the Jordan, who is arguably the greatest basketball player ever, was once cut from his high school team. As Jordan puts it, “I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot, and I missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

Vincent van Gogh: Van Gogh paintings these days sell for incredible amounts of money.  Four of his paintings have sold for more than 100 million dollars. Yet, Van Gogh is a cautionary tale. In his life he was a failure. He slowly began to build a “reputation” while he was alive, but he also had a ton of critics.  He burned and destroyed many of his paintings out of frustration and was known to only sell ONE PAINTING. He did not work to overcome his failure and killed himself.  Soon after his death his work began to garner intense critical and financial success.

Stephen King: King was working as a teacher in rural Maine when he wrote his first novel, “Carrie”.  King had some small success selling short stories previously, but nothing that anyone could create a “career” on.  King submitted “Carrie” 30 times.  King was rejected 30 times.  Before his 31st attempt he threw the manuscript out.  His wife rescued it from the round file and asked him to try one more time.  The rest…is history.

Fred Astaire: During his first screen test an RKO executive noted that Astaire, “Can’t sing. Can’t act. Balding. Can dance a little.”  Despite this initial rejection, Astaire persevered and ended up becoming one of the top actors, singers and dancers of his generation.

Abraham Lincoln: If Lincoln quit when the going got tough, the world might be a very different place.  As a young man Lincoln entered military service in the Black Hawk war as a captain.  Yet left as a private. With very little formal education, Lincoln taught himself and became a lawyer and congressman. His real rise to “national” prominence could also be viewed as a, “failure”.  In 1858 Lincoln tried for a seat in the Illinois senate.  This led to a series of hotly contested debates.  (The Lincoln-Douglas debates).  Lincoln lost the senate election, but really impressed a lot of the “right” people, even with his loss.   Two years later he ran for president and won.  Thankfully he did not let lack of formal education, initial failure or setbacks rattle him.

Albert Einstein: If asked to name a genius, most people would come up with the name Albert Einstein.  Yet even for Einstein genius did not come easy.  He had speech difficulties as a child and was once even thought to be mentally handicapped. As a teen he rebelled against his schools reliance on rote learning and failed.  He tried to test into Zurich Polytechnic, but failed again (although he did very well in the math and physics section…as you might expect).  Einstein buckled down, received the requisite training and applied to Zurich Polytechnic again, and of course was accepted. A few years later he had a PHD and was recognized as a leading theorist.  A few years after that he had a Nobel prize for physics and began to be recognized as the genius of our modern era.

JK Rowling: Rowling is the perfect example that success can come to anyone at any time.  She is now doing the backstroke through a pool of Harry Potter money, but that was not always the case.  Before Harry Potter became a success she was a divorced mother, living on welfare, going to school and trying to write a novel in her spare time. Rowling herself said she was the “biggest failure I knew” and credits a lot of her success to her failure. At a Harvard commencement speech Rowling had this to say, “Failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy to finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one area where I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realized, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter, and a big idea. And so rock bottom became a solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.”

Success is possible. But it is not easy or instant.  It takes hard work and dedication as well as time.

Don’t doubt yourself.

Obstacles are out there.  They are meant to be overcome.

No adventure worth undertaking is easy.  Everyone who achieves success faces obstacles.  What makes (or breaks) a person is how they react to the obstacles and roadblocks in their life and what they do (or do not do) to overcome these setbacks.

Take a hint from the successful people who have failed and do not let these obstacles hold you back.

God's Cover Letter

_______________________________________________________________________

To Whom It May Concern:

I heard you were considering a new manager in your life. I would like to apply for the job. I believe I am the most qualified candidate. I am the only one that has even done this job successfully.

I was the first manager of human beings. In fact I made them, so naturally I know how humanity works, and what is best to get people back into proper working condition. It will be like having the manufacturer as your personal mechanic.

If this is your first time considering me, I would just like to point out that my salary has already been paid. What I need from you is the acknowledgment that the price is sufficient to pay for all of your sin and your independence from Me. I need you to believe this in your heart and to tell somebody else about your decision with your mouth.

The next thing I ask is the right to change and fix your life so you can learn how to stay close to Me. I will make some major changes and revisions. They are not for you to worry about. I need your permission to execute these changes, My way and in My time. I will change your desires and give you the strength to make the changes.

Please keep your hands out of the way. Don't try to help me and Don't resist me. I really do need your full commitment and cooperation. If you give me those, the process can go smoothly, without delays.

Yours Sincerely,

GOD

P.S. I created the heavens and the earth. I AM. BELOW IS MY RESUME...

_______________________________________________________________________
                                                                RESUME
GOD
Everywhere
All over, Every Place 00000

EXPERIENCE
From the beginning of time. Before the beginning of time. From everlasting to everlasting. I made
time.

ABILITY
All Powerful

PRIOR EMPLOYMENT
*Created the universe, put the galaxies in place, formed man.
*Established heaven and earth by My spoken Word and am currently holding up the world by My power.

EDUCATION AND TRAINING
*I AM and I have all knowledge.

CHARACTER REFERENCE
Love, light, and life
A representative, but by no means conclusive list of other character traits follows:
• Wisdom
• Comfort
• Truth
• Healer
• Strength
• Forgiveness
• Provider
• Mercy
• Good
• Peace

AVAILABILITY
• Willing and ready to take over your life.
• Able to put your life together again.
• Will bring all of who I AM into your life.
• Can start now.
• Will transform your life if you let Me.

SALARY REQUIREMENT
• Work in your life has already been paid.
• Your only responsibility is to commit initially and on a daily basis.
• To trust and obey what I have done and want to do in your life.

Other references available upon request.

_______________________________________________________________________

8 Things Great Bosses Demand from Employees

- shared by K.P. Jagadeesha

As a boss, when your team asks you want you want, here's what you tell them. You'll want to share this column with your team, because it will make your job a heck of a lot easier. And if by chance you're not the boss, memorize this column–because it contains the key to long-term success.

Here are the rules for keeping your boss happy:

1. Be true to your word.

Your boss wants to trust you. Really.  Therefore, whenever you accept an assignment, follow through religiously, even fanatically. Do what you say you're going to do. Never overcommit, and avoid hedging your bets with vague statements like "I'll try" and "maybe." Instead, make your word carry real weight.

2. No surprises, ever.

The secret fear of every boss is that employees are screwing up but are not saying anything about it.  So even if you're afraid some bad news might upset your boss, make sure he's informed. Note: If your boss consistently "shoots the messenger," you can ignore this rule–because his behavior shows he doesn't really want to be in the know.

3. Be prepared on the details.

Your boss wants to believe you're competent and on top of things.  That's why she sometimes picks an aspect of your job and begins randomly asking penetrating questions. Therefore, whenever you're meeting with the boss, have the details ready so you can answer these queries with grace and aplomb.

4. Take your job seriously.

Bosses appreciate individuals who truly care about what they do and willing to take the time to achieve a deep understanding of their craft. Bosses need people who have unique expertise. You don't have to be a pro at everything, but you should definitely have a specific area of knowledge that your boss values.

5. Have your boss's back.

When you see your boss about to make a foolish decision, it's your responsibility to attempt to convince him to make a different one. Make your best case, and express yourself clearly. However, once the decision is actually made, do your best to make it work–regardless of whether you think it was the right one.

6. Provide solutions, not complaints.

Complainers are the bane of your boss's existence. Nothing is more irritating or more boring than listening to somebody kvetch about things that they're not willing to change.  So never bring up a problem unless you've got a solution to propose–or are willing to take the advice the boss gives you.

7. Communicate in plain language.

Bosses are busy people and have neither the time nor the inclination to wade through piles of biz-blab, jargon and weasel words. When dealing with your boss, speak and write in short sentences, use the fewest words possible to make a point, and make that point clear and easily understandable.

8. Know your real job.

Regardless of what it says on your job description, your real job is to make your boss successful. There are no exceptions to this rule. None.

And, by the way: Your boss's real job is to make you more successful. The reversal of these priorities is the source of almost all organizational problems.

Work Smart, Not Hard

Working smarter, not harder, is an age-old adage. If you master the concept, your entire working life will be easier. There are simple techniques that you can employ to save steps and tedium from almost any task.

Prioritize

1 Assess everything that needs to be done. Before you plunge into something headfirst, remember that enthusiasm needs to be tempered with wisdom. Look over every aspect of the job, and allow yourself ample "pondering time" so that you can be sure that every detail is accomplished on time and accurately.

2 Make an outline. Whether it's in your head or on paper, you should have a checklist in mind and follow it in order. You don't want to repeat steps, duplicate the efforts of others, make mistakes or forget anything.

   

3 Learn to say no. Avoid overscheduling yourself and be realistic about what you can accomplish in a single day. Sometimes you just have to cut yourself off because in most professions, there is almost always something that could be done.

   

4 Limit your goals. Try to avoid multi-tasking because you often get less done since your brain is switching back and forth between tasks. Pick one thing to work on and put your best effort into that until it is accomplished.

Dealing With Clients

1 Control clients by communicating properly. Make sure your clients will understand what the normal turnaround time will be for a project. Do not be influenced by their insistence that their job requires a big rush. Most businesses have more than one client, yet many clients forget that their job is not the only one you're working on. Give one to three choices - never more. Handing a swatch book to a client and saying, "Tell me which colors you are interested in" is deadly. Too many choices will cause horrible delays as the customer peruses ALL possibilities and later tends to second-guess every decision. Instead, say things like, "Do you like this blue or this green better?"

   

2 Never accept a bad job. You know when a job is going to be great. A client or boss who pressures you into areas where you are not comfortable, either because it is an unreasonable expectation or because it's outside your scope, needs to be made immediately aware of your discomfort with the job as proposed. If you are self-employed, declining a job like this is much smarter even though it's hard to let money go.

3 Re-bid if necessary. Don't accept so many changes that you end up doing a much more complicated or expensive job than you bid for. When you realize you're into new territory, stop work and draw up a re-bid, showing the entire job as originally envisioned and overlay the scope of the new work. Let the client know it will cost $x more than the original bid to proceed. It's the client's decision how much to pay. How smart you want to be while you're working for them is your decision.

Getting More Done In Less Time

1 Consider your materials. Don't take shortcuts on the quality of your materials. Cheap materials or tools are harder to work with because they aren't as sturdy or nice. Trying to save a few bucks, but spending an extra hour or two because those cheap things didn't install properly doesn't make any sense.

   

2 Evaluate your methods. You want them to be as efficient as possible. Do your work when you have no distractions surrounding you. Try to do things in one batches rather than one at a time. You want your efficiency to be maximized as much as possible.

   

3 Look for shortcuts. This does NOT mean taking the easiest method for the sake of it or being lazy. For example, if you respond to numerous e-mails per day and answer the same questions again and again, save your responses. When those questions come up, you can cut and paste your canned response. You might have to make minor edits, but the bulk of it will already be written.

   

4 Delegate to the right people at the right times. Make sure your team is well-ordered. If one person is faster, put him or her on the part of your task that will take longest. If one person is more skilled and accurate, put him or her on the part of the task that is most critical.

   

5 Avoid procrastination. Every time you surf the net or needlessly check e-mail at work, your day becomes longer. Push yourself hard to do work when it's time to do work and enjoy these activities once you're done for the day.

   

6 Be flexible. Your day will not always go as planned. Be open to trying new methods and doing new things.

Take Care of Yourself

1 Rest. You should ideally be getting eight hours of sleep every night. You can certainly pull continuous 12 hour days at work, but it's not sustainable. After a certain point, your body becomes tired and your mind wears down, leading to more frequent lapses in concentration and careless mistakes.

   

2 Periodic breaks. Even at the office, you need to allow time for your mind to regroup and recharge. Push yourself hard for the first 50 minutes of every hour and then reward yourself with a 10 minute break.

   

3 Recognize the point of 'diminishing returns.' The above steps do not imply that you should work yourself to the point of exhaustion. You need to protect your health and the integrity of your job. Working yourself to a frazzle constantly makes you prone to mistakes. When you're so tired that you realize it's taking you twice or three times longer to do a job than normal, you need to call it a day. Rest at least a few hours and come back fresher, so that you can be strong at the end of the job. Learn how to power nap.

Tips

- When you can work, do. Don't slack or allow time to run out so that you're rushing at the end to meet a deadline. When you finish early, if nothing else has come in, you can go play or rest. Don't do it in the middle of the job on a frequent basis.

- When you're sick, stay home and rest until you are well. You make too many mistakes when you're ill or tired to call that "working smart."

- Learn to make your money work for you. Working a lot and spending every penny you make is NOT working smart!

Are You A Solution Provider?

---Sam Vijay Kumar

Life is filled with lots of fun. It comes with its share of struggles as well. Problems are an integral part of our lives. Problems are not bad always. Problems reshuffle our usual thought patterns and revamp our approach by getting us to think creatively so that we get to some resourceful results.

Hence, would it be discreet on our part to detest problems as if they were germs? And for that matter it is even proven scientifically that some germs (probiotics) are good for us. Problems come in many forms: career, habits, destructive thought patterns etc., and not in a few cases they take the form of humans.

Now, a significant proportion of problems in our life are caused by people; people who have a part-time job creating problems (have you met someone who does it full time? Ha ha ha! ). Simply put, they are 'Problem People'. They create... evolve... refurbish... and give life to problems.

You can meet such kinds of people anywhere... in our workplace, family, in traffic, the shopping mall or any other place of our interaction. And this one aspect, small as it seems to be, constitutes a noteworthy part of problems that we face. They bring petty, trivial, inconsequential issues and make problems out of it. It might be connecting your breakfast, your car, electricity bill, official document, shopping list, and so on.

Now that need not daunt us, if we are willing to be constructive and prepared to work on this, regardless of all the stops and weariness that we would encounter in the course. We have just one expense for such a project - our sweat; I mean our relentless effort. Now let us get to the issue at hand - Knowing why problem people are the way they are.

Before starting, we should fully and consciously realize that they too are fellow humans like us and that they need not be looked down on. Hence it is important that we never take a 'holier than thou' stance, which would not solve problems but instead aggravate them.

Research has shown that a proportion of the population, unfortunately, is habituated to create     problems. The problems they create may range from personal to social to professional ones. The reason scientists give is quite extensive and usually goes to early years of a person: These people in most cases are from a finicky environment. Importantly, many who are into such a habit of creating problems do so without intending any harm. Maybe the surroundings in which they were raised had contributed... maybe their friends, associates and so on. Maybe they continually saw people bring up insignificant, silly, paltry issues, blow them into big mountains, then sat at their feet and lamented. It might have been his/her family member(s) or neighbor(s) who kept on such an activity which finally got ingrained in him/her, that living with such a high strung mentality is the way to live. So they tend to carry such an attitude into later life causing heartaches to themselves as well as others.

Now, if we happen to be in association with such people, we have to take up a responsible role - 'Solution Providers'.

Are we ready for the role, tough as it is or seems to be? We should not cringe and back away but take a resolute stance in dealing with them and provide amicable solutions. When a problem creator brings up an insignificant issue there are many ways of tackling it (each way is unique and suiting certain kinds of problems, so prudence has to be exercised in choosing the way that will suit one's problem). A few of them are:

1. Laughing it off. Make constructive fun out of the situation, laugh out loud and avoid the ill effects. Somebody said wittily - "Laugh at your problems; everybody else does". It, sure works!

2. Zipping our mouth. We have to be very careful in using our words in such situations. We can't afford to pour gasoline over the already burning, unneeded problems by wrong words. At times even silence does reward you.

3. Taking a brisk walk. Taking a brisk walk would help us handle many issues better as walking helps to drain the blood away from the emotional centers in the brain thus aiding us to think without becoming panicky.

4. A friend in need. A call to an old friend would for some time take us away into a world of good-old memories and fun, thus getting us rejuvenated and pragmatic.

5. Get creative. Take a book and retire (may be scriptural, novel, anything that touches the soul and heart). Maybe it's time you tune your guitar again or start your strokes on the canvas or do anything you are creative at.

6. Voice it low. When you converse always keep a low volume, for as the holy book says "a soft answer will turn away wrath" and helps you be in control of the situation.

7. Self analysis. If we analyze and find ourselves to be among the Problem creators, we need not sit and whine. We need not feel inferior either. We just need to develop patience (meditation, music and exercise help).

8. Self affirmation. This helps people in both the groups. Talking positively to ourselves will increase our self esteem and confidence thereby resulting in a total change of our approach and personality.

9. Never nurture the nemesis. Another suggestion that has been passed on for centuries. Never crumble down before problem creators, for in doing so we essentially give their activities power over us, which encourages them. We have to make it known to them at every point in polite and acceptable ways that it is time they stop their activities and that we are not going to be affected by them anymore.

10. Giving up is not an option. Solutions come to those who keep working on their problems.We must also remember that solutions don't just come in a day or two. Maybe it can take weeks, months or even longer. Let us remember what Albert Einstein said "It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer".