How nice would it be to work less than 40 hours, actually eat lunch with friends instead of working at your desk, or not have to take extra work home with you? Books have been written and claims have been made that through “smart” work.
You already have the know-how to do something like this in other areas of your life — now just apply it to your work week. Let me explain how….
Think of how hard and fast you work cleaning your house when you know that the in-laws are coming for dinner in two hours. You and your spouse accomplish in two hours what can take you eight on a normal day. For time-saving purposes you only clean the rooms that they will be in — the kitchen, the living room and the bathroom. For other rooms that don’t need to be cleaned right now, you just close the doors; unless you have extremely nosy in-laws, this should be sufficient. To further save time you don’t make multiple trips to other rooms — you build stuff up in a pile and take it all at once.
If you have done this, you already understand what it means to be a “smart worker” or one that can accomplish a full days work in a fraction of the time. Some call this procrastination. Others call it efficiency. Some will tell you that it is a way to live your life, and a way to do business. If I had that much energy, which I unfortunately don’t all of the time, then that is how I would love to live my life. Work for four hours and relax for 12 hours? Sign me up!
However, as you know, not every job can be accomplished like that. For instance energy and creativity cannot be turned on and off like a light switch. Or sometimes you have to physically be present at your job for the entire day whether you are done with your duties or not.
But there are ways that you can piece your life and work together so that you do save time and money. I will show you how you do it with your life, and how to apply the same concept at your job.
When you run errands, you don’t just excitedly jump into your car. You first put together a list with everything that you need to get the groceries (coupons, earth bags and the food items). You accomplish the errands in order to make the maximum use of time and gas. You stop by the bank first because it is closest, and deposit checks to your savings accounts. You have also cut out the stuff that slows you down or is not necessary. For instance, you decide to go at a less busy time of day or night so you don’t have to wait in line. For the extremely savvy shopper, you write your list of grocery items in the same order that the store has them on the shelves.
Now apply this to your work. Start with a list, (aka “work flow”). What is the most efficient way of getting your job done? Give yourself a set time to look through your email, and when that time is up, you move on to the phone calls you need to make. Just like meetings have agendas to keep on task and on time, have agendas for yourself. Trim the fat for stuff that you do not need and do things in the most efficient way possible.
Yes, the 4-hour workday is possible in a lot of situations but yes it takes a lot of energy, practice and creativity. However, just apply a few time-saving techniques to try it to at least get your working hours down to a reasonable amount of time? You may be very pleased with the results and management may be very pleased with you as well.
