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Take time to make time on the job

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We all know time is money. But do we ever think about how tough it is to buy time?

Not easy, right? There are shortcuts we can take to make a little more time for ourselves, but those solutions sometimes turn out to be harmful long-term. We can’t take the easiest way out forever.

That means it’s on us to make the best use of our time at work and home. For now, we’ll concentrate on our work lives with these three tips to make the most of our eight hours in the office day.

Determine where the energy goes

We should continuously take audits of how we’re spending our time on the job, especially in an age when many of us are working remotely. There are distractions everywhere: pinging cellphones, text messages, a quickly filling email box, Zoom meetings (some of which are avoidable), etc. Take the time to see where a few corners can be trimmed … maybe turn off cell notifications or limit answering non-urgent email messages to certain times of the day. And, for goodness sakes, stay off the rabbit hole of social media unless it’s part of your job.

Be realistic about timelines

It’s a good idea to track how much time it takes to complete common tasks. Having good data on hand when planning a workday or week is invaluable. Platforms such as JotForm or ProofHub can help manage, track and organize data to make us better employees by assigning realistic timelines to the work we do. Information is knowledge. Use it.

Put up a hand

The best employees are the ones who can admit that they can’t do everything alone. Every office has a Mr. or Ms. Reliable who takes on tasks that go above and beyond their job duties. While it sounds nice in theory, in practice, it’s an awful idea. Not only does it take those people out of their normal workdays, it also sends the message to their co-workers that they aren’t as valuable. The best bosses do at least some delegating and top-flight employees know it’s no sign of weakness to ask for assistance.

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