Come Monday mornings and you are faced with multiple deadlines for the week. Although work is probably your home ground by now, the struggle to meet daily targets amidst business calls, meetings, and briefs, still persists.
Switching between tasks constantly tends to keep you on a lag about where you last left off. Often, this causes a dip in your focus and the ability to make decisions on the go. However, with the right set of choices and actions, you can remain more focused and decisive at the workplace. Here’s how.
Plan ahead: Make a note of all that needs to be done in the coming week. You could perhaps block the dates in your calendar for events, meetings, and deadlines. This could help you plan your day or week in advance and save you the last minute jitters of checking if everything has been taken care of.
Pay attention: Prioritise your tasks at hand; focus on deadlines that need immediate attention and move on to the next once these are sorted. If a task can wait until the crucial deadlines are over, don’t take it up until then.
Set realistic targets: Having an ambitious target for the day may give you a personal sense of achievement, but if things get chaotic at the workplace, there’s always a risk of not making it to the finish line. Besides, you could wear yourself out, working to achieve such targets on a regular basis. So, be realistic about your work allocation and daily targets.
Keep data ready before meetings: It doesn’t matter if it’s a meeting with the team or a conference call with the client. Have your facts and list of queries ready in hand before the engagement. This would save time and effort spent on the ongoing project, and would assure you of not leaving any loose ends.
Sort your emails: A cluttered inbox is more likely to confuse you in an hour of need than come to your rescue. Organise mails related to deadlines, meetings, and queries under different folders. Mark the important ones that need your immediate response and set reminders against them. Also, ensure that you block unnecessary, promotional emailers from your inbox.
Consult a senior colleague: It always helps to keep a senior colleague in the loop about the developments in a project. Their experience could be of immense help to foresee or rectify errors in the project. Also, since you have been keeping people informed constantly, the risk of giving an unpleasant surprise is eliminated.
Be clear about the purpose: This is a crucial point that is ignored by many professionals. Be it a project or an immediate task at hand, root yourself in the purpose of the project. Make sure you always stick to the thought process that steers the project or your work. This would help keep you on track despite various distractions through the course of the day.
A little effort and discipline is all it takes to work seamlessly between multiple engagements. Prioritising, organising, and planning are the key to staying focused and decisive at the workplace.