Earlier in my career, I foolishly believed that working 80 hours a week was a badge of honor.
It got people to look up and pay attention but it did not make me any happier.
Have there been times when you wished to work fewer hours or a 40-hour workweek but couldn’t due to the workload?
How can you limit yourself to 40 hours a week?
The answer: Planning ahead the right way.
⚡ What not to do? I was interviewing for a job at a startup, and my interviewer was the CEO. He explained he just wanted to be upfront about the fact they were working 60 hours each week. This wasn’t a short-term: in fact, they were going to be working long hours for months.
I mentioned my opinion that effective prioritizing and preparation might eliminate the need for extended hours.
The issue, as the CEO indicated, was that they had meticulously planned out each of their jobs. But then — to their surprise — an important customer requested extra features, which blew through their timeline and required them to put in a lot of overtime. I stayed quiet and went through the interview process. I didn’t take the job.
Here is the problem with what the CEO explained: Clients ask for new features all the time but creating a schedule with the presumption that everything will go smoothly is a bit naïve. Don’t yah think?
The solution to “more work” could never be longer hours. 😂 Longer hours does not mean longer productivity. What it does mean is absolute burn out!
Let me introduce you to the PP concept (prioritization and padding) Prioritize your work. ⬇ Leave some padding in your schedule for unexpected events. ⬇ Set your deadlines shorter than they need to be. ⬇ If you run out of time, drop the least important work. Prioritize Not all work is created equal. By starting with your goals, you can divide tasks into three buckets: 1. Critical to your project’s success. 2. Really nice to have — but not urgent! 3. The fu*kit bucket. ➡ Leave some padding in your schedule Expect Murphy’s law to strike on every assignment and give yourself extra time. And if it doesn’t happen, brace yourself for other tasks to demand attention. #AlwaysBePrepared
Thus, never use your estimate as the actual delivery date; always add additional time to account for unforeseen obstacles and disruptions.
➡ Set shorter deadlines for yourself Your own internal deadline, the one you don’t communicate to your boss or customer, should be shorter than your estimate.
➡ When you run out of time, drop the less critical tasks
Expect the unexpected! If you’re drowning in tasks, follow these golden rules: don’t over-promise, be a time management ninja, and ruthlessly prioritize.
Now let’s focus on having a 4 day work week? 🙄 A girl can dream right?
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