Do you enjoy working with people? Part 3
Do you enjoy working with people? In
these three articles, you will go through the steps always to be in your mind
to shorten your working day by simple tips. Lazy people who really wants to be
rich without hard work can refer these articles. Actually hard work really does
not matter until it is for a specific outcome.
Read these articles also.
Defer your mail
Think hard about this one: do you really need to deal
with your inwards mail at the start of the day, when you are at your bustling, incisive
best? Is it so important that it must take priority over everything else you
do? Does it demand an unrationed slice of your time and the peak of your
concentration?
In some businesses, the answer will be
"Yes". In others, it may make more sense to defer the mail till
later. This may mean that replies will go
out tomorrow instead of today, but does that actually matter?
One
editorial department that I headed years ago had a silly rule, handed down by the board, that
letters from readers must be answered the same day. I cancelled it. Most such
letters were of the "smart Alec" variety.
Ostensibly correcting errors in our publications, they were from people keen to
show that they knew more about a particular subject than we did. Far more
important for our editors and subeditors,
was the lead-up to press day rush. Letters any letters could come later.
The
same company also had a rule that an extra copy be taken of every letter sent by every executive and added to a
thick file which went the rounds of the
boardroom. In theory, this made sure that left hands knew what right hands were doing. In practice, it wasted each executive's
time on the meaningless (to him) minutiae of other departments. This is how
bureaucracies grow and fester.
Don't file it throw it away
Some secretaries
are obsessive filers; I've known some that even filed "thank you" letters.
It's a nice, gentle way to fill the day, but it wastes time and valuable office space.
If you can cut down on filing,
you automatically cut down on manpower and on the time you spend organising and
supervising it. One example common to
many companies is suppliers' sales letters and catalogues, especially those for
peripheral equipment: copiers, office furniture, stationery, mobile phones,
conference facilities, etcetera. File them,
and the most likeiy outcome is that everyone will forget they are there or
remember them but forget where the hell they are filed. And when you do get
around to needing to buy something, invariably you go to the same old supplier and nobody thinks to look in the files to
see what else is available. Instead, get your secretary to list any really vital contacts under
categories in a "little
black book". Then you can get an up-to-date catalogue, or a salesman to call, if ever you
need one. And throw everyone's sales bumf
away.
That
is just one example. If you are ruthless or cynical enough, you will find many more.
A
similar category of wasteful over-filing is inter-departmental memos. Their
main function, in my experience, is in the playing of office politics who takes the
blame if that project is late or goes wrong. In a really well run company there is no need to
file these, because they do not exist in
the first place.
Don't drive use a taxi
Or a train.,. Just because you
have a company car, you don't have to always use it. Spend two hours on the motorway and you
are working the
whole time, your blood pressure proves it. "Let the train take the strain", in the old
Saatchi's jingle, and in the same time you could enjoy the scenery and a few refreshments and the
real time saver -review
your notes and/or strategy for the meeting you are going to, a job for which you would
otherwise use time in the office.
Around
town, the strategy is the same. Executives in big cities like London or New York automatically
take taxis as a matter of course, but even in smaller towns it makes sense. In my
advertising days, I could
have driven to see most clients, but it made far more sense to use taxis. On the outward journey
I could preview what I wanted to present to the client; on the return one, note down all
the actions needed
as a result of our meeting. This was much more productive than threading one's
way through traffic and fretting about cyclists. And my wife enjoyed using the company car.
Don't be diverted
Anxious to please, some
suppliers (especially) will want you to tour their plant, gawp at the view from the boardroom
window, take you to lunch
at the local Hog and Swill, even show you photographs of their grandchildren. This is fine after
the business has been done, or not at all if time is pressing" Here is Tony O'Reilly on
the warpath a frozen
foods company called Ore-Ida, one of Heinz US's subsidiaries, has been losing money:
"On one of his
first self-appointed missions, he flew up to the Ore-Ida plant where he sat in
the offices of Paul Corddry, the vice-president of Sales and Marketing. Corddry offered
him the usual tour
of the plant which all new executives got, but O'Reilly was curt. 'I don't want to hear all about that', he
said abruptly. 'I want to know why your cashflow has been so poor?'."
Take proper breaks
You cannot relax if
you are on call 24-hours a day, and companies which insist on it are short-changing themselves.
At constant stress levels, your
productivity dwindles. So:
•
Take a proper lunch break. A meal will
boost your energy levels so you get more done in less time. If
the morning's work has revved you up, a glass of wine will
calm you more effectively -and less harmfully in the long run than any pills. OK TWO glasses, then. But working while you eat is not clever; it is a shortcut to
an ulcer.
Switch off your mobile phone when you get home. Most doctors these days, at least in cities, refuse to take after-hours phone calls or make any house calls at all. If you want treatment
after hours you must call an ambulance or visit a specialised after-hours
practice. There is a reason for this: doctors know what is bad for their
health.
In some service industries advertising is one clients
may need educating that their newest bright idea can wait until morning (by which time it may no longer appear so bright). Is
that rush job really so urgent? Are all your client's jobs "rush
jobs"? Fire him! At least, have a quiet
word... You do your damnedest for the client; you do not marry him.
• At least one day at the weekend should be yours and yours
alone. Switch off the mobile. Have an unlisted number. If desperate, spend every Sunday with your mother-in-law...
with the cycling club... in the Bahamas, or wherever. But be strictly
out of touch.
Of course, none of the
above may be possible if you work for a company,
or indirectly for a client, that wants to own you eight days a week and
25 hours out of every 24. In this case a review of your priorities would seem not just in order, but overdue. You have
only one life. Do you really enjoy that working with people?
Categories: do you enjoy working with people, hard work
