Tips for smarter working
Many people accepted a way of working without noticing it might not be the smartest or most fun way. Therefore you should reflect regularly, how and why you do a certain task. Preferably together with colleagues. It is important to keep doing your job properly. It helps you to work smarten and to focus on thing that make your work more fun and easier!
How to: Going home at the end of the day and having the feeling that you really achieved something?
Working smarter starts with being conscious of several things:
- For whom do I work? And I do not mean, your boss or your supervisor, but do you know you customer, guest, patient or client. What is important for him/her?
- What am I doing?
- Does my customer benefit from this? For example
- Does my customer benefit when I am looking for tools?
- Does my customer benefit when I keep on scheduling and re-scheduling?
- What does my customer think of a visible mess?
Tip 1: Ensure you know what your customer (guest, patient, client) finds important.
You are behind the scenes, your customer is in front. Envision the customer’s point of view.
- Pretend you are a customer of the organisation where you work and look open-mindedly how you experience this.
- Ask a colleague to critical tell what he/she finds of your work and service delivery
- Or ask a customer what he/she thinks and what he/she really finds important
Immediately solve 1 area of improvement and ensure your develop 1 strength even further. Do this again a month later! This way you become a little better each day.
Tip 2: Do not waste your time and energy
It sounds a bit faint, but of course you do not waste your time. But how many times do you walk somewhere with empty hands? How many times you are not able to find something because it was not in the right place? How many times are you waiting, for example on a colleague in the elevator? Or how much extra time does it cost if you work with bad or broken materials?
Al those things are called waste. Your customer does not benefit from it and you will not be happy about it. The following waste you can tackle immediately:
- Talent: you do not do where you are really good at. You do not have the time, because you are too busy with other stuff. Or your team did not divide the work activities efficiently. By working smarter you can help out your colleagues and your colleagues can help you, resulting in work going faster and/or better. It will also increase your work joy!
- Inventory: everything that lies in the storeroom, the refrigerator, freezer, pantry and so on. Be critical: do you use everything? Are products expiring? Do you have to fill up much? A clear and complete stock works more efficient.
- Movement: how many times do you walk up and down? And how is that possible? Do you walk much up and down because you do not always have your stuff with you or because stuff is in the way? Do something about it! Be critical and take a few hours to clear up and order it smarter.
Away with the waste!
Tip 3: Do your work the first time right
You are probably familiar with it. When you are busy with a task but cannot finish it because:
- You are being disturbed
- You do not have all the stuff you need
- You forget things
- You do not have enough time
It is very annoying. This way you can be busy all day and think at the end: what have I done. But you can do something about point 2,3 and 4.
Look at the task you do most and check if you have everything you need. If not, do something about it! You probably need colleagues for help. You must for example agree on where to stock something and how much stock there has to be. Improve 1 thing every 2 weeks and after 2 months you work a lot smarter!
Sometimes you forget something, it happens. But be critical on yourself. Are there tasks you do daily or weekly, but have to remember a lot for these tasks? Make it yourself easier by making a crib! Preferably one that your colleagues can use as well. A crib helps you to not forget something. Easy for you and very nice for your client!
You want to do more than you are capable of. That is extremely difficult, because you can get stressed from it. Many times you do not have enough time or you are being disturbed. And often you do different tasks combined. Did you know that it takes you on average 11 minutes before your brains are ready for a new task? The more you combine doing , the more your brain has to switch.
Think of ways which allows you to work on something in one go. Think about the following:
- Be realistic: never schedule 2 hours for something if you know you will never be able to work on it for 2 hours without getting disturbed
- Choose the right time to do something, for example never do administration at the busiest moment of the day, there is a fair chance you have to support the operational level.
- Do you work with a pc and/or mobile phone? Then turn off your mail for an hour and put your phone on silent mode!
Good luck!
