Need An Extra Day A Week? Here’s How To Get One
Ever hear yourself lamenting the lack of hours in a day and grumbling about the annoying stuff that sucks up your precious time?
As many of us feel so stretched it may seem odd that we often hear calls from economists about the benefits of a switch to a four-day-a-week work pattern. Later this year, in the UK, a pilot of such a work week will “allow staff from about 30 firms that have signed up to work 32 hours a week while leaving their compensation and benefits unchanged,” reports Bloomberg.
Sounds pretty good, right, but how could this possibly work? Donna McGeorge, a productivity expert who advises businesses on how to enhance time spent at work, believes a work “makeover” is 100 per cent within our grasp. In her latest book, The 1 Day Refund, she uses her decades of experience to help people better manage their capacity and free up one whole day a week.
Donna says she was something of an accidental consultant. “I was always interested in being a creator rather than a consumer, so I had a few false starts while holding down ‘real jobs’,” she says. “The kick for me came after being made redundant from a corporate role and doing a bunch of soul searching about what’s next.
“I had been made redundant three times in my career and had just got out of Ansett Airlines [which was placed into administration in 2001] in the nick of time, so felt like I wasn’t really in charge of my own destiny.”
A conversation 20 years ago with her husband helped her to a “have a crack” at running her own company, and she hasn’t looked back.
“I have reinvented the business a few times to keep myself interested and to be relevant to my mostly corporate market. I’m in the process of reinvention as I shift my attention from corporate to direct-to-consumer, which is a five-year plan.”
Here, Donna describes her strategies for working smart.
What’s the one step that will help you free up time at work?
Use your last 30-60 minutes to set yourself up for success the next day. Pause and reflect on what you’ve done and decide the top three things you need to get done the next day. Then try to remove any obstacles to that. For example, protect space in your diary (preferably the first two hours) and let your team know you are on “do not disturb” for a couple of hours. I find the last hour or so in the day to be the most underused but most powerful when it comes to setting up yourself for a productive next day.
What’s the most effective way to stay on track with your priorities when others keep pushing different projects?
Being clear with yourself and others about capacity. We often underestimate how long things will take which is why we end up with conflicting proprieties, projects and schedules. Be realistic with the person or people pushing projects by saying, things like, “I won’t be able to make a start on that until Thursday next week because I have A, B and C to get done this week.”
I often think people assume others are unreasonable (they’re not) and neglect to add the “because” part of the sentence. Robert Cialdini in his book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion speaks a lot to this. Giving context and a reason usually leads to a reasonable response. Or a negotiation.
What is the best way to communicate to others that you don’t have time to do extra work?
I love the word “capacity”. When you say, “I don’t have the capacity for that right now because I’m working on A, B and C”. It says more than “I’m busy” or “I don’t have time for that”.
What is an example of how you can “design” your workday?
We should pay attention to the clock in our body not the clock on the wall! Our circadian rhythms are designed for more mental agility and intensity in the morning, and more physical dexterity in the afternoon, so designing your day by putting your most mentally intense and impactful work in the morning will mean you get the important stuff done first. Routine work and meetings belong in the afternoon.
What would you say is an example of “time wasted” in a workday?
It can be easy to squander your working hours – not that every hour should have a task associated with it, but often we get three hours into the day and can’t tell anyone what we have done.
The antidote to this is to time block. For example: first two hours – my most important work; second two hours – available for others who may need my smarts; third two hours – admin and tasks that don’t need much brain power; fourth two hours – wrapping up and prepping for the next day.
We don’t have to be overly tight about this, but being intentional about how you spend your time and attention will improve your productivity. Sometimes we need to micromanage ourselves a little to get results.
Purposeless meetings are another example of time wasting. If you don’t know why you have been invited – what your role is – and the purpose or outcome of the meeting, then decline others’ agendas or needs and put yours first. You can be polite about it, of course; it’s important you put your own mask on first, as they say.
What is your No. 1 tip for how to make “work from home” work?
Contextual markers. These are both for marking out workspace and work time. For workspace, make sure you designate a room or part of a room as “the office”. Even if you are in a small apartment, pick a chair, a space at the end of a table that is for work, and don’t contaminate your “not at work” space or relaxing space.
For work time, make a conscious decision about when you start and/or finish work. Get changed into different clothes at that point to “mark out” that you have started or finished.
The 1 Day Refund by Donna McGeorge, published by Wiley, $27.95.
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