Career Marketing

Time Management

There should be time to do your job, market your career and otherwise lead a balanced life. Here's how:

Make work count twice

Turn reports into articles. Re-use code and runstreams - make it a habit, a frame of mind.

Avoid time wasters

Monitor and analyse your time (say in 2 hour slots). Is it spent achieving what you want? Do you know what you are supposed to be doing? Are you prepared? Does any aspect takes up too much time? Learn to say no (positively - "I'd really like to but..."). Prioritise. Invest in time-saving devices. Delegate where possible. Work out why you are procrastinating, and act.

Use travel time

Listen to tapes in your car; read on the train, always carry something with you for delays.

Get organised

e.g. buy in bulk to save journeys, organise your desk to suit you , clip out articles then file or throw out papers, throw out junk mail after a few seconds' examination. Looking organised creates a favourable impression, and you feel more in control.

Make better use of phone calls

Monitor all calls for 2 weeks to get a picture of usage - e.g. was call necessary? were you prepared? was call too chatty? was the issue resolved? could call have been delegated?

Using your productivity and creativity cycles

Creativity means coming up with fresh solutions to problems. Work out and schedule tasks for your best time of the day (and weather?). Get comfortable, give yourself room, stretch . Sleep and feed well (not too much, don't skip meals). Ask your boss for enough jobs with enough warning to enable you to schedule flexibly (not too tightly). Make time to think creatively about your career.

Concentrate

Schedule phone calls. Spend transit time in thought (e.g. focus on the meeting to come). Say no to unwanted commitments. Use an alarm rather than watch the clock. Promise yourself to think tomorrow if you really can't today. Turn a boring task into a challenge .

Make big problems smaller

Make time to think. Break problems down into smaller ones, then prioritise them. Celebrate as you tick each off.