Organizing your Workload

As a housewife who also works at home, this causes me to manage my work efficiently. Women have innate advantages in their practice of multitasking from morning till night, especially mothers with small children: from preparing breakfast, school lunches to lull the children, and reading stories before they sleep. However, our nature as a mother has to keep running along side our office works or businesses.

We don’t have to be a supermom, but we can optimize our workload on a daily basis. There are several points that can be taken into consideration:

  1. Make a plan of work for a month or a year if necessary. This is essential so that long-term programs have been scheduled far before the due date and therefore any preparation can be more relaxed.
  2. Create a to do list of works to be done on the next day in your diary, your planner or smartphone. Make a priority list of  urgent items or approaching deadlines to be completed first. I usually record my work that I could not accomplish for that day and make it a priority on the next day’s work, therefore when I start work the next day, I already know what I need to do.
  3. Regularly review your work schedule for a week or a month or even a year. Eliminate or reduce any work or activity that does not require your attention or will waste your time. For example, relationships with friends who may be too often without any benefit associated with your job may need to be reduced. Note: certainly friendship remains necessary, just reduce its frequency. Dare to say ‘no’ politely for an unnecessary meeting.
  4. Tidy up your files in your email inbox, split between personal emails, work emails, group of friends/organization emails and so on. This is very important to organize your work.
  5. Delegate certain works to be done by others. E.g. copies of documents, printing files, paying regular bills, or other administrative work, except if you do not have any assistance and have to do it all by yourself.
  6. Managing meetings. If your job requires regular meetings, try to always be on time and prepare materials or questions that will be discussed on that day. Make a list of topics on a piece of paper or your diary. This will save time during the meetings. Similarly, all of those who attended the meeting stretcher or online meetings should already have a list of questions/answers or topics to be discussed.
  7. Create a realistic deadline. This is necessary as a deadline that is too short or optimistic can build stress if you do not know your own capacity. In this case, the key is to be honest with yourself.
  8. Work on each task one at a time. Focus. Do not leave the job half done. For example, if one project has not been completed but you are already working on another project, even if all of the work must be done at the same time, the priority of the first task remains in order to give maximum results.
  9. Get used to seeing email messages on your computer or gadget at certain times of the day. Do not check messages at any time, except for emergencies that must be responded to right away. Advances in technology make us able to see the e-mail message or instant message in a smartphone quickly, but it can also distract you from your work if you are always looking at your mobile or computer messages.
  10. Finally, manage your stress. Everyone who able to deal with their stress by managing their minds will not think of inconvenient things that have passed. Accepting yourself based on your own capabilities will really help you to control the workload.

Do not forget to say Bismillah before starting your work.

 

Google image
Google image

 

References:

http://www.jobs.ac.uk/careers-advice/managing-your-career/1254/tips-for-time-management-and-balancing-a-busy-workload/

http://www.icaew.com/en/archive/library/subject-gateways/business-management/strategy-and-planning/small-business-update/10-ways-to-prioritise-your-workload

http://www.london.ac.uk/fileadmin/documents/staff/staff_development/workload_law.pdf

 

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