Sales Strategy
How To Work Smarter, Not Harder | November 08, 2017 (1 comment)
Miami, FL—People (especially my parents) used to say, “You can accomplish anything with hard work.” You can have a successful business, earn promotions and master anything you want, if you just work hard.
It’s true, but I think working your butt off isn’t always enough. For example, you can’t effectively mow the lawn with a pair of household scissors. You need the right tools and strategies for the right tasks. What you really need to do is work smarter, not necessarily harder. I found seven tips that help you work more productively without expending additional effort. Here’s how:
1. Walk Away. Walking away from a complex task might not seem the right way to go, but breaks can actually make you more productive. Removing yourself from the work environment immediately reduce stress and gives your brain a chance to catch up. If you’re working on a difficult project, your subconscious mind will continue working on it even if your conscious mind is trying to relax. This is why solutions magically pop into your mind when you’re not thinking about it. It always happens to me in the shower. Then when I return to the task, I come back refreshed and more focused.
2. Recognize and Eliminate Distractions. Ok, we read about this in quite a few articles, but what are the most dangerous distractions? The ones you don’t realize. Maybe you are working on a Christmas marketing campaign with a couple of pages of research open and there is a thread tab conveniently open to Facebook. (Really?) You get a new notification, so you click, of course, out of your Word doc, just to check it real quick. So now you’ve spent approximately 20 seconds looking at the post you were tagged in, or an event you were just invited to or a “like” your status just got before you minimize it again. Ok, so 20 seconds is not a long time, but it breaks your focus and forces you to restart your last train of thought. By the way: this is me!
Compound this happening several times an hour and you have instantly reduced overall productivity. Finish one project and then go to the next. It’s worth the feeling of accomplishment to complete a task.
3. Ignore Low-Priority Items. Low priority items sneak up on you. This increases the length of your to-do list and distracts you from more important work. Scenario: you’re working on a huge project when your coworker emails you about a quick change you need to make to the company’s website. Logging on and making the change won’t take much time, but it will distract you from your current project and stress you out. I am talking about my companies, so I know I am talking about yours too. The best way to deal with the low priority items is to ignore them all together. You need to go into a “do not disturb” mode. They are not worth your immediate concern. You will get to them. Make sure you understand low priority versus high priority tasks.
4. Create Routine Habits. Habits happen naturally after they are formed. They become ritual. You slip into the mode automatically, you don’t even think about it. For example, I am calendar driven. It is now an unconscious habit, it just happens and there is no scrambling to get it done. Forming habits is the hard part. A good rule is to force yourself to commit to the action every day, with no breaks from the routine until it comes naturally. Some say it takes 30 days, I think that calculation is iffy and it happens much quicker.
5. Work in Chunks. I am not a fan of working in chunks. But as our world has changed, and now with so much technology, younger people seem to achieve better this way. So, for some (not me), instead of sitting down to complete a whole project, sit down to accomplish just one goal element and work for a certain number of hours. For some, forcing yourself to complete the entire project will stress you out and actually make you less productive. Instead, work on shorter “bursts” to stay fresh and reduce anxiety. Like I said before, this would make me more anxious but others will see that this way helps them work to their best ability.
6. Multitask. But not in the traditional sense. No matter how hard you work there always negative spaces in your day. Driving the gaps is when you should multitask. Fill empty spaces with productive work. During lunch, watch a tutorial (maybe a Preferred tutorial to get inspired!) or this could be when you catch up on your emails. On your way to work, listen to podcasts or audiobooks. I know my Preferred concierge, Laurie, does just that! The more you learn and work in negative spaces, the more you will get done overall.
7. Work around your Strength and Weaknesses. You know yourself better than anybody else. You have strengths and weaknesses inherit in your being and they will affect how you work. Navigate around these by taking on tasks than you are good at and staying away from one’s that slow you down. Do not try and do them all yourself. Delegate or work with others to shoulder the burden of your weakest tasks or skills and spend more time on doing what you do best. It took me over 25 years to delegate. When I did, my business got bigger and stronger.
Surround yourself with people who complement your behavior and you’re guaranteed to shine! --Andie
Andie Weinman, president and CEO of Preferred Jewelers International / Continental Buying Group Inc., was born with the “Jewelry Gene” working in the jewelry industry since she was only ten years old. Her first job was as a cashier in the opening of a catalog showroom doing a fantastic job even at that tender age. Andie holds a B.A. in musical theatre and a B.S. in marine biology from The University of Tampa. When she realized that seawater and marine biology were not good on her hair and she wasn’t quite good enough to make it on Broadway, the jewelry business beckoned. Andie has picked diamonds, sorted color stones, shot waxes and performed a multitude of jobs in the manufacturing of jewelry. Her negotiating experience and prowess has given her the reputation as being tough but fair in her dealings with vendors. In 2012 the Indian Diamond and Color Association awarded Andie the Prestigious Doyenne Award of the Year.