How do I manage at work?

I suspect I’ll get more cranky in the following weeks to come. With the deadlines I’m facing because of inconsistencies with those APAC countries, which could not be resolved last week, all datelines are brought forward to the following week and so forth.

The end dateline is brought forward by one week. FDEV would have to go LIVE by April 18. And the analysing of information and interviews with respective APAC Area Managers would have to be done by specific dates prior to that.

Next six weeks will be intensed. I would most probably not see daylight during weekdays and I would definitely have to work at home during weekends.

But I have an idea of how I want to get organised…

Seek Help From Allah:

I seek from Allah a calm heart and mind while at work. I hope Allah will help to widen my thoughts and help me out in finding the right words to say to the Area Managers at the right time. I belive in Allah’s miracles.

Set fake datelines:

Datelines are good. That way I would feel more in control of my work. I know what needs to be prioritised. I tend to procrastinate without datelines. Hence since my Uni days, I have this habit of making fake datelines. I.e. During exams, I would tell myself the exam date is actually a week earlier when it actually is not so I will push myself to study. So I am going to apply that technique for work as well.

Salary and rewards as a motivator.

I am considered lucky to be paid a good enough pay when I don’t have much relevant past experience to do this job. So each time I feel like I can’t cope, I’ll think of the salary - that I’ll reward myself well at the end of the month for working really hard.

Proving my potential.

The experience I receive is valuable in expanding my portfolio. And I do not wish to disappoint my Program Manager. There are only three data analysts under her, including me. And I would love to be working at Cisco Systems USA long term.

Blogging about work.

I think by writing here, I will regard my blog as a place to reflect and convince myself that I can get my job done well in time.

Do it as soon as possible.

If I can get a simple task easily done today even if the dateline may be a few days away, I would do so. It is typical that self-assigned datelines get pushed back in favour of the more important ones.

Knock out of work.

Sleep time is strictly no-thinking-of-work time. I should have sufficient sleep and rest where I can.

Increasing my personal productivity.

My friends have been telling me that I would have to find time in between work to do things that I enjoy. I asked them how do I make my weekends feel like three days? Most of them told me that I should utilise my Friday nights.

How does one work smart? Because I keep hearing people say there is a difference between working smart and working hard. To me putting in effort is what gives the job value. Hence more effort is more value to me. But I’ll try to find ways to get the most worthwhile results with lesser effort. I think that would define working smart.

Setting up my calendars.

This includes me marking prominent datelines and other events in both my laptop at work and at home. Set alarms to those dates a day or two in advance and snooze those times.

Checklist and weekly review.

This will ensure that I am going on the right track and I have not missed anything out. At the end of the week, I hope I’ll have some adequate time to kickstart some new tasks for the following week. I will be more at ease knowing that I know exactly what needs to be done.

Music to heal the soul.

I need some distraction. All work is bad. So I have included classical songs and jazz in my MP3 to listen to when I am  resting or to and fro work. I believe such music can calm my stress down. It would probably be the number one entertainment I have given the time constraints.

Be early at work.

Since I started work, it has been a habit for me to arrive 40 minutes earlier before work officially starts. I can read all my emails and surf a bit before I start work. I can also have my breakfast and drink carrot juice. I won’t have the rushed feeling when I begin the day early.

Click on: How to Save Your Workday.

Click on: 8 Ways to Train Yourself to be creative.

 

Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any. It is wonderful how much can be done if we are always doing.

Thomas Jefferson