Be Home in Time for Dinner: 4 Ways to Work Less, Make More and Increase Productivity

Maybe you enjoy working the long hours.

Yes, staying late to work on a deadline project or to finish the twenty things on your task list probably makes you feel a bit nobler than your cubicle-mate (who jets out the door as soon as that wall clock strikes 5 p.m.). There's a sense of pride that comes with being in charge, having employees "under you," and being the one that comes in at 5 a.m. and then stays late, burning the midnight oil.

But, working long hours is exhausting. And having nothing on your paycheck to show for it should cause you to consider changing the way you approach your business or your job.

Nearly 40 percent of Americans work more than 50 hours per week, according to a study from the American Psychological Association. Now, as heroic as those long, industrious hours may seem, a recent study claims that overtime could land you in the hospital – yes, the hospital. People who report stress at work are 68 percent more likely to develop coronary heart disease than those who report no stress at work, according to research from University College London (UCL).

So sidetrack the medical bills and simply make a few adjustments to the way you approach your job or your business, and you could experience freedom and wealth that come from working less and making more.

1) First things first, you need to humble yourself. Stop priding yourself on being an expert at every facet of the business. Delegation is a must. You may be like the majority of people who dislike delegating because they believe the delegated task will "fall through the cracks," and never happen, or it will get done, but not properly. By holding on to tasks, all you do is cause more stress and lead others to believe that you don't trust them or don't want them to take on new responsibilities. So delegate. And do it in writing, so the task being assigned is clear and detailed, has a due date, and can't slip through the cracks. But never delegate an assignment and completely leave it up to the other person to make sure it is completed. Be accountable and follow up with your coworker or employee to make sure the task is in progress or near completion. Maybe make Microsoft Outlook's task feature your best friend.

2) Create written documentation. Over 50 percent of small businesses fail in the first year, and 80 percent fail within the first five years, according to the U.S. Small Business Association. The single, major difference between a small, floundering company and a large, successful company is that the large business employs documentation. This can't wait until tomorrow. If you already own a small business, and you don't have documentation, carve out time today, sit down, and develop a strategic objective for your business. This should define overall goals, methodology, and prescribe action. It should give direction for major and minor decisions. Like a mission statement, but punchier and more specific. Once you have the strategic objective, move on to your general operating principles. This should be a two- to four-page collection of guidelines for decision-making. And, third, you need written working procedures – instructions that describe how the individual systems of the company or the job are to operate. You should have a written procedure for nearly every action that takes place in your work environment, including how someone should answer the phone, make a deposit, or call for repair of the copier.

3) Eliminate time-wasters. If you own a business, your mission is to work hard but not long, to reduce the workweek by 95 percent, and to make more money than you require. If you have a job, the goal is to quickly ascend the management ranks until you can call your own shots. But no matter what your situation, if you are going to work, then work! Turn the radio off, get your feet off the desk, stop the pointless babbling with a coworker, and put your head down. Get in, do the work, and get out! Instead of checking e-mails 35 times a day, check 5 times a day, at designated times. Suggest polite ways for keeping a conversation moving along, especially if a long-winded coworker comes into your office for a "quick question," then starts recapping last night's episode of American Idol from start to finish. And what about staff meetings? Are they a waste of time? Yes, if you don't have an agenda.

4) Work for 98 percent perfection. Time and money wasted is time and money gone forever. And a waste of time and money means some other positive thing that could have happened, didn't. Apply a "good enough" rule to your work: A 100 percent flawless document that took forever to create carries an imbedded imperfection: The extra time spent creating the masterpiece – that extra 2 percent – is lost forever, therefore the finished product carries an imbedded taint and – catch 22 – you can never call it "perfect." Your work and your written procedures should be "good enough" so the desired results are consistently produced while valuable time isn't spent on absolute perfection.

Leave your thoughts here. (4 responses)

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Will Kriski

Mar 14th, 2008 at 3:26 pm

Great article! I rarely work overtime and still make lots of money as an IT consultant. It's about working smart, not hard.

People are way too concerned with outward appearances (staying late, appearing to be busy, arriving early) and less on productivity. So much time is wasted at the office reading emails, answering the phone, going to meetings, idle chit-chat, etc. People think they're busy (busy=important to some) but they're just shuffling papers around.

People also think multi-tasking is productive. It's not. At any one time you need to be completely focused on what you're doing. You also need to block your time. You can't be doing something requiring deep thought and bouncing back and forth into your email inbox, phone calls, etc.

So focus more on getting your key tasks done, and going home at the end of day so that you can have more work-life balance!

Will Kriski
http://thewealthyworker.com

Matt @ Corporate Hack

Mar 14th, 2008 at 4:31 pm

um, YES!! Look, unless you're working hourly or you've got an awesome commission plan, the incentives for working longer harder hours as a salaried employee are pretty much null. I've been hired to offer a service within the parameters defined by my position profile within the standard working hours – that's what I'm going to do, and I'm going to do it well. But if you're getting pressured to work consistently outside of the parameters of what you were hired to do, well, a renegotiation may be in order.

Dave Atkins

Mar 16th, 2008 at 7:45 am

I agree wholeheartedly with the goal here, but sometimes you find yourself in a work culture that frustrates it. I've worked in companies where people wasted half the afternoon because they didn't really "get into their groove" until 5 or 6pm…so, you found that important things happened later in the day and if you were not around for it, you got left out and were not seen as a team player. I think that situation is not insurmountable, but it takes a lot of work and self-confidence to buck a culture like that. I think that culture is less prevalent today than it was in Silicon Valley 5-10 years ago, but it takes a lot of maturity, chutzpah and track record of productivity to call out the "workaholics" who are 9-5 "slackaholics" and avoid being marginalized because you don't fit in. Ultimately, when you find yourself in a culture like that, you may need to move on because you have to realize you are not going to change other people's behavior. But I have seen people who cleverly manage to fit in and everyone is cool with it. Blackberry's help. Emails from home at night help too.

GenerationXpert

Mar 19th, 2008 at 7:24 pm

Great article, Sam. I always wonder WHY these workaholics have to work so many hours. What are they doing wrong that it takes them 13 hours a day to get their jobs done?

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