It’s undoubtedly true that if you worked in a vacuum, managing chaos wouldn’t be an issue. I’m guessing you can manage time pretty well and have a handle on priorities, deadlines and all the other skills necessary to do what you do. Even so, you don’t exist in a vacuum, and there are many variables that get in your way when it comes to really managing all the chaos that goes along with your career.
Also, administrative professionals often think they should be able to take care of everyone’s needs. Yet just as budgeting money is important (unless you’re independently wealthy and working as a hobby), budgeting time is equally important. You can’t do everything.
Maybe you get things done but your desk is a mess, or you always get the monthly sales statement out on time but to do so you have to stay late and have no social life. A good rule of thumb is to leave the office at the office, and learn to pick the work back up the next day. Managing the chaos in your career is not necessarily easy, but as with most things we can create smarter habits over time.
Look to see where you have control and where you don’t. So often we beat ourselves up, assuming that if we were only a little more disciplined or worked longer hours we really could get everything accomplished. Dream on! Many of the things impacting your time have nothing to do with your abilities whatsoever.
For instance, look at the possibility that the problem could be equipment, other people or processes. If you are doing your best to create a report, but the software program keeps messing up, can you be more effective just by being more disciplined or working harder? Don’t think so. You can work on getting better software, but the problem is with the program, not you.
And if you have to wait two days to get a vital piece of information before you can send out a letter, it’s an employee issue and perhaps a procedural issue as well. Get the point? You needn’t throw up your hands and say it’s all out of your control, but realizing the problems aren’t with you helps redirect attention to where the problems are, and then you can be creative to help resolve the issue.
One more thing… avoid playing the paper chase game. There was a time, a while back, when we thought the computer would shorten the work week to four days. Didn’t happen. We also thought we’d be a paperless society, but from what I see we haven’t thrown any paper out, we’ve just repositioned it. In this technological age a large number of people still have rolodexes. There are, however, certain things you can do to deal with the continued influx of paper:
- File paper vertically, meaning don’t put paper in a “To Do” box to handle later, file it vertically to handle it once.
- Color code files or date file corners for quicker access.
- Rip pages out of magazines for your reading pile (while waiting in lines, holding on the phone, etc.)
- Organize emails by coding the subject line.
- Find the best software programs to help you organize.
- Check phone messages, mail and email at certain times of the day instead of continuously.
- Finally, if at all possible, eliminate your “To Do” box.
Here’s how to do the last item: Hide your “To Do” box behind your desk and replace it with a three-ring binder. When someone (who you don’t work for) casually drops by your office asking you to do something, you can say sure, just sign in. When this person sees he is number 27 on the To do list, he’ll often take his letter to fax or similar project elsewhere!
Yes, chaos is everywhere in your career, but you can get control!
Best regards,
~ Jennifer
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