by Charles
Williams
www.lsft.org
© 2007
If you wish to be set apart from the crowd
and get noticed for what you do, then it is almost an axiom that you should be
disciplined and be able to make the most of what you currently have.
As
a worker, your most valuable asset is yourself, and how you manage yourself will
determine whether you will be in the next wave of promotions or the next wave
of firings.
Here are some of good work habits that will
set you apart:
Think positively.
In business,
there will always be people who only see the difficulties involved in any undertaking.
In contrast, there are those people who only see the possibilities and potential
of any given venture.
If you had to choose between the
two, choose the latter attitude – it will bring you greater results. While
you should not turn a blind eye to potential problems – indeed, you should
plan to either avoid them or deal with them – you should not hold a pessimistic
view of the world either.
This will only lessen your productivity
and possibly spread an unwanted attitude among the people with whom you work with.
Plan your day ahead of time.
When one is not
aware of what needs to be done during the day, the day tends to be wasted in non-productive
tasks.
But if one has a plan of action to follow, it becomes
easier to mobilize the energy that is needed to make the day a success.
Each
evening before you go to bed, list down the five most important things that you
must accomplish the following day.
Then, work on (and finish)
the most important item before moving on to the second one. This will ensure that
you will work on the most significant of your tasks and get a high-value return
on your time.
Remember the 80/20 Principle.
The 80/20 principle (also known as Pareto’s rule), was first formulated by
the Italian thinker Vilfredo Pareto.
As applied to personal
productivity, it postulates that 80% of your results come from only 20% of your
efforts, and that 20% of your results are the product of 80% of your effort
Basically,
the 80/20 principle states that we are usually inefficient. We do not devote as
much time and energy as we should to our most important tasks.
Instead,
we try to do everything ourselves, even though we may not be very competent in
some tasks. If you wish to improve your productivity at work, analyze what it
is you do that can make a dramatic impact on the growth of your company, and propose
to your superiors that you be allowed to do that one thing.
If
you chose an area wherein you can make a real contribution, your boss will not
mind your level of specialization.
