Just doing your job at the office might earn you a paycheck, but does it give you much satisfaction or put you in line for a raise? Fulfilling your responsibilities is good; trying harder can make you great.
Step up your work game by putting in more effort in subtle ways that may just get you noticed.
Think Two Steps Ahead
It is hard to find a boss who doesn’t love proactive employees. Instead of waiting around for instruction, take it upon yourself to hop on what you expect comes next.
It doesn’t take a mind reader to be someone who’s considered proactive; you just need to pay attention. Come up with ideas, you probably do that already; now begin to share them with your supervisors.
Check if you can take up the next task upon yourself. Just make sure you don’t overload yourself with work.
Get Out of Your Comfort Zone
When you make it a point to do things out of your typical way of working, you may just find that you get more out of your job and your supervisors will take note.
Think about ways you can do something different - speak up in meetings if you’re usually silent, volunteer for projects when you normally choose not to participate, share your ideas about what might help the current project, etc.
This might seem daunting at first as obviously this is out of your comfort zone, but you may just begin to enjoy the new task and this might give you additional job satisfaction.
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Plow Through Your To-Do List
By keeping a To-Do List, you make sure that your tasks are written down all in one place so you don’t forget anything important. And by prioritizing tasks, you plan the order in which you’ll do them, so that you can tell what needs your immediate attention, and what you can leave until later.
Lists are the most basic and essential part of being productive, but some of the items on to-do lists end up being pushed to the bottom over and over again. Stop re-reading those tasks you’ve been procrastinating and set deadlines for yourself to complete them.
And if you’ve left a task on your list undone for too long; discard it and start a fresh list. Out with the old, and you’ll have more room (and time) for more pressing matters.
Are You a Workaholic, Or Do You Just Work Long Hours?
Craft a Not-To-Do list
Everybody talks about a To-Do list, what is also helpful is a Not-To-Do list. On this list, you should list all of the things that you do out of habit.
Most of the time they don’t make sense and waste time, and at the end of the day you ask yourself what it was all for. In order to make a list with things you don’t want to do you first have to find out what distracts you most and how to counter it.
For example, schedule a specific amount of time for checking and answering your emails or getting back to calls from unknown numbers; try not to do these when in the middle of an important task.
We all would love to stay connected be it Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter; but try to keep the usage of social media channels to after work hours and you will be surprised how much work you can get done in even a short period of time.
Work Smarter
Step back and look at your most frequent tasks, and figure out how you can improve one at a time. It might take a few tries to find a winning solution for making your work more efficient, but it will be completely worth it when you realize your days have opened up a bit as your work gets done effectively much faster.
Ask How You Can Help
Now that you’ve found more time in your day, look for opportunities to offer a helping hand. Find them by chatting with co-workers and taking interest in a project they’re struggling with, or by going to your supervisor and ask how you can help.
All this done, you’ll soon be a go-to co-worker and work will never be equated to tedium. When your work is engaging, labor is pleasure.
