Maximum productivity in part-time hours; the art of balancing your workload

A common goal raised by my coaching clients is the issue of time management; how to remain productive in fewer hours? Often the level of responsibility they had in their full-time role remains the same; yet they are working less, or different hours. Many are worried about balancing the expectations of their colleagues and clients; who can take longer to adjust to the change in work pattern.

Whilst I can’t profess to have all the answers, here are my top tips to achieve maximum productivity in part-time hours!

1. Think like a retailer

Bear with me on this analogy; you walk to a shop at 4:30am to find the hours say “Open 9 – 5”. How do you react? I would put money on acceptance that you need to return to the shop when it is open! They have established their availability to you, their customer. So, in the context of your job, make sure you set expectations of when your working hours are. This can include putting your working pattern on the bottom of your email signature and detailing your availability in your out of office notification. If you role means you are away from your desk a lot, you could even set expectations of when you check your emails or response times. Make sure you make it clear who your contacts can talk to when you are not available too.

2. Watch the clock

Expand your to-do list into a to-do-when list. Nothing feels better than ticking off your actions during a day; but do you know how long each point will take to finish? I once had a client who, once they had allocated time to each of their activities, realised they were trying to achieve 12 hours’ worth of work in a seven hour day! No wonder they felt harassed and stressed. I personally track my to-do-when list in my outlook calendar by creating appointments – which has an added bonus of giving me reminders when the next action is due. It means I am less likely to get so absorbed in an activity (in that read “social media distractions”) that I drop into a black hole of time and get nothing else done!

3. Book an appointment with yourself

Make sure you schedule in thinking and planning time. It may feel you are too pressured for time to do so, but the act of reflection and forward planning will actually save time in the long run. Treat each point on your to-do-when list as a mini-project; in the world of Project Management, you have to consider WHAT you have to do, WHO is responsible and WHEN each part has to happen. This planning will help increase the pace of your work. In the same vein, and some may argue against this, book in your lunch. By law, everyone who works six hours a day must have a 30 minutes break. This opportunity to stretch your legs, eat and recharge, will actually mean you have the mental energy to work effectively! There are no prizes for being chained to your desk, hungry!

4. Reject perfectionism

You may have heard that Google has an ethos that “80% is good enough”. Consider this with your work; do you hang on to it till you deem it perfect? Do you need lots of feedback till you are happy to move it from “draft” to “final”? Do you need all the answers before you can start? Sometimes we (and I include myself in this global we) are our worst enemy when I comes to workload. So, consider what the finished article needs to look like; and furthermore, if you actually need to be the one to do it all? Can a colleague help get you there quicker?

So there you have it, my top four tips to having maximum productivity in part-time hours; I would be interested to hear how these work out for you!