How to work smarter, not just harder

The 'instant response culture'
Julie Morgenstern, a time management expert and author of “Never Check E-mail in the Morning,” said that both companies and workers benefit when employees have good strategies for managing their work loads.

“Companies are conscious that people can’t work this relentlessly and be effective,” she said. “And some are focusing on work-life balance — insisting that their people take vacations, get home to have dinner with their families, things like that — because it helps them retain good employees.”

Morgenstern says that technological advances such as e-mail have pushed workers into what she calls the “instant response culture.” As they work in “staccato” mode, they don’t ever slow down to “legato” and set aside time blocks to do the thoughtful, complicated projects that companies want.

In training sessions and in her book, she recommends that workers not check e-mail first thing in the morning and, instead, use those early and fresh hours to tackle their most important projects.

Workers also can create more time for important work by “controlling the nibblers.” This can be as simple as discouraging colleagues from dropping in to chat by closing the office door or activating their phone answering machines to capture calls. The return calls can be bunched at set times, such as late morning or late afternoon, she said.

Still have too much to do? Morgenstern suggests subjecting every demand for the four Ds: delete, delay, delegate, diminish. Does it need to be done at all? Can it be rescheduled at a later, better time? Can it be delegated to another worker? Are there shortcuts to streamline the job?

Erin Brennan, 29, a vice president of Hunter Public Relations in New York, said that adopting some of Morgenstern’s time management tips has given her a greater sense of control over her work day.

“I’ll tell myself, ’You’re in staccato mode now. Slow down and focus,”’ she said. “Then I can get into the mind-set of, ’I’m going to really concentrate on this now.’ After all, it’s the long-term projects that are the reason your company has you on board.”

She also said that learning to “map” her time — that is, assigning specific time slots on her calendar for each day’s tasks — helps ensure that priority projects get the attention they need.

“It’s like, these are the three things I need to get done today, and these are the three hours I’m going to do them in,” Brennan said. “You can even give yourself a certain percentage of the day for unplanned tasks so that when things happen, you can handle them.”

She’s also learned to schedule in some leisure time, like an exercise class after work.

“I’ll say, ’OK, let’s get to this at 3 so I can leave at 6 p.m.,”’ she said. “If you say it out loud enough times, people will say, ’Oh, Erin has her spin class on Wednesday nights so we’ll have to get to this earlier.”’

The added benefit, she said, is that “even people who didn’t take the class figure out that they can do it, too.”

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