Working overtime - an outdated concept!

Nothing is ours, except time.

Seneca (4 B.C.-A.D. 65)

When did you go home last evening after work?

The reply to this question is crucial in the analysis of one's working pattern and time management skills. Working overtime was a concept popularised when the organised sector attached extra remuneration for time spent in office after normal working hours.

Sapna was constantly at loggerheads with her superiors as she left exactly at 6.00pm and not a minute before or after. While her manager even today feels that working late is a very essential part of one's office life, she strongly disagrees. According to her there are 5 major reasons why an employee finds it necessary to stay back to complete his work.

Disorganisation: A disorganised desk, stacks of overdue paperwork, collapsing stack of files, message slips strewn around-with chaos all round, it's difficult to know where to start and the whole task seems Herculean.

It pays to remember that a cluttered desk reflects a cluttered mind!

Poor planning: While grandiose plans are made for the future, very few follow a day-to-day work plan. Seneca says, "When a man does not know what harbour he is making for, no wind is the right wind." Without proper planning where each job is broken into manageable tasks, there is little hope of meeting a deadline.

When jobs are not well-planned then one tends to work on a "plugging mode"- where one is busy plugging the loopholes in a crumbling project.

Procrastination: Tomorrow never comes for today's pressured executive, who is constantly putting things off for the future. We live in a fast paced world where everything is supposed to have been completed yesterday!

With practice, the procrastinator becomes increasingly proficient at the art of delaying the inevitable and ends up constantly chasing the elusive god of time!

Interruptions: Unless it's your boss popping in to give you more work or wanting to discuss something, it is very important that you don't look up from your desk till the task at hand is completed. Make sure that you are not interrupted by well meaning co-workers, social phone calls and casual visitors.

Learn to field all kinds of interruptions at work otherwise you will be left with incomplete projects and deadlines staring you in the face.

A preoccupied mind: When your mind is otherwise occupied concentrating on the task at hand is impossible.

Prioritising work above all else is a must especially when in office! Carrying domestic problems to work and vice-versa is an absolute no-no.

Slaving away overtime is no longer a task to be admired, but is an indicator that shows the incompetence of the employee. It suggests that the professional lacks basic time management skills and is not a proactive employee.

Sapna's short-sighted manager may never realise her true value as a meticulous employee but make sure that you do so before you lose the best talent.

MALINI SURYANARAYANAN

maalini.mds@cxknetworks.com