Leaving the office at 5

Gauri Chhabra
There is a line item in our company’s Performance Appraisal form- Going an extra mile… Now how do we measure it? Well, by looking at the number of hours any employee has spent beyond his normal work hours. This time while doing appraisals, I kept thinking what about all those who leave the office at 5 pm? Aren’t they going an extra mile? Are we rewarding sloppiness and laziness?
Is burning midnight oil always essential? No.
Most people feel if they have too much to do at work, they would be considered productive.But while few of us leave our desks at the understood 5 p.m. day’s end of so many song lyrics, watching the minutes tick by in front of your computer screen is not actually the way to get ahead, and can even hasten falling further behind.
There are several reasons why our days have swelled. Companies continuously are trying to hire as few people as possible. Our roles are continuously changing, the world is changing, we’re in a time of rapid change-nothing is ‘business as usual.’ Acknowledge that you have more work to do than time to do it,you’re going to do different things.
Does this mean that starting Monday morning you’ll be a fully-optimized task wizard who never sees another 6:30 p.m. in your cubicle? Probablynot. But whatever your title, industry, or rank within an organization, a few conscious decisions about how you spend your time can mean not just shorter hours at the office, but better ones.
Here’s how to:
Perform a task audit:
Start by figuring out what you’re actually doing with all of your time? It will probably surprise you.Maybe you keep trying to write that proposal but can’t help clicking over every few minutes to see the emails pour in. Or your boss keeps strolling over to give you tasks while you try to complete the ones you’ve already got. Or you’re overwhelmed by trying to work while maintaining your superior command of everything that’s happening on the Internet.Whatever the reason, doing too many things at once can diminish the quality of your work and add hours to the end of your day. If you’re looking to optimize the time you spend at work, figuring out how it’s actually allocated-versus what you think you’ve been doing-is a great place to start.
The additional challenge of figuring out what you do all day? Time spent on modes of communication-responding to email, listening to voicemails, marathon meetings-doesn’t count. You’re only really productive when you’re engaged in the true content of your job description.
Ditch the non – essentials:
One of the biggest mistakes people make at work is putting absolutely everything-big and small, essential and inconsequential-on the to-do list. Approach that potential client! Order wraps for the reception! Label those hanging folders!
There’s no possible way to get it all accomplished-and most people find it hard to leave at the end of the day with straggling tasks still glaring back at them. But the trick is to figure out what actually belongs on the list-no more than three to five absolute musts-and ditch the rest.
Truly think through what your priorities are for the workday.There are no bonus points for having a long list when you don’t get to everything.
For many people, even for tech whizzes, a list that’s on paper-even if it’s created on the computer but printed out-is very helpful.You can refer to it without the danger of going back into that computer screen which is just a portal to the carnival of distraction that is the internet.
Be time boxed:
Don’t underestimate the power of one of the simplest tools on your smartphone-the alarm. Being time conscious can help you target and overcome all manner of personal foibles, from being easily distracted to not knowing when to call a task complete.
If you’re a perfectionist, you can say, ‘I’m going to spend 90 minutes on this, no more,’ and set that alarm, and it helps you overcome your own perfectionism.You can say, ‘I’m going to work for two hours before I check my email’.
Break up with your mail:
When was the last time you thought, “I just wish I had more email in my life?” You may think this title belongs to someone you dated in college, but the most poisonous relationship in your life is the one you are probably carrying on with email. It wants your constant attention. It’s got its mitts all over your work computer, laptop, smartphone, and tablet. It’s that constant, shrill, whine that wants to know ‘Why you aren’t looking at it this very moment’.
Email delivers lots of to dos and lots of distractions. It’s the world’s most convenient procrastination device. That’s something you have control over: you can turn the dinger off. You can’t get into proactive mode if you start your day reading it.
Try breaking up from it.
Plan backwards:
Plan your day backwards. Ask yourself, “If I plan to go home at 5 pm what should I do”? Banking on having the time to plan your day as it’s starting is a bad idea-at that point you’re already in the trenches with the tasks flying fast.
Save some time towards the end of the day to plan for tomorrow and the two following days. It will not only keep you on track during the day, you’ll have a better understanding of your workload and whether you’re in a position to step up to an additional challenge, or focus on what’s already on the docket.
“When you have a three-day time horizon, as things come flying at you throughout the day, instead of instantly shoving them into the moment, you have context for, ‘Where can I fit this in”? If you’re only looking at the next hour, you have no context for saying yes or no.
And beyond preparing for what you can get done during the day, commit to when it’s going to be over. If your plan is to stay at work until everything last thing is totally finished, you’re not going to be leaving any time soon-or ever, really.
The final word:
If you’re committed to leaving work at a certain time, and a late-afternoon task arises that requires your attention but isn’t a matter of corporate life or death, you need to assess and attack within the time you have remaining-not simply commit to an evening spent in the office.
Ask yourself, “If the power to my building were to go off at 5 p.m., necessitating my leaving, what are the things I would do before then?’ And then tackle those things. The problem is many of us don’t ask that question until too late, and then you’re stuck late doing them.”
Everyone wants to be for going that extra mile-but learning to identify when that’s truly necessary is critical. Especially because…
The best thing you can do for your life at the office is to build a dynamic life outside of it.
Whatever your life preferences, it’s a point on which almost everyone is in agreement: The people who are the most creative and efficient in their careers prioritize time away from the office.Work expands to fill the available space.So treat the end of the workday as something that matters.
So, I plan to remove the line item-‘going an extra mile from the appraisal from- nay, start measuring it differently…
Let’s reward all those who leave the office at 5 pm… they are the most efficient…

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