Are You Making Any Of These Time-Wasting Mistakes At Work?

Are You Making Any Of These Time-Wasting Mistakes At Work?

If there’s one commodity that we seem to always want more of, it’s time. 
And while it’s one thing to waste your own, it’s another to waste your boss’s or colleague’s time at work. Before you know it, it could spell trouble for your career. 

Even the most well-intentioned employee can cause tension in the workplace by wasting others’ time. So, how do you know if you’re one of them?

Here Are 11  Ways That I’ve seen People Waste Their Boss’s Time. 
How many are you guilty of?

1. The employee frequently misses deadlines. 
2. The employee is not performing their job duties, requiring micromanaging.
3. ​The employee lacks confidence in themselves, creating a stall.
4. ​The employee creates inefficient systems that are heavily and unnecessarily dependent on the boss.
5. ​The employee procrastinates.
6. ​The employee is a perfectionist.
7. ​The employee complains about situations with no desire to find a solution.
8. ​The employee visits the boss with ideas, but has nothing written out on paper. 
9. ​The employee is late to work or meetings.
10. ​The employee is resistant to change.
11. The employee is not on board with the company mission 100%.​

None of us are perfect, and we all make mistakes—it’s a part of learning. But if you want to grow within your organization, you need to learn how to handle these issues so you’re not a burden to your boss or team. And if you’re a manager or supervisor within the organization and you’ve just realized your team members are committing the time-wasting mistakes above, it’s your responsibility to correct it.

The first step is awareness. Once we know better, we can do better—and you may even be rewarded for your noticeable growth and improvement. Start today by not making excuses.

The second step is planning. Making a plan ensures you will be prepared and meet deadlines. Reverse engineering goals is one of the best ways to calm nerves and meet your goals on time. Simply start by naming the goal. Then list the things you need to accomplish it. Now determine the amount of time it will take to do each item. Then decide how quickly you want to accomplish the task and plan accordingly. It makes even the biggest task attainable. 

Here is a simple example: Let’s pretend you want to write a book.The book is going to be 13 chapters long.Each chapter is going to be about 3,500 words and it takes you 3 hours to write each chapter. This is a total of 13 X 3= 39 hours (2,340 minutes).Completion of the book depends on how many hours you need to write per day, week, month, etc. If you want to complete the book in 13 weeks (91 days)  then you need to write 3 hours per week, or just over 25 minutes per day. If you want to write this same book in one week then you would need to put in about 6 hours per day of writing. 

When we create a plan, we are setting ourselves up for ultimate success. 

The third step is putting pen to paper. Anyone can go around saying they are going to do this or that. The cliche, “ideas are a dime a dozen,” applies here. When you really want to gain traction with your ideas, write them down and take time to think about the pros and cons. 

Putting pen to paper has been the number one catapult that allowed me to advance my career. Not only through creating a promotion plan, but also through rapid implementation of those ideas. When your boss can see a clear plan and meaningful thought behind your work, he or she is more likely to trust that you will accomplish the implementation. 

The fourth step is creating systems. Inefficiencies in the workplace are most commonly caused by lacking systems. Many people believe they have communication problems, but the truth is they are depending too much on random systems when a procedural approach should be taken instead. 

You need a system if: 

•  You want to have a consistent outcome (i.e. recipes in a restaurant).
•  A process is more than a few steps and it’s likely that you will be interrupted during its completion. 
•  More than one person is involved in the process.
• ​Sequential order of tasks matter.
• ​Tasks are frequently not completed.
• ​You will hire new team members in the future.
• ​You want to perform at the highest levels.

When you have awareness, take time to plan, put pen to paper, and implement systems you will become an asset to your team and will no longer risk wasting their time. This makes you an obvious choice when it comes to promotion opportunities.  

When you’re ready to take it to the next level, start training others to follow in your footsteps. Training others makes you more valuable and work more enjoyable.