By taking a different approach to your return to the office, you can actually transform your productivity for the rest of the year.
You come back to a bucket instead of the normally dripping faucet (“капающий кран”) of information. With hundreds of emails and tons of phone calls, the question is, how do you filter through all of this information?
Most of us do the logical thing: Start from the top or bottom (низ) and go through messages and requests one by one. Instead, you should take advantage of the situation, pause and create a clean slate: The first question to ask is, what is most important for me to accomplish (достигнуть)? What are my top three to five priorities—the things that will make the biggest difference?
Once you have your objectives (цели, ориентиры), write them down and look at them every morning and evening. Looking at your list helps you recommit to them. Filter every decision, conversation, request, to-do, email, and opportunity through this lens.
Putting the plan into action
To be at your most productive, you should be spending 95% of your time on your own priorities. Requests or demands of your time that are outside of your priorities will happen, and you need to be willing and ready to communicate your boundaries to your coworkers (коллеги) and colleagues.
Be proactive: Look at every meeting you’re invited to and decide if it’s moving you forward, If not, withdraw (откажись от участия) or cancel.
If someone asks you for information or a decision or guidance, then ask yourself, is spending time on this going to move me forward on my top priorities? If not, decline (откажи).
And at the end of each day, look back and ask, did I work on my priorities? If not, what can you learn for tomorrow?
