Reprinted Articles

Sometimes all that it takes for you to get the promotion that you have been looking for at work is a little bit of extra efficiency.

Taking steps to advance your career isn’t as hard as it seems. If you adopt a few of these straightforward time management techniques, you’ll see some real and positive improvements in the work you do and the results you get. Your boss will notice and this is a good thing when it comes time for him to hand out promotions and raises. Here are a few suggested techniques to get you started.

1. Get rid of the clutter in your office. When you have a cluttered office, everyone notices, even if they don’t say something to you. Sure a cluttered office may be a sign of an organized mind, but your boss probably won’t take that into account the next time it comes to promoting someone. Look at it from his or her point of view for a moment and you’ll see what I mean. All things being equal, would he/she rather promote someone who is neat or someone who has a cluttered desk?

Rather than wait any longer, just clean up your messy desk and office. You’ll see two good things happen when you do. First, your productivity and efficiency will go up because you’re no longer having to dig through a messy workspace just to find your important documents. Second, your boss and everyone else will notice your nice and clean office the next time they come by. Your now clean office is a good conversation started, especially as you talk to your boss about wanting to be promoted. Don’t wait any longer, just do it and you’ll be happy you did.

2. Create an environment that supports your productivity. Rather than rely solely on your own will power to be productive and efficient, structure your environment to give you a “leg-up” in achieving your time management goals. Here’s a simple exercise for you to do. Pick 5 objects currently in your office. One by one, look at each and ask your the simple question of whether that object supports your productivity or detracts from it. Just be honest with yourself when you answer. It’s your life and your time. You need to take it seriously and be honest.

The hardest part of this might be simply being honest with yourself. Once you do get honest and start taking action to get rid of the things in your workspace which don’t support your time management goals, you’ll immediately notice a difference. Your energy will rise. So just take action and only fill your workspace with things that support your goals.

Your increased energy and higher productivity is what managers look for when it comes time to hand out promotions.

3. Handle emails, calls, and request efficiently. So much communication happens all day at the office and it’s easy to get buried and let things like email pile up in your inbox. You can improve your chances for promotion if you respond quickly and efficiently to any and all emails, phone messages and conversations.

An overflowing inbox is a problem for everyone these days, but if you want to improve your chances of being promoted, you have to figure out a way to keep it under control. Every email client has sorting or organization features you can use to sort your email according to where it comes from. The simplest thing you can do is sort mail from your boss, your peers and your friends into separate categories. From there, you should answer the emails from your boss first, writing short, intelligent and effective messages that demonstrate how you are keeping your commitment and will take care of the matters under discussion.

After you handle the emails from your boss, go ahead and answer the emails to your peers or other employees at your level. Use the same efficient and effective language you use with your boss and don’t worry if these people wonder why you always answer the boss first. That’s the way it supposed to be done and when it is time for your boss to give a promotion, he will see you as the person who communicates well and good communication is critical in the work place.

Here’s a quick note about emails from your friends. First off, if an email from your friend is sitting on the company email server, your company will be able to open it and read it. If your friend decides to send too many jokes or even offensive information to you, your company will find out and this will damage your chances for promotion. This means you should have a private, non-work email address that your friends use when they want to email you.

So there you have it. Those were easy and simple tips you can use to improve your chances of getting promoted at work. By following these time management tips, you’ll improve your productivity and efficiency and in the process let everyone know, especially your boss, that you are the person to pick for the next promotion. Enjoy yourself and get working on them right away.

Last 5 posts by Michael Adams

• Don't Fall Into the 80/20 Time Trap With Project Management - May 15th, 2008
• Time Management - How To Use Your Environment To Your Advantage - May 10th, 2008

Tags: Time Management