As a former Corporate Cruncher myself, I had many evenings that were spent bent over my laptop working on items that I brought home from work. It began to become par for the course for me to bring work home from the office and the more I did it, the more it became the norm and not the exception to the rule. It was when I found myself working on a project while supposedly on vacation that it came to me that I should be enjoying my time off, not working through it. So I made it a point to bring home work from the office only when it was absolutely necessary and I had no other alternatives.
Here are 5 tips for not taking your work home with you:
1. Use Your Time Wisely at Work:
Many of the times I brought work home with me from the office was because I mismanaged my time while I was at work. When you use your time wisely while you are at work, you are getting the maximum out of your workday, therefore getting more accomplished. One way to use your time wisely at work is to multi-task or work on more than one project at a time, spending an hour or two on each item instead of the full day just on one task. You will see a difference in your workload and notice you won’t have to bring home much with you.
2. Learn to Delegate:
Learning to delegate is such a gift to you and your sanity. If you are like me, being able to hand off duties to someone else may be hard, but doing so can really make the most out of your workday. If you have an assistant or clerical that you work with, giving them things that they can handle and can complete for you means less work for you and more free time on your off time.
3. Work Through Lunch:
Having long luxurious two hour lunches at your favorite restaurant may be a wonderful way to break up the monotony of your day but can really create havoc with your workload. If working through lunch two or three days a week means not having to take things home with you to work on, wouldn’t that be a better option? Perhaps ordering lunch in and taking thirty minutes instead of two full hours would be a better way to get the job done. Remember to prioritize!
4. Work Smarter, not Harder:
Working smarter not harder means you have an initiative and you are willing to see it through. It means letting call go to voice mail unless they are extremely important, turning of the smartphone, or checking and responding to your email every two hours instead of every 15 minutes. Prioritizing your day and focusing on your tasks can really maximize your time and allow you to get more work done.
5. Just Saying No:
Ask yourself this question: Do I HAVE to take this work home with me? Is there a deadline? Can I not get the work done sufficiently by the deadline without taking the work home? Am I taking work home out of habit and not out of need? If taking work home with you isn’t a necessity then don’t. Sometimes we do things out of habit, not because we have to. So saying no to taking work home with you when you don’t have to is an amazing way to curtail doing too much.
I hope these 5 tips for not taking work home with you help out my Cubicle Chicks and Dudes. Let me know your thoughts and tips as well in the comment section below.
Uh, I never take work home. I must be a slacker :-/.
From what I understand, the type of work that you do must be done on site and isn’t the type you necessarily take home with you. You aren’t a slacker, just one of the lucky ones that isn’t paperwork absorbed, etc.
Incorrect. I emailed my boss once {from home to his work email} at 11pm and he responded. They do that there. I don’t. Never have. Doubt I will. #slacker
I am queen of numbers 3 and 4, and I am a “work-in-progress” with numbers 2 and 5!