Those of you who have been reading my blog may have already read my entry on Work Creep. Here, I continue the topic with some specific suggestions that have worked for me in cutting the creep out of my day.
1) IF YOU DO WORK on the weekend or late at night, let your boss know what you're working on and let those who asked you to do the work (even if it is your boss) know that you took your personal time to do the work and you didn't get to do something else instead. For example, if you weren't able to attend your best friend's baby shower, let those folks know what you missed out on in order to help them.
2) PITCH ITERATIVE DELIVERABLES - the word iterative means to repeat and a deliverable is an end-product you provide to your customer. This is the divide and conquer technique. If you are a mechanic, you deliver repairs, if you are a hair-stylist, you deliver beauty treatments. If you are an IT worker, you probably already know that your deliverables can be an email, a file, or a whole chain of tasks. Why not bargain to break up what is due and when it is due for you? You may be surprised by the results of this conversation if you just try it.
3) TAKE A NUMBER - Most workplaces have a way to number requests in the order they are received, or at least they have an appointment system. If you have both where you work, make full use of them both. Don't let people do "drive-by's" for immediate assistance. I learned this by working with our Tech Support department at work. IT tech support is usually organized in tiers 1,2,3... and so on. When the guys on the first tier are unable to solve an issue on their own, they are NOT ALLOWED to walk over to their buddies in tier 2 for a life-line. Why? Because the company makes more money when they escalate to the higher tier. Why would you let someone else do that to you without paying you more money?
4) REPORT YOUR TIME - Some people are surprised when they see the work they do in a statistical format. For example the free application Manic Time runs in the background of your Windows session and keeps track of the applications, documents, and away time on your laptop, if that's how you work. Other applications like Harvest for the iPhone can be used by folks like home contractors to record their time on the job.
5) PAY UP - When I owned my own maid service in Dallas, TX, I was faced with a seemingly insurmountable problem. I had to find a nice way to tell clients with seriously dirty places that I just didn't have the man power for their mess. I asked my maternal grandmother what she did as a seamstress the past 30 years when she faced a customer in her small-town shop that she just didn't want to help. Think about it...if my grandma was rude to a customer, the whole town would know about it in a day or two. She said simply price your service out of their reach. If it is at all possible for you to increase your bill rate some how, then do so.
6) CURRENT RESPONSE TIME IS - It helps to give your customers as much information as possible, even if it is bad information. The reason why is that folks get frustrated when they are left baffled because they are unable to make a decision about what to do with their time. Your customers may also have others' deadlines waiting on their success. If anything, if your response time is a week or more, it tells others that you are genuinely busy and they will have to wait.
1) IF YOU DO WORK on the weekend or late at night, let your boss know what you're working on and let those who asked you to do the work (even if it is your boss) know that you took your personal time to do the work and you didn't get to do something else instead. For example, if you weren't able to attend your best friend's baby shower, let those folks know what you missed out on in order to help them.
2) PITCH ITERATIVE DELIVERABLES - the word iterative means to repeat and a deliverable is an end-product you provide to your customer. This is the divide and conquer technique. If you are a mechanic, you deliver repairs, if you are a hair-stylist, you deliver beauty treatments. If you are an IT worker, you probably already know that your deliverables can be an email, a file, or a whole chain of tasks. Why not bargain to break up what is due and when it is due for you? You may be surprised by the results of this conversation if you just try it.
3) TAKE A NUMBER - Most workplaces have a way to number requests in the order they are received, or at least they have an appointment system. If you have both where you work, make full use of them both. Don't let people do "drive-by's" for immediate assistance. I learned this by working with our Tech Support department at work. IT tech support is usually organized in tiers 1,2,3... and so on. When the guys on the first tier are unable to solve an issue on their own, they are NOT ALLOWED to walk over to their buddies in tier 2 for a life-line. Why? Because the company makes more money when they escalate to the higher tier. Why would you let someone else do that to you without paying you more money?
4) REPORT YOUR TIME - Some people are surprised when they see the work they do in a statistical format. For example the free application Manic Time runs in the background of your Windows session and keeps track of the applications, documents, and away time on your laptop, if that's how you work. Other applications like Harvest for the iPhone can be used by folks like home contractors to record their time on the job.
5) PAY UP - When I owned my own maid service in Dallas, TX, I was faced with a seemingly insurmountable problem. I had to find a nice way to tell clients with seriously dirty places that I just didn't have the man power for their mess. I asked my maternal grandmother what she did as a seamstress the past 30 years when she faced a customer in her small-town shop that she just didn't want to help. Think about it...if my grandma was rude to a customer, the whole town would know about it in a day or two. She said simply price your service out of their reach. If it is at all possible for you to increase your bill rate some how, then do so.
6) CURRENT RESPONSE TIME IS - It helps to give your customers as much information as possible, even if it is bad information. The reason why is that folks get frustrated when they are left baffled because they are unable to make a decision about what to do with their time. Your customers may also have others' deadlines waiting on their success. If anything, if your response time is a week or more, it tells others that you are genuinely busy and they will have to wait.
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