Being students, we go through significant workload and the juggling of assignments, projects, deadlines, thesis, quizzes and many others, during the entire educational period. This might make us think that after going through this tiresome path of paperwork, when we begin our practical life with the first job, it would be easy to manage. Well, this is a totally wrong expectation.

Practical work in your career has nothing to do with the student life and you better prepare well to handle it with ease and efficiency. Your career and good name depends on the way you will be handling the workload at your job.

Following are a few tips to help you excel in your job by managing the tasks smartly and professionally.

Write it down

You may be brilliant down the memory lane and management skills but the thing you need to make sure is that you neither forget small tasks nor outlook the details or number of tasks you have marked for the day a week ago. This sometimes can get messy and you also tend to forget things when you are under pressure especially the very small tasks or details.

The best solution for this is to jot down everything. Develop a habit of writing down all the tasks of the day and all the small or big upcoming projects. You can devise and finish off this list in three portions.

  • Daily tasks
  • Weekly tasks
  • Monthly tasks

This way you won’t miss out on anything and you will be able to timely finish all the work designated to you.

Prioritize your tasks

If you have a long list of things to do and all have been designated to you by your boss or seniors then the best way to get them sorted is to divide them as per the priority, importance and deadlines.

Some tasks may seem more significant than others but it may have a longer deadline giving you a chance to finish it off, by the end of the week and ticking off the other small tasks which need your immediate attention. If you fail to figure out what is more important at the very instant, you must ask for help but devise your tasks list as per the priority of deadlines because even a machine cannot print or scan at the same time and if you will give it both the commands then it will also prioritize the tasks at hand.

Maintain focus

You will only be able to efficiently manage your workload if you maintain your focus. A lot of people have this issue of distraction and that lures them away from the deadlines or the task at hand. Save it by alternating your routine a bit, so you could stay focused and progress at your work. For instance:

  • after entering office, lock your personal cell phone in the drawer to save time
  • if you are an active person on social media, lock those websites in the browser of your office PC
  • if you are a chatty person, make a habit of keeping your conversations as short as possible

Determine your boundaries

When you are new at your job, you are enthusiastic and energetic and push your limits and boundaries to make everyone happy. But when you get used to the routine you start to back up bit by bit, and that starts to show up as your slackness. Instead you need to determine your boundaries from the beginning. You should not mix your official life with your personal life. You must not prolong the working hours. Never take the work home to be done at night.

Seek help

It’s not bad to ask for help. Never hesitate to clear your queries or ambiguities because that will help you finish tasks earlier and that too efficiently. Don’t sit on your issues but seek help from seniors, colleagues or even your boss.