Sep 08, 2021

Are you the last one to leave the office? Here’s how to STOP it!

Don’t worry! You’re not alone. It’s a challenge that every working professional faces: getting out of the office door on time. While some get caught in an email trap, clicking away at their computers and firing off emails way past dinner time, others linger till late, to appear committed to their jobs.

Just like the discussion around work-life balance, working late has also become the norm. But the art of ‘leaving’ on time doesn’t happen by just talking about it. It starts way before the workday does and there has to be a psychological commitment to departure time and a plan to make it happen.

Read: 4 Productivity Hacks By 4 Billionaires

In this blog, we give you that plan and steps to execute it:    

Harness the skills of time management

A study conducted by the Harvard Business Review found that working more than 40 hours a week could make professionals less productive, put them at risk of making mistakes, and create the appearance of poor time-management skills. So let’s start by understanding the cardinal rule- Your set hours are your set hours for a reason, whether you are an employee or a manager.

You need to accommodate and complete all the crucial things in the given hours. Period. Finish everything within the stipulated time, and if your current setup isn’t working for you, change it.  You also need to stop focusing on one day or one week and start planning for long-term goals.

Predict and preempt the things that will take most of your hours and start working on them backward. There could even be days where you can’t complete everything you have planned, and that’s ok.

Work is a never-ending process, and you should stop trying to get everything done in a day.   

Find the leaks

There can be multiple things that might be slowing you down during office hours. It could be chatty colleagues, noisy office spaces, lack of pre-defined work expectations, urge to take too many short breaks, unnecessary meetings and so on. Take a step back and consider your priorities. What’s the ‘true north’ towards which you’re working? If you know that these frequent workplace distractions are halting you from reaching your goals, then it’s time to stop.

Cut down on your unnecessary chit-chat breaks, find a space where you can work peacefully without any distraction, get yourself taken off from the meetings and discussion that don’t concern you. Identify these leaks and fix them before they become a part of your schedule.  

Discover the magic formula

We all have some days that are particularly productive. It could be Mondays, Fridays or just in the middle of the week. Identify these days and find those elements that made that day or days so good. Discover a pattern and try to replicate them as much as you can!  

Walk the talk

No matter what stage of your career you are in, try and walk the talk. More often than not, we see managers saying, “We don’t want our employees and people to work past 6 or 7.” But then you get an email from them at midnight.

As a manager or a senior at any level, you need to give your team permission to live the life that you want to live and expect the same of yourself as you do them. Lead with an example and build a culture that gives them a real chance to walk out before dark, regardless of workload.  

Switch to spaces that work for you!

Whether you are a manager, founder, or an employee, you’ll agree that a place where you work, hold meetings, ideate and celebrate all the wins and some losses, play a crucial role in shaping your day and work. If you spend almost half of your day figuring out why the internet is not working or how to get a projector fixed, then you’re probably in the wrong place. A workspace should help you work better and not the opposite.

For all those who are scrambling to find this elusive work-life balance, experience our office spaces for a day for free. We believe in doing less, to do more!  

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