Top 10 Tips for Getting Ahead in Your Career Without Working Harder

Getting ahead at work doesn’t have to mean putting in extra hours – or sucking up to your boss! A few of these simple tricks can help make you more efficient and simply a better worker!

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Here’s some top 10 tips for getting ahead in your career without working harder!

1. Create a progress bar for big projects and fill it in as you complete parts of the project. It helps gives you a sense of accomplishment and lets you visually understand your project as well as helping break it down into manageable tasks.
2. Wait before you respond. If you don’t need to respond immediately to an email/sms/tweet/post or call – just hang ten for five minutes. Giving yourself a breather could completely change the way you view your response.
3. Don’t allow yourself to be distracted by instant messages (all of them) – set periods of your day aside to use these and turn them off for the rest of the time (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Mobile Phones, and all the rest can be very distracting and prevent you from keeping your focus)
4. Challenge your assumptions and beliefs everyday by reading something challenging and new on a daily basis
5. Don’t let blocks get you down. Pick a few smaller tasks that you know you can complete when you are feeling blocked. The momentum created by a few smaller successes can push you through the bigger tasks. Changing your focus from the bigger tasks can be very stimulating – as your mind focuses on the task at hand – your subconscious goes to work on the other tasks!
6. If you have a very challenging project which you keep putting off – try and dedicate small chunks of time to that project on a daily basis. Just do it in small chunks!
7. People work best in 20 minute bursts. So work for 20 minutes and take a break. Go for a walk or do something else for a bit. Then repeat.
8. Have a zillion things to keep you busy? Organise. Break them into chunks and set time aside for the chucks. Do as many as you can within the time you assign yourself.
9. Sometimes you just need to let it go. If you aren’t able to finish what you’re working on right away – stop. Let it go. Don’t beat yourself up about it. Come into work fresh the following day and try it again.
10. Keep track of any positive feedback you’ve received – and when you’re feeling particularly stumped by a problem – have a look at that positive feedback!