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The U.S. Leads the World in Productivity - Do You Lead Your Office?
Well, everyone is apparently taking my productivity advice…
The AP released a story that says US Workers are Most Productive.
It’s true that we spend more hours at our jobs than most “rich” countries (the “poor” countries apparently work incessantly and still don’t produce much value), but we also produce more “wealth per hour” than any other country in the world other than Norway.
Norway, you’re next.
Anyway, what all this productivity means is that U.S. companies are doing everything they can to both track and improve the value of the work that they are doing. And, if you want to get ahead, you should be doing the same with your job.
MY FANTASY WORLD: TRACKING INDIVIDUAL PRODUCTIVITY & VALUE
Most people tell me that it’s too difficult / impossible to track their own productivity and value of work. But, just for a moment, let’s pretend we’re at a good movie and suspend disbelief and see what it would mean if we could.
So now, in this little fantasy world of mine, we know what the value of the majority of your work is. Now, you can go to your boss and say, “Look at how I created $1.5 million in value this year. You need to pay me more.” And, when your boss refuses, you can put that that number on your resume.
When you’re negotiating the salary for your new job, instead of talking about, “I make $55K at my last job, so I’m looking for $65K this time…”, you can say, “I created $1.5 million in demonstrable value for my old company. I think being paid 10% of the value I created (or $150K) is more than fair.”
Are you beginning to see how this could be powerful?
TRACKING YOUR OWN PRODUCTIVITY & VALUE
I’m going to be up front with you here: tracking your own productivity is going to be work. Hard work. But, as you saw above, it may very well be worth it.
So, if you’re ready to know / improve your productivity AND your value, here are the basic steps:
- Know What You’re Doing - There are a number of time management systems that start with tracking what you actually do with your time. This is what you’re going to have to do.
Get a schedule book that tracks down to 15 minute segments (or make your own) and put it on your desk next to where you’re working. Now write down everything that you’re doing during the day as it happens.
- Learn To Focus - One of the keys to knowing what you’re really doing is to begin to focus on just one task. Since your schedule is split out into 15 minute segments, do whatever work you’re doing for at least 15 minutes.
No e-mail, no phone, no motor car. Not a single luxury. Just do one thing for at least 15 minutes. I think you’ll be amazed at how much more you get done just doing this. The time-wasters that we participate in seem harmless but make a big difference!
- Analyze Your Time - See where you’re spending the most of your time. How do those areas relate to your job? Are they / should they be your top priorities? Would they be your boss’ top priorities for your job?
You’ll probably be surprised at some of the items that are taking up a large chunk of your time. How many times a day are you checking e-mail? How much time did you waste looking for something on the Internet, only to be distracted by something else?
- Attach A Value - Starting with whatever you spend the most time on, attach a value to each item. For instance, if your top item was, “Data Entry from Forms”, you need to ask yourself what is the most that is possibly worth.
Obviously, the data will be different for every job. If you’re entering credit card information from paper slips, the value is rather high. If you’re typing up minutes from your hourly meeting, the value is probably low.
To assign a value, figure how much money the company is either making or saving by you doing a specific task. Sometimes the direct correlation is difficult to see, but keep looking. You’re either a contributor to something that makes / saves your company money or there’s no reason for them to hire you.
For instance, e-mailing is generally necessary but has a value of next to 0.
- Focus On High Value Items - Now that you have taken some time to figure out what your tasks are worth to your company, you can now start to rearrange the tasks that you’re doing to focus on the highest value items.
These should be your first priority when doing your work. It wouldn’t hurt to have a list of the tasks that you regularly do ordered by value. That way, if there is a moment when you choose which thing to do, you pick the highest value items.
- Schedule Low Value, Necessary Items - There are always some tasks that only you can do (because it would take 5 times as long for someone else to do them), but are relatively low value items.
You should schedule these items for your low-energy / slow times of the day. You won’t be doing your best work during these times, so do the low-value stuff. The cost of messing these up a little is very low.
- Get Rid of Low Value, Unnecessary Items - When you find items that anyone could do just as quickly as you, but are very low value items, get rid of them.
To do this, go to your boss and say, “Boss, you’re paying me way too much to do these tasks. The company isn’t getting it’s full potential value from me because I’m doing these specific things that could be done just as well by a lower-paid worker.”
If he still wants you to do them, fine. But at least you’re on the radar for watching out for the company, improving your own productivity, and knowing what the work you’re doing is worth.
Following these steps can not only skyrocket your productivity (which at least your boss will surely notice), but will enable you to know what the value of your contribution is to the company.
And that, as I noted before, is an amazingly powerful number.
Enjoy the Search!
Dan
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Daniel R. Sweet
Chief Cook-And-Bottle-Washer / Technical Recruiter
FRACAT.com - Free Resume and Career Toolbox
LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielrsweet
Call me on Jaxtr: http://www.jaxtr.com/fracat
Photo by: Ben Hanbury
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