Use a single day-planner (paper or electronic) to keep track of all professional and personal obligations.
Although there are numerous mobile apps that help you separately schedule various aspects of your life, including your work deadlines, your medical appointments, and when to make your next social media post, these options can be overwhelming. It’s important that all deadlines — personal and work — are available in one single planner. Consulting multiple calendars to coordinate work and home life is not effective and leaves you vulnerable as something may slip through the cracks.
Don’t schedule meetings or calls during the first hour of your work day.
Instead, use that time to plan your priorities for the day and complete the following tasks:
- review your to-do list (in your planner);
- read and reply to emails that you’ve received since the previous day; and
- update your to-do list based on emails you’ve received since the previous day.
Block off your work day into timed segments for each task on your to-do list.
Schedule a task for each portion of the day, e.g., 9:00 a.m. to 9:45 a.m. – research for x case; 9:45 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. – organize documents for x case. This will help you stay focused on work, as you won’t have any “dead” time where you’ll be tempted to check your phone for news notifications or personal social media updates.
Carry a notepad to meetings with supervisors.
Even if they only want to speak with you briefly or about non-work matters, bringing a notepad to the meeting will ensure that you can take notes when the discussion inevitably turns to your assignments. Also, research shows that taking notes by hand improves your recollection of the topic, so you’ll be better able to remember your supervisor’s instructions and objectives.
Ask your boss when each assignment is due.
This will give you a sense of your supervisor’s priorities and can also segue into a discussion about your current assignments, which will help you both remember the details of your current caseload. This may be useful if you need to ask your supervisor to delegate work to someone else, or if you need to ask for help with finishing a project. You’ll also avoid the embarrassing situation of your boss asking you to turn in an assignment that you haven’t completed because you didn’t prioritize it as highly as she did.
Don’t schedule meetings or calls for the last 30 minutes of your work day.
Instead, update your planner to reflect the tasks you’ve finished and the ones you need to accomplish tomorrow. Send out scheduling requests for meetings and calls that you want to make the next day.
Treat your personal life like your job.
Block off your personal life into timed increments like you do at work, e.g., 6:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. – exercise; 6:30 p.m. to 6:50 p.m. – eat dinner. Focus on the “assignment” (meaning don’t check your work email!) to ensure that you’re getting the most out of your personal time. Remember to allocate some time to just to chill out, catch up on your DVRed shows or check out your Instagram feed.
Live near your workplace
Nix long commutes that result in less time to work, spend time with family, or engage in self-care. You’ll avoid burn-out by getting home earlier, and it will be easier to run errands after work, or to go in to the office late at night or on weekends, if necessary.