Kelly Sortino had a tough time recalling what she"d accomplished at the end of each busy workday. Her job as head of the upper school for the Crystal Springs Uplands School in Hillsborough, Calif, often
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working 12-hour days, including weekends and evenings. She enjoyed the
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but worried that she wasn"t accomplishing everything she needed to. "I felt as if I wasn"t really having the time to do more of the strategic and
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work to make those larger changes at the school." says Ms. Sortino.
She decided to
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a workshop at Stanford University on how to simplify work processes and reduce waste. She learned,
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, to block out her time more efficiently and minimize distractions. She also
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herself to systematically completing her daily task list and to completely clearing her email inbox and workspace on a regular
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. The changes
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a marked improvement in her time management. Ms. Sortino
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works on weekends, but only as needed.
It"s a tough time to be productive. Globalization, increased competition and the jarring immediacy of technology have made it difficult for modern employees to
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on top of their growing workloads while maintaining a good work-life balance.
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, experts say small adjustments to how employees 12 work can have a big impact on their workplace efficiency.
Learn to prioritize and to commit yourself to working in
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blocks of time throughout the day. A 2009 Stanford University study found that multitasking is less productive than single-tasking and that many self-proclaimed multitaskers have difficulty
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out irrelevant information, further
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their performance.
It"s especially important to
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what motivates the decisions your boss makes. Most subordinates have an employee-centric view
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their managers, which tends not to be accurate. A better understanding of your boss can help you to "sell" the advice about
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changes that can benefit the department and company.
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with your boss to prioritize important work and eliminate unproductive tasks. Employees may think changing job functions is risky,
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being proactive can impress your boss.