How to Use Down Time at the Office to Boost Your Career
Get organized for the week., Catch up on emails., Polish up presentations or reports., Evaluate your work processes.
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Get organized for the week.
Use downtime to prepare for upcoming meetings and deadlines at work.
Look over your commitments for the week and see if there are any emails, briefs, or reports you can write ahead of time to prepare for them.
If you have meetings coming up, prepare good questions to ask the presenter so you can impress everyone in the room.You may also have a list of small tasks that you have avoided doing because you have been busy in the past.
Take advantage of downtime to address these items, such as color coding your monthly schedule or organizing your emails by date. -
Step 2: Catch up on emails.
If you tend to get a lot of emails on a daily basis, you may have a few important one cluttering up your inbox.
Look over your emails and respond to any that are overdue.
Get rid of emails if they are no longer important and flag any emails that you will need to refer to in the future.
Keeping your emails organized can help you stay on top of your correspondences.You may also create email templates that you can use in the future to make emailing quicker and easier.
For example, you may create an email template that you can use to tell a client that their product is ready.
Save the template and use it in the future, adjusting a few lines so the email is still personal and custom to each client. , If you have a presentation coming up, use downtime to prepare for it so you can wow everyone in the room.
Polish up the presentation and read through your presentation notes.
Add in extras to the presentation so it is at its best.You can do the same for any reports or briefings you have coming up.
Read over the report and check for any grammatical errors.
Proof a briefing, making sure you have included all the necessary information in there. , On your downtime, you should also think about your work processes and how you can improve them.
Ask yourself, “Am I as efficient at work as I could be? Are there things I could be doing better?” Evaluate how you work on a day to day basis and think about ways where you can improve your processes so you are organized and on top of your work.For example, you may notice that you tend to forget to respond to emails during the day.
You may then dedicate an hour of your morning, or a period of your downtime, to responding to emails in one chunk so you do not miss any important correspondences. -
Step 3: Polish up presentations or reports.
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Step 4: Evaluate your work processes.
Detailed Guide
Use downtime to prepare for upcoming meetings and deadlines at work.
Look over your commitments for the week and see if there are any emails, briefs, or reports you can write ahead of time to prepare for them.
If you have meetings coming up, prepare good questions to ask the presenter so you can impress everyone in the room.You may also have a list of small tasks that you have avoided doing because you have been busy in the past.
Take advantage of downtime to address these items, such as color coding your monthly schedule or organizing your emails by date.
If you tend to get a lot of emails on a daily basis, you may have a few important one cluttering up your inbox.
Look over your emails and respond to any that are overdue.
Get rid of emails if they are no longer important and flag any emails that you will need to refer to in the future.
Keeping your emails organized can help you stay on top of your correspondences.You may also create email templates that you can use in the future to make emailing quicker and easier.
For example, you may create an email template that you can use to tell a client that their product is ready.
Save the template and use it in the future, adjusting a few lines so the email is still personal and custom to each client. , If you have a presentation coming up, use downtime to prepare for it so you can wow everyone in the room.
Polish up the presentation and read through your presentation notes.
Add in extras to the presentation so it is at its best.You can do the same for any reports or briefings you have coming up.
Read over the report and check for any grammatical errors.
Proof a briefing, making sure you have included all the necessary information in there. , On your downtime, you should also think about your work processes and how you can improve them.
Ask yourself, “Am I as efficient at work as I could be? Are there things I could be doing better?” Evaluate how you work on a day to day basis and think about ways where you can improve your processes so you are organized and on top of your work.For example, you may notice that you tend to forget to respond to emails during the day.
You may then dedicate an hour of your morning, or a period of your downtime, to responding to emails in one chunk so you do not miss any important correspondences.
About the Author
Sarah Ellis
Professional writer focused on creating easy-to-follow crafts tutorials.
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