Happy Sunday! I’ve never heard of Sunday Scaries until recently. I had NO idea so many people felt a certain way about Sundays, so I thought I’d share a few work efficiency tips I’ve begun to implement much more recently. It won’t diminish those feels, but it will sort of make you feel better as you prepare to step back into your work space. I’ve recently started taking on more responsibilities at work and knew that I needed to get it together as far as accomplishing whatever is needed of me while also preserving self-care. I know working a 9-5 can be pretty routine and overwhelming at the same time, so I started experimenting with a few different work hacks. Let me know what you think —

Time batch

I know days can be rough if it’s split up between 4-5 meetings leaving an hour or 30 mins in between to actually DO the work. I’m a huge proponent of scheduling in personal time on your work calendar to complete your work. If your day is full of meetings, know that it’s okay to not get actual work done bc let’s face it, it takes a while for us to start the work and then actually immerse ourselves in it with no interruptions.

Color code your calendar

I started doing this more recently, but I started color coding my Outlook calendar. I have NO idea why it just occurred to me to do this when I’ve been color coding my PERSONAL Google calendar since 2016 (lol!) I’m slowly becoming more Outlook-friendly, so don’t mind me! I color code each calendar appointment based on a certain project or task I’m working on, so I can see how much time is being allocated per week towards that.

Schedule in time for walks/stretches/breaks

My idea of a break is really getting up, walking around the entire floor, greet some peeps, and then get back to work. This has worked for me best during winter since I really do not want to get out in the cold for a walk, but to be honest — Boston winter hasn’t been all that bad this year. I think we’ve had about 3 actual snowy moments (I could be wrong, lol), but the point is, we haven’t had any reoccurring snow back to back!

Put a good playlist on

I love listening to jazz or coffeehouse playlists on Spotify bc it allows me to block out outside noise. I sit in a pretty main hallway, so I’m constantly easily distracted by conversations.

Follow your energy

I work better in the mornings, so I like to knock out big tasks then! By mid-day, I’d focus on something less demanding such as updating spreadsheets, checking invoices, scheduling meetings etc. I think it’s SO important to follow your energy when it comes to work. If you schedule big tasks/projects during your downtime, you won’t accomplish much. It doesn’t make you any less of a worker, it just means being intuitive and doing what aligns with your mental capacity that time.

Emails or meetings? You decide!

If an email thread gets too long, try scheduling a meeting instead and have that conversation in person. Long email threads can get pretty overwhelming. Additionally, question whether a meeting is needed or see if it can get cut in time (ie. an hour can be reduced to an efficient 30 mins!)

Don’t reinvent the wheel

I’ve been taking a Lean Six Sigma course at work to adopt some QI skills in streamlining processes and learned not to spend so much time on reinventing the wheel. Figure out the current process and simply look for ways to improve or adapt to your very own. I also make it a habit to ask my coworkers what systems are in place or what has been working for them, so I can get an idea rather than trying to draft something from scratch.

What are some tips you have?!

P.S: If you like this post, please share on any of your socials! 🙂 It’d mean so much to me! Thank you!!

photos by: Stephanie Rita