beat the competition – madamenoire.com
The corporate world is not your neighborhood’s annual barbecue fest. There’s a reason why it’s often called the “corporate jungle”. It’s tough, and to succeed in it, especially as a corporate sister, you’ve got to be able to roll with the punches. And not even that is enough…
I once worked for a great Director who would consistently outline in my reviews the following: “It’s not enough to solve problems when they present themselves; you’ve got to anticipate them”. Really? I just racked my brain trying to figure out this huge reserves variance, and now you want me to have been able to anticipate it. Am I supposed to have sensory powers to predict the future state of the Company’s financials too?
As much as his comment always rubbed me the wrong way, I have to admit in hindsight that he was right. The best competitive advantage is gained right at the onset, and preparation is KEY to turn each day into a success and beat your competition before it even realizes what’s coming their way or had their second cup of coffee..:, even before 9 am:
- Learn from your day: In order to start strong, one’s got to reflect on their successes
Learning – pjmclure.com
and failures. On a small scale, what this means is being able to examine how your day went and take away those things that worked, and those that…well, did not work quite so well. Are we talking about an hour-long introspective process cutting into all our deadlines and to-do’s? Not quite, we know there’s not enough time for it. Yet getting in the habit of (quicly) mentally re-assessing your day will help you register what worked well (like that inpromptu meeting with the otherwise uber-busy Controller), and what did not work so well (like spending 2 hours preparing or analyzing the wrong sales forecast…arrghh, it happens!). And the more you get in the habit of continually assessing and re-assessing your day, the easier it will become to tailor your work responses and habits towards increased effectiveness, which brings me to my next point…
- Prepare your “to-do” list for the next day the night before: One of the most
To-DO-List – bentbutnotbroken.org
effective ways to successfully confront daily challenges is not just to prepare for them, but also to anticipate them. Carving out at least a half-hour to an hour towards the end of every day, based on your prior (quick) assessment of how your day went, is a great way to get ahead of your competition at work. Besides, it has been proven that making a to-do list the night before allows your brain to methodically churn out the best ways to accomplish your goals and objectives for the next day…And it also gives the Universe an opportunity to put the right people and situations in your way to get these goals accomplished…
- Start the next day big…or small: While there are two schools of thought when it
start-small – coreexcellence.com
comes to how to most effectively start your day, either with smaller tasks you can rapidly check off your list, or with big tasks that will consume more time and energy, you still need to pick your approach. I personally believe that how you start your day is better suited to the type of personality you have. I tend to struggle with procrastination, so the best approach for me is to tackle big tasks first and get them out of the way instead of leaving them for last. For those who are better off gaining confidence first by tackling small tasks and checking them off their to-do list, the second approach may work better. Whether you decide to start big or small, commit to starting well…
How do you beat your work competition by 9am?
The Corporate Sister
