tips for smart work

Dont accept so many changes that you end up doing a much more complicated or expensive job than you bid for. When you realize youre into new territory, stop work and draw up a re bid, showing the entire job as originally envisioned and overlay the scope of the new work. Let the client know it will cost $x more than the original bid to proceed. Its the clients decision how much to pay. How smart you want to be while youre working for them is your decision.

Dont take shortcuts on the quality of your materials. Cheap materials or tools are harder to work with because they arent as sturdy or nice. Trying to save a few bucks, but spending an extra hour or two because those cheap things didnt install properly doesnt make any sense.

You want them to be as efficient as possible. Do your work when you have no distractions surrounding you. Try to do things in one batches rather than one at a time. You want your efficiency to be maximized as much as possible.

This does NOT mean taking the easiest method for the sake of it or being lazy. For example, if you respond to numerous e mails per day and answer the same questions again and again, save your responses. When those questions come up, you can cut and paste your canned response. You might have to make minor edits, but the bulk of it will already be written.

Make sure your team is well ordered. If one person is faster, put him or her on the part of your task that will take longest. If one person is more skilled and accurate, put him or her on the part of the task that is most critical.

Every time you surf the net or needlessly check e mail at work, your day becomes longer. Push yourself hard to do work when its time to do work and enjoy these activities once youre done for the day.

Your day will not always go as planned. Be open to trying new methods and doing new things.

You should ideally be getting eight hours of sleep every night. You can certainly pull continuous 12 hour days at work, but its not sustainable. After a certain point, your body becomes tired and your mind wears down, leading to more frequent lapses in concentration and careless mistakes.

Even at the office, you need to allow time for your mind to regroup and recharge. Push yourself hard for the first 50 minutes of every hour and then reward yourself with a 10 minute break.

The above steps do not imply that you should work yourself to the point of exhaustion. You need to protect your health and the integrity of your job. Working yourself to a frazzle constantly makes you prone to mistakes. When youre so tired that you realize its taking you twice or three times longer to do a job than normal, you need to call it a day. Rest at least a few hours and come back fresher, so that you can be strong at the end of the job. Learn how to power nap.