Seven ways to leave the office earlier
Seven ways to leave the office earlier
Published: 26 October 2006
1. Stop going along with unspoken office “rules”. Instead, commit to stopping work on time. Who decided that you had to work until 7pm? How much is your personal time worth?
2. Start meetings before 4pm. Wherever possible schedule meetings to end by 4:30pm. Ideally, start meetings right after lunch. Block out your diary from 4pm every day so people don’t schedule late meetings with you. And don’t ask others to begin projects at 4:45pm – respect their right to a life outside work too.
3. Be assertive. Don’t be afraid to tell others, “I leave work at 5pm every day because I have a 5:30pm commitment that I must stick to.” No-one else needs to know that your commitment is with yourself or your family. People tend to support others when their goals are made public.
4. Schedule “working” time. Block off certain hours in your diary for answering messages and getting work done and only accept meetings outside these times (and not last thing at night). This way you don’t have interruptions distracting you when you’re trying to leave the office.
5. Make preparations to leave. Gather up your coat and put it in a visible spot so others can see you’re getting ready to go. If you have an office, close your door a few minutes before finishing time so people will think you’re busy or already gone. Whatever they want, it can usually wait until tomorrow.
6. Challenge your assumptions. Long hours don’t need to be “the way it is”. If you feel under pressure to get work finished, make a conscious effort to finish your work within the workday, but not to work longer hours. Don’t focus on “catching up” – you will never catch up. There will always be more things to do than there is time to do them. Be more productive during the day and you’ll get the same amount of work done and be able to leave earlier.
7. Start small. Choose one particular day to start with, perhaps a Thursday, and make this “the” day you organise your work more carefully and leave work on time. Keep working on your productivity skills and gradually add more days, until you’re just working the hours you want and are accomplishing even better results.
