No one teaches you this. When you start a new job, you need to learn how to say, “Get it outta here!”
What’s that mean? It means knowing when and how to rid yourself of crap. What is it that you “don’t” need to know or do? What is useless? What is critically important?
Learning a new position is always about growth. You must pick new things up. There can be multiple details. There are processes and systems you have to pick up and master to be successful.
Typically, we go through some form of training. On top of that, you repeat tasks. Through repetition, you pick things up. Get it wrong and redo it, and that imprints in your brain better. Some things you’ll get immediately because it’s in your wheelhouse and those types of items are not difficult. You know and understand them, and perhaps even become elite because it plays to your strengths.
The struggle is often more along the lines of knowing what to get rid of -- what “NOT” to focus on, what to eliminate. Get it outta here.
We aren’t taught how to deal with that. The manager doesn’t tell you when you’re hired, “You really don’t need to worry about this. This is BS.” Instead, typically, everything is proposed as important.
And we all know that’s not the case. Some things are way more important than others. Your business cares about very specific results. Sometimes they care too much about every detail regarding how you got to the results. Those can be discarded (though they may want you to capture all those details, which is a whole other story). How do you do this to improve performance?
I really don’t think there’s a better teacher than experience. One way to figure this out is to talk with others (a coworker or boss) and ask, “You seem to have a way better handle on this than me. What can I eliminate on my plate to better focus on those key results?”
Another way is to journal what you do on a daily or weekly basis, and note what is working and what is not. That may seem like another task with no value. It’s actually the opposite. It’s a simple thing with tons of value.
What you’re looking to eliminate or “stop doing” are the inconsequential things that don’t matter to your professional bottom line. What wastes my time? What doesn’t matter to the goal?
It’s hard sometimes to get around inconsequential or non-productive duties if you work in an environment that pushes you down a detailed path. You may need to navigate gently to get rid of something that’s touted as important. Then your challenge is how to diplomatically get around it -- a challenge in and of itself.
We get new tasks, projects, goals, timelines dumped on us all the time in our jobs. There is little attention given to “what are you taking off my plate if you expect me to add all these additional duties to my daily to-do list?” The answer is “get it outta here.” Figure out the details on what’s going to best improve your productive mindset, and you’ll be a sought after motivational speaker.
No one teaches you this. When you start a new job, you need to learn how to say, “Get it outta here!”
What’s that mean? It means knowing when and how to rid yourself of crap. What is it that you “don’t” need to know or do? What is useless? What is critically important?
Learning a new position is always about growth. You must pick new things up. There can be multiple details. There are processes and systems you have to pick up and master to be successful.
Typically, we go through some form of training. On top of that, you repeat tasks. Through repetition, you pick things up. Get it wrong and redo it, and that imprints in your brain better. Some things you’ll get immediately because it’s in your wheelhouse and those types of items are not difficult. You know and understand them, and perhaps even become elite because it plays to your strengths.
The struggle is often more along the lines of knowing what to get rid of -- what “NOT” to focus on, what to eliminate. Get it outta here.
We aren’t taught how to deal with that. The manager doesn’t tell you when you’re hired, “You really don’t need to worry about this. This is BS.” Instead, typically, everything is proposed as important.
And we all know that’s not the case. Some things are way more important than others. Your business cares about very specific results. Sometimes they care too much about every detail regarding how you got to the results. Those can be discarded (though they may want you to capture all those details, which is a whole other story). How do you do this to improve performance?
I really don’t think there’s a better teacher than experience. One way to figure this out is to talk with others (a coworker or boss) and ask, “You seem to have a way better handle on this than me. What can I eliminate on my plate to better focus on those key results?”
Another way is to journal what you do on a daily or weekly basis, and note what is working and what is not. That may seem like another task with no value. It’s actually the opposite. It’s a simple thing with tons of value.
What you’re looking to eliminate or “stop doing” are the inconsequential things that don’t matter to your professional bottom line. What wastes my time? What doesn’t matter to the goal?
It’s hard sometimes to get around inconsequential or non-productive duties if you work in an environment that pushes you down a detailed path. You may need to navigate gently to get rid of something that’s touted as important. Then your challenge is how to diplomatically get around it -- a challenge in and of itself.
We get new tasks, projects, goals, timelines dumped on us all the time in our jobs. There is little attention given to “what are you taking off my plate if you expect me to add all these additional duties to my daily to-do list?” The answer is “get it outta here.” Figure out the details on what’s going to best improve your productive mindset, and you’ll be a sought after motivational speaker.
