Get Ahead in Your Career This Holiday Season

Get Ahead in Your Career This Holiday Season
Are you the kind of person who uses the year-end holidays
as a time to relax, taking time off from work or postponing
important tasks? Or do you go into overdrive, trying to
squeeze in extra family time and personal commitments along
with end-of-year business demands?

Either way, you may be missing out on a great opportunity
to position yourself as a Rising Star.

You see, regardless how much work they have to get done,
most people get distracted at this time of year.

They allow holiday festivities or shortened deadlines to
get in the way of adding real value to their jobs and
companies. If you can avoid this common problem, you can
really stand out from the crowd.

Here's what you need to do:

1. Master Your Attention - Woody Allen once observed that
half of success seems to be showing up. That may be the
case, but in our opinion it's the less significant half.
More important is showing up with your full attention
focused on the right things.

It's particularly important at this time of year, when your
attention is easily fragmented.

For example, you may schedule extra time with your family,
yet spend much of that time thinking about the work piled
up on your desk. Then when you're at work, you regret not
having more quality time at home. What happens is, you not
only become less productive wherever you are; but you
become less satisfied as well.

It's not enough to simply follow a schedule when it comes
to your activities, you must also focus your attention on
the activity you have scheduled.

Mastering the ability to focus on one thing at a time is
the key factor in increasing your value. When you're not
the master of your attention, you can never be the master
of your time.

2. Focus on Value - You don't need to log long hours to get
ahead. In today's business environment it's not the number
of hours you spend at work but your productivity that
matters most.

If your results aren't good, do you think your boss will
ask, "How many hours did you work last week?" Or will your
boss ask, "How come your results weren't up to par?"

When you focus on value you'll not only earn more and get
promoted faster, you'll get more time off. You'll be able
to leave work earlier and have more time to spend with
friends and family.

Not only that, but the quality of your time off will be
better.

Imagine the sense of accomplishment you'll have, knowing
that your most important work is done. You'll be able to
enjoy everything else more, without the stress of
unfinished tasks hanging over your head.

The way to do this, of course, is to prioritize. In order
to get the important things done, you have to let some of
the little things go. This is the essence of Pareto's
principle - the 80-20 rule. Only 20% of your activities
will account for 80% of the value of your work. Focus on
this 20% and forget about the rest.

3. Set Deadlines - You've probably heard the saying "If you
need something done, give it to a busy person." It would be
better to say, "If you need something done rapidly, give it
to a busy person."

Why?

Because of Parkinson's Law, which states that "work expands
to fill the time available for its completion." In other
words, if you give yourself 8 hours to do a 2 hour project,
it will likely take you 8 hours to get the work done.

And while you would think that giving yourself plenty of
time to accomplish a task would improve the quality of your
work, that's most often not the case.

Instead it tends to reduce your productivity by making you
less efficient. That's because you have no motivation to
work quickly.

Jack Welch, one of the most celebrated CEOs of our time
talks about the "imperative for speed" in business today.
You can't afford to ignore his advice.

To maximize your productivity, set deadlines for your most
important tasks. Just be sure that you allow enough time
for quality work.

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Dr. Robert Karlsberg and Dr. Jane Adler are leading experts
in maximizing career and business performance. Learn how to
EARN MORE and GET PROMOTED FASTER. Visit
http://www.StarIn60.com for your complimentary copy of
their Special Report, THE NEW ROUTE TO THE TOP: How to
Become a Rising Star in Your Career in 60 Days OR Less.