Leave At 5 Without Guilt

How to Leave At 5 Tonight by Kevin Kruse at Monster.com

Would you like to leave the office at 5:00 p.m. today to make it home for dinner? Would you like to do it without feeling guilty?

Early in my career I was constantly overworked and overwhelmed. As the founder and president of a fast growing startup, I worked long days, slept too little, and literally jogged down the office corridors rushing from meeting to meeting. When I was at home, my mind was still at work. Going through the motions of date night, stacking blocks with my daughter, but thinking the whole time about the million dollar pitch I still had to work on.

My life changed when I read High Output Management, by then Intel CEO, Andy Grove. In the book, he describes how he always arrives to work by eight in the morning, but never leaves later than six, and he never brought work home with him. The CEO of a major tech company clocks out at 6:00 p.m. every day? How is that possible?
Later I would read about other highly successful people:

• Facebook COO, Sheryl Sandberg, leaves work at 5:30 p.m. every day so she can have dinner with her kids at 6:00 p.m.
• Doug Conant, as CEO of Campbell Soup Company, made the time to hand-write twenty thank you notes each day.
• President George W. Bush held an annual reading contest with Karl Rove; although he lost the bet, President Bush read 95 books in one year.

The leader of the Free World has time to read 95 books in one year?

You just know the President of the United States of America has a million things to do. At the end of each day, there are more foreign leaders to call and influence, more CIA briefings to read, more campaign contributors to suck-up to, more veterans to visit, more voters to rally, more, more, more—and by the nature of the job, he had a limited number of days to make an impact! And yet President Bush “found” time to read 95 books in one year.

In his book, Grove described a fundamental time management truth:

My day ends when I’m tired and ready to go home, not when I’m done. I am never done…There is always more to be done, more that should be done, always more than can be done.

That simple realization—there will always be more to do—hit me like a ton of bricks.The ultimate secret:

There will always be more to do; I will never be done.

Highly successful people don’t just burn hour after hour trying to cross more items off their to-do list. Instead, they think through their priorities, schedule time for each, and then enough is enough.

Bush probably valued reading two books a week because it was a way to relieve stress, get smarter, and he knew that recharging was, in itself, a valuable task. Sandberg is committed to Facebook’s success, but also values her family and thus schedules time (invests her time) with them. Conant once told me that writing thank you notes was his ritual for daily gratitude—it enabled him to see all that was going well, after a day of putting out fires.

Yes, your work is important; your career is important. And there will always be more to do in these areas.

What else is important to you? Exercise? Family? Sleep?

Looking back, I view my always on the go lifestyle as a form of laziness. I wore “crazy busy” like a badge of honor (“Look what an important entrepreneur I am! Busy, busy, busy!”)

But once I contained the number of hours I spent on work each week—and it was still a lot of hours—I had more energy, more focus, and ironically, achieved better results.
Now is the time to send a txt message to your spouse; say you’ll be home for dinner.

The First 15 Minutes

14 Things Productive People Do In the First 15 Minutes of the Work Day by Yong Kang Chan at Life Hack:

The first 15 minutes of your workday sets the tone for the rest of your workday.
If you are already too busy at the start of your workday, imagine what the rest of your day might be like when challenges arise and other people start seeking you for help.
Here are 14 things productive people do in the first 15 minutes of their workday to help them stay productive for the rest of their day.

1. They stroll into the office at least 15 minutes before official working hours

Productive people know the importance of reporting to work early. Instead of rushing to work anxiously and hoping to be on time, they leave their house early and stroll into the office calmly. They set a relaxing tone right from the start of their workday and give themselves an extra 15 minutes to be ready for work.

2. They set up their workspace like professionals

Similar to a surgeon performing an operation and a chef working in the kitchen, productive people make sure their tools are in proper position before they begin their work. Every minute counts in the operating theater and kitchen, so too in your workspace! Productive people keep their workspace organized so that they don’t have to spend unnecessary time looking for what they need.

3. They review what they have done previously

It’s good to review what you have done previously, especially if you’ve just returned from the weekend or holidays. Productive people warms themselves up for work by reminding themselves where they left off previously. Instead of jumping straight into a task, they review past achievement to give themselves some direction on what to do next and a sense of accomplishment.

4. They review their to-do list and deadlines

Productive people have a to-do list. They review their to-do list at the start of their workday so that they can strategize and plan ahead. They remind themselves of important deadlines and meetings so that they can prioritize and schedule their work accordingly.

5. They identify no more than 3 important tasks for the day

Productive people know they will be overwhelmed if they plan too much for themselves. To stay focused at work and prevent themselves from multitasking they identify no more than 3 important tasks for the day. Leo Babauta, founder of the productivity blog Zen Habits, also sets himself 3 most important tasks (MITs) each morning to move himself forward.

The Perfect Day

Some good ideas on prioritizing and scheduling in How to Have the Perfect Day by Bruce Harpham at Life Hack

How can we make our work days more effective? The specific details will like vary depending on your industry and responsibilities, but there are still universal hacks we can all apply.

The infographic below suggests a number of excellent ways to perfect your work day. Let’s explore a few of the important ideas. Sleep sets the foundation, so make sure that you get 7-9 hours per night. When you cut sleep time, everything in life and work becomes more difficult.

Next, exercise before work because daily exercise improves your performance at work. Take small breaks throughout the day – no matter what work you do, breaks are important (for more tips like this, read: 21 Counter-Intuitive Break Ideas to Boost Your Productivity at Work).

Early in the day, choose one difficult task to get done – completing the hardest work done early makes the rest of the day will be easier to handle. And to finish the day on a strong note, record daily wins.

After all, the perfect work day has at least one win – an accomplishment that you are proud of. Take a few minutes to write down your wins in a journal at the end of the day (or in Evernote).

What if you want to improve your work day even more? Simply add two more habits to your routine: generate ideas and adopt a robust problem solving strategy. Developing new ideas at work makes you stand out from others who simply go through the motions, so take the time to generate new ideas on a regular basis.

Next, solve problems effectively by applying a problem solving strategy to all those surprise requests you keep receiving from your boss and other people.
It is easy to be overwhelmed by the all the suggestions. Do yourself a favor and start small – pick just one idea and put that into action.