What’s the real benefit of getting to work early? It’s not just to please your boss or improve your reputation, the biggest benefit for getting to work early is to finish your work so you can spend more time doing what you love and have better work-life balance.
In this article we discuss getting to work earlier to improve your work-life balance. It seems very obvious but there are so many things that stop us and from actually getting to work early enough to get everything done that we need to get done for the day. Let’s look at some hacks to avoid that.
Get to work earlier by choosing early flexi-hours – where possible!
Working in Atlanta, I used to have to deal with a lot of traffic and so our company allowed flexible hours to arrive and leave work. Taking the earliest time would mean that you would leave earlier if you can make the sacrifice to start earlier. Now that we are still in the pandemic and many people are working in remotely, you may still have the option for flexi hours virtually, so if you get this choice, choose the earliest times still!
Spend less time getting ready in the mornings
I often spend a lot of time getting ready in the mornings. Between the hair and the makeup and deciding on the clothes…urghhh! It took a lot of time. I started preparing my clothes from the night before and eventually chopped my hair off – then I only had to contend with the makeup – which was quicker! I’m not saying you should cut your hair off to get to work earlier like me, but do an audit of yourself and see what you are spending to most time on in the mornings on and try to reduce it.
Always park facing out to get to work earlier
Try to park your car facing out when you get in at nights, this way it is easier to get in your car and go in the mornings -without spending time turning around!
Make breakfast smarter
American breakfast is usually very quick – a few scrambled eggs and toast, pancakes, waffles, hash browns – all very quick! But in some other cultures, it is not that way. Sometimes we want something interesting to start our day with as well. So how can you make breakfast but not have it take up too much time? How about prepping breakfast the night before? or finding ways to make it without standing over the stove? For example using your instapot or oven? It just look for ways to make breaker smarter – and quicker!
Get your kids prepared from the night before
For those of you with kids, getting them ready in the morning can take up time. Get ahead of the curve by picking out their clothes from the night before and packing their bags ahead of time (especially for younger kids).
Start working as soon as you get to work
Not to be anti-social but as soon as you get to work you need to start working. This isn’t such as problem anymore as we are mostly all still working remotely, but before people would congregate in the lunch room in the mornings or stand around the cooler and chit chat before starting their day. If you make the sacrifice to get to work early, then you need to leave early and the only way to do that is to finish the day’s work, so make sure you get at it as soon as you get in!
Conclusion
In conclusion, getting to work early will have many advantages including giving you back more time in the afternoons to do what you love, helping you have a better work life balance and help you stay organized and more productive. In our virtual working world this still applies. Start early and stop early and see how much happier your work life becomes!
Check out this article on alternative careers for your IT degree here.
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