Time. : 7 Steps to Promotion, Part 5

Time is an extremely valuable resource, meaning the way we spend it is a great determinant of our priorities. If we want to be the best candidate for a promotion, we have to make it clear to our management team that our work is in fact a priority in our life. Organizations are investments that take time and the only way to invest time is through people.

If you can’t learn to make your work a priority (or at least fake it) then you are likely going to be left out to dry when the management team is looking for a new supervisor, manager, key holder, etc. These positions take extra amounts of time because they are the people that invest time in not only the organization, but also other people within the organization in hopes to see them grow. The foundation of every organization is people, and when you invest in others, they invest in you. You are not only helping the organization grow when you invest time into it, you are also building a relationship that will want to help you grow.

Looking back at responsibility and reliability, you must show you can be responsible for extra hours when they are asked of you before it is your job to be responsible for them. For example, if you are an assistant store manager and you are called in to work at 3am, it might be worded as, “can you come in?” but it is more often being communicated as, “you need to come in.” Whoever is going to be making that call is likely a manager of yours who needs to know you can be reliable in that moment in terms of time. They aren’t going to promote you in hopes that you will take the 3am call seriously or work the 12-hour Saturday shift willingly. They are going to pick someone they know they can count on for these types of things, so show them.

In “Reliability.” I talked about how when you are reliable, more things will be asked of you, and you should see them as an opportunity. This might also involve being asked to come in early or stay late. These requests are great times to show that you are not only reliable and responsible with tasks, but you are also reliable and responsible when it comes to your time commitment to the organization. Staying an extra 30 minutes or showing up an hour early will strongly communicate your commitment to time for the organization. Turning down these opportunities will communicate your lack of commitment likewise. I am not saying you need to throw away your personal life and be active only in your work life, but I am saying that if you want to make it to that next position, it is going to take some sacrifice. The quote, “Nothing great ever comes without sacrifice” is true, especially when it comes to the workplace.

Investing more time in your work doesn’t mean you don’t have a personal life, but it does mean learning better time management so you can make the most of what personal life you do have. Time management is extremely important as you move up the organizational ladder, not only so you can accomplish more, but also so you can do more of what you love. The best time management skill I have learned this year is that planning will save you hours. Literally. A quick rundown of my weekly schedule is each day I have either work or school from 7/8AM-3:30PM, and at 4:30PM I go to Starbucks to work on homework, look at and research jobs that seem interesting to me in starting my career, and now I write this blog also. I stay at Starbucks until around 8/9PM and then head back to my room where I watch TV and fall asleep. If I am lucky enough to get my homework done by 7PM then sometimes I play Xbox with friends; more so to catch up with them than to play the games. Other things I be sure to make time for are my devotional, mens group (church group), church, and making time for friends. Here is how I learned the importance of planning – before I learned to have my backpack packed and clothes set out for after work, I would get to Starbucks around 5:30 if I didn’t hit traffic. Then I would do homework until they closed at 9PM, and often still have homework left to do, which I would finish in my room, and I wouldn't get to bed until around 11PM. Getting up at 6AM would get harder and harder every morning and by the end of the week I was not only exhausted, but also emotionally drained. No time for friends, no time for TV. Just work/school, homework, and sleep. In learning to have things ready to go in advance and knowing what’s next instead of having to decide, I can be productive almost 2 more hours every day, that’s 10 extra hours each work week. Plenty of time to write this blog and still have an hour of free time at the end of the night, and better yet, I’m well rested and energized almost every day.

Learning to manage your time at work can have the same effect. If you take the 10 minutes to plan the day, you can save yourself hours. Making you more productive, responsible, and reliable because you have time to get things done. Even if you stay an extra 30 minutes at work, having the next thing planned will still result in a gain in productive time.

Learn to manage your own time well so you can invest more in your work without cutting too much into your personal life. When you get that promotion, you’ll be dealing with new tasks, not a new schedule as well.