5 Ways To Kick Ass Every Day You Work

Working in consulting is harder than working in-house for many. For a start, you need to do billable hours, and therefore, sending text messages to your friends all day long, or engaging in hours of looking at your friends’ social media accounts, can mean that you are not performing in your job, and in most cases, are unethical to the client as you are not 100% focused on their account.

No business expects someone to work a full 8 hours of billable time per day, but it is important for the business to set expectations upfront with what that “billable” time should look like.

The upside however is that once you have done your billable hours, you can spend the rest of the time doing whatever you want. That means you can:

Learn

Spend the time learning the latest in your perspective career lane, so that you bring more to the table for your clients and the business you work in.

Development

Everyone wants to be better. Work out what you can do to develop yourself, and ensure that you are constantly using experiences, and learnings from others and yourself, to become a better person, employee and community participant.

Be happy :-)

Every time you accomplish something, and in this case, you conquered your billable hours’ quota, you should pat yourself on your back. Basically, in consulting, you have a lot to be happy about, because each day, once you have ticked that box, you deserve to feel happy about that achievement.

Work, life balance

The extraordinary thing about consulting is that while there is a lot of hard yards, and a requirement to stay focused, when you have accomplished your quota, most employers are encouraging of work, life balance. That means working from home, being there when the kids get home from school, going to the gym early, turning up later to work on Monday’s – just because you can. Putting your effort in to ensure your “whole” life is balanced is only going to make for a high performing individual, in the office and at home. It’s important and everyone deserves to take the time to work out what this looks like for them.

Stress-less

Understanding stress, is the first step to managing it. If deadlines make you stressed, then work out how you can finish your work before a deadline and have time to put a fresh set of eye’s over it. If client approval makes you stressed, take time out to understand where the client is coming from, and ask more questions as to what their expectations are, so that you can make them happier by meeting them. If your boss stresses you, then work out what it is about your boss that stresses you. Are you intimidated by them? If so, work out how you can see them differently, and get behind what makes them tick, so that by understanding them better, it is in fact ensuring that you understand ‘you better’. If colleagues who don’t pull their weight stress you out, then talk to them. Let them understand where you are coming from and why it is important that you work as a team, and deliver on-time to the client or company. If your own capabilities make you stressed, don’t give up!!! Instead, roll up your sleeve and learn the things you need to know to do a better job.

Life and work is a two-way street, and if everyone understands where the other is coming from, it makes for a happier work environment and a more positive life in general.