People are busy. Research shows that half of all U.S. full-time workers exceed a 40-hour workweek and one in five workers exceeds 60 hours. Emerging professionals are likely to consider these excessive hours on the job as time also spent developing their careers. Consider how many people wear the 12-hour workday as a badge of honor.
However, simply putting out fires in the office all day can throw a wet blanket on your career and your job search. Carving out time to develop new skills or attend a networking event can be tough to rationalize, especially when your conscience, your body, and, often audibly, your family members are saying it's all work-related.
Yes, you have to put in the time to advance your career.
"Successful people do what unsuccessful people are not willing to do," said Jeff Olson, author of "The Slight Edge."
But Sonia Simone of Copyblogger subscribes to better advice: "Successful people make a game out of what unsuccessful people are not willing to do."
By thinking of your job as work and your career as a game, you can stop biding your time and start achieving meaningful wins in your career.
First, you have to understand the game. Chris Brogan, author of "Make Your Own Game," suggests finding the game in everything by providing these five points (higher education career examples added in parenthesis):
Here are some tips to playing your game:
Know Your Position
Identify the role you play in the story of your institution, however small it may be. Draw up a play that will score points for your department, win games for your institution, and champion the mission of higher education.
"Your job is part of the story," Brogan wrote. "It's up to you to think about both the larger story as well as your role in it."
Control the Clock
It's easy to get distracted from your game, especially with interruptions from emails alerts and office visitors that appear urgent just because they show up.
"It's perfectly possible to live a human life on what I would call 'autopilot,' where we just kind of follow what gets put in front of us," said Eric Zimmer, an e-commerce consultant and podcast host who was a guest on the podcast "How to Be Awesome at Your Job."
You still have a job to do. You can't ignore emails and bar the door from students. But you can take control of your game, set rules for yourself, and avoid going on autopilot.
Set a timer on your phone for 30- or 50-minute intervals and do nothing else but a designated workday task. When the ringer sounds, spend the next 5-10 minutes checking email, social media, reading an industry article, or talking to an influential colleague. Repeat the game and see how many consecutive intervals you can get into your workday.
Overcome a Deficit
There are a lot of players on college campuses who are losing games. The opposition is not always competing institutions; it could be lack of efficiencies, knowledge, resources, or influence.
Respond by learning new skills at a conference or workshop. Recognize patterns to learn from other players' mistakes. Scout the competition to inspire ideas.
Don't sit back in auto-pilot and lament your circumstances. Pick out small wins you can measure, whether they are transactions in your job (donor responses, students served) or progress in your career (job application responses, interactions with your social support network).
Celebrate the Wins
Recognizing wins builds confidence and identifies lessons learned. In one of your "Control the Clock" exercises mentioned above, set aside a few minutes at the end of each workday to write down your wins.
According to a Harvard Business School study, setting aside 15 minutes to write at the end of the workday is enough to make you better at your job. Experiments have shown that employees who journal have 22.8 percent higher performance even though they are working 15 fewer minutes than a control group.
"They feel more confident that they can achieve things," HBS professor Francesca Gino told Business Insider. "As a result, they put more effort into what they're doing and what they learn."
Don't just reflect in thought. Psychology research shows writing down what you've encountered helps you codify what's helpful. Think of it as analyzing the game film to improve your playbook.
You'll find that career wins are much rewarding than compiling hours of busy work.
