You can save time at work if you watch how much time you spend helping other people. While it’s good to be helpful, sometimes you can fall into a trap where you are helping the same people with the same problem again and again.
It’s called Acting Like a Babysitter at work and it can limit your productive time. These interruptions can add up quickly and keep you from getting your important work done. In this episode, you’ll learn how to spot this trap and how to protect your productive time.
Ken Okel’s Productivity at Work video series is designed to make you more effective on the job. Every week, you’ll learn a new, easy to digest tip that you can use right away.
What Productivity Questions Does This Video Answer?
- How can you get more done at work?
- How can you overcome recurring distractions?
- How can you protect your productive time?
- How can you can set boundaries at work with your coworkers?
Video Transcript
Your to-do list is packed, so why are you acting like a babysitter at work? You may think that you are a productive person but are you acting like a babysitter on the job?
It’s a major problem that a lot of people face and one reason why, by the end of the day, you feel like you didn’t get anything done.
So what does it mean? Let’s first think about what it means to be a babysitter, okay. Let’s go into a home. A babysitter is able to do whatever he or she likes but if the baby needs to go to the bathroom, you gotta drop everything, you’ve got to take him to the bathroom.
If the baby needs to go to the bathroom ten minutes later, you gotta repeat that process. It’s what you have to do if you are babysitter. It’s all about the needs of the child, no matter how many times those same needs come up.
You shouldn’t be acting like a babysitter at work. Here’s an example. Let’s say Bob never can quite figure out the spreadsheet where he has to put in his monthly mileage. He always comes to you to fix it
You’re doing the same thing month after month old. Now on it’s own, this distraction doesn’t take a huge amount of time.
But when you add up all those interruptions, well suddenly, it’s a lot of time. It’s a lot of time you need to be spending.
In these situations, see if you can teach, let’s say Bob, one last time how to do the work. See if he can pick it up.
Otherwise, you may need to say, “Bob, I’m sorry but I’m just not able to help you with this anymore.” Or talk to Bob and say, “So okay, you’re really good at this, which I’m not good at maybe every month we can swap duties.”
Sometimes when someone else suddenly has to take on some of your work, suddenly they become that much better at doing their own stuff.
In the workplace, everyone has different strengths and weaknesses but you don’t want to be having to repeatedly help someone with the same problem. It’s just a waste of your productivity.
Want to learn how to stop acting like a firefighter at work? Watch this video from our productivity at work series:
About Ken Okel
Ken Okel works with leaders and organizations to boost productivity, performance, and profits. At conferences, conventions, and company meetings, he engages audiences with new ways to maximize their time at work. To watch a section of his keynote and workshop presentations, visit the professional speaking video section of his website.
