Make the Most Of Your Workday: Be More Productive, Engaged, and Satisfied As You Conquer the Chaos at Work

Make the Most Of Your Workday: Be More Productive, Engaged, and Satisfied As You Conquer the Chaos at Work

Even if you don't have your dream job, every day is precious and filled with opportunities. Make the Most of Your Workday challenges you to actively manage and make the most of workday possibilities and problems. With drive, determination, and optimism, it offers solutions to workday predicaments. You can take control; you don't have to wait for leaders, people, or circumstances to change. No matter your level, situation, or dilemma, Mary shows you how to regroup, reframe, and bounce back. Make the Most of Your Workday begins with six common scenarios. Can you relate to any of the following challenges? Getting caught up in office dramas. - Watching workloads increase while resources decrease. - Feeling your interest, enthusiasm, and focus fade. - Yearning for effective leadership. - Wanting to avoid working with certain people. - Feeling at the mercy of technology. Make the Most of Your Workday contains powerful strategies and tools from several key areas and combines them into a concise practical guide, from strengthening your mindset and self-awareness to identifying needs and goals, from prioritizing your time and energy to communicating effectively and managing the unexpected. " Make the Most of Your Workday is an optimistic, practical, and proactive guide to help anyone improve the quality of their workday. Camuto provides a roadmap drawing from self-awareness; priority and time management; effective communication; and ideas to reduce workday chaos. The roadmap includes realistic scenarios, tools, examples and ideas for readers to apply to their own unique situations. The author challenges readers to examine their beliefs, mindsets and current situation as the foundation for taking some action to improve their own engagement, productivity and satisfaction. Camuto's viewpoint is that workday quality is a critical partnership between individuals and their organization and that active collaboration remains the key to success for everyone." -- Sharon Armstrong, SHRM-CP, PHR, CMF, author of The Essential Performance Review Handbook and The Essential HR Handbook, Sharon Armstrong and Associates Mary A. Camuto is the founder of MC Consulting, a firm specializing in leadership and organization development, training events, and live webinars. Her clients have included thousands of individuals, teams, and leaders from diverse organizations, levels, and generations. Camuto connects in a lively way with her clients' workday frustrations, experiences, and emotions, often tapping her own firsthand experiences working as part of organizations and teams that are understaffed, undergoing drastic changes, or trying to do more with less. She lives in Alexandria, Virginia. Make the Most of Your Workday Be More Productive, Engaged, and Satisfied As You Conquer the Chaos at Work By Mary A. Camuto Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC Copyright © 2018 Mary Camuto All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-63265-129-7 Contents Introduction: Get Your Hopes Up!, Chapter 1: Today's Workday, Chapter 2: Manage Yourself — It's All About You, Chapter 3: Focus on Priorities — Yours, Mine, and Ours, Chapter 4: Value Time and Energy, Chapter 5: Communicate Effectively, Chapter 6: Confront, Challenge, and Conquer Chaos, Chapter 7: Choosing Change, Notes, Bibliography, Index, About the Author, CHAPTER 1 Today's Workday Job Description: * Tough, very busy job, lots of distractions. * Expect constant change, chaos, and confusion. * Work with short-tempered, stressed, and overwhelmed people. Job Requirements: * Bring high levels of energy, perserverance, strength, and resilience every day. * Be organized, flexible, focused, and capable of multitasking. * Maintain your enthusiasm, interest, patience, and dedication. Today's workdays have plenty of chaos — and not the fun kind. Our different organizations have different varieties of challenge and messiness: From having 24/7 workflow when not really necessary to a lack of basic planning, coordination, and communication. Most people come to work to earn an income with the desire to be productive, engaged, and satisfied, and to go home feeling good about the day. However, that is easier said than done. I want to tell you about the day before Thanksgiving last year. I met three strangers in Charlottesville, Virginia, where I went to visit family. I met three happylooking, engaged, working people. At a small kitchen china housewares specialty shop, it was a cashier's first day, as she explained; she was a retired nurse starting on a new adventure. At a beauty supply chain, a young woman told me this was her first retail job and that she hoped she would be ready for Black Friday; she was upbeat. And at a large grocery store chain, the cashier volunteered this was her first day on the job after staying home as a mom and how happy she was in spite of long lines. Wow. Here were three people happy to have their workday. Thanksgiving cooking, tourists, and holid