Feeling

Overworked &
Underproductive
in your Tourism
Role?
 BUT the good news?!
We can do something about it! In fact, there are
lots of handy hints and top tips that have a positive
impact on the results we get (in the “Facilitate”
section of FOCUS FIRST©, you’ll find a very practical
section called “Time & Results Management”. The
emphasis being on the results!).

There are only so many hours in the day! So

There are two ways to increase your results. Either
making the most of your time is critical. The thing
put in more hours (I can hear you groaning!) or
to remember first & foremost though is; we all
work smarter.
have the same amount of time in any given day!

Feeling We cannot
Even though I may not know you personally, I’m
guessing you’d prefer the latter. So would I! In fact,

Overworked & MAKE more time. when I decided about 15 years ago to learn as much
as I could about improving my productivity I read

Underproductive But we can

every book I could find on the subject. I listened to
podcasts (well, they were cassettes at the time!!)

in your MAKE THE MOST

and went to any seminar on the subject that I could.

Tourism Role? of what we do with that time. Why?

Because I realised that “Success Leaves Clues”. That
Tourism businesses are notorious for being very
other successful business people had worked out
busy, reactive places to work. We are constantly
ways to get massive results in the same number of
juggling tasks and fighting fires and dealing with
hours I was working. I just didn’t know how yet!
customers and colleagues and suppliers.

And I also knew that as I was planning to work in

And we often get to the end of the day feeling
the tourism industry for many years to come, I’d
unproductive. In essence, overworked and
have to learn lots of ways to maximise every minute
underproductive (even if it’s our own business and
I had.
we are paying ourselves!).

So I’ve distilled a few of the best ideas into this

eBook for you to apply straight away in your daily
working life.

Being more productive in your tourism role

isn’t rocket science!
But it does require being more deliberate about the
decisions you make when planning your time.
Read on to see lots of practical but simple (and
most importantly highly effective!) ways to increase
your results in the time you have.
 1.
Stop
multi-tasking!
I know we are conditioned to think that multi-
tasking is a good thing. Especially as women, we
are praised for being able to juggle and manage and
think about lots of differing tasks at the one time.
But what happens is the opposite of optimum
productivity!
We end up doing lots of different things in a
mediocre way. We are also easily distracted and
interrupted. Why? Because we aren’t focussing
on a “vitally important” project, so yet another task
with low or medium importance wiggles its way
into our consciousness, adds to our list, and adds to
our woes!
The answer?
2.
Chunk off time
for focussed
work
Even those of us who write “to do” lists, are often
guilty of having a lengthy list of all sorts of varying
tasks. Tasks of differing levels of important, and
which will take from a couple of minutes to several
days worth of our time.
The problem with this? We tend to tick off the
smaller, less important, less time-consuming jobs
using the excuse of “getting them out of the way”.
It’s also hugely satisfying to tick things off a list!
BUT what can happen here is that the vitally
important jobs, the jobs that will add to our bottom
line and really get the results, often get put off until
tomorrow or “when I have time”. The thing is, you
will NEVER have time. Unless you make the time!
So take the most important things from your list.
Work out how long each will take you. And put the
time aside to focus exclusively on that task.
(Hint; for larger projects, split the time over several
chunks)
3. 4.
Track and limit Take regular
how much time breaks
to spend on tasks It may sound counterintuitive to be taking
regular breaks when you should be working! But
Research shows only around 17% of people are
taking pre scheduled breaks can significantly
able to accurately estimate the passage of time,
improve concentration. Research has shown that
meaning that we often take far more time on tasks
taking short breaks during long tasks (especially
that we plan to! Especially tasks involving social
monotonous tasks) can help you to maintain a
media or creative projects. So once you’ve decided
higher level of focus and therefore performance.
how long you are going to spend, either set a timer
or pinpoint an end time.
On the other hand, working at a task for long
periods of time without a break can lead to a steady
This will also ensure that you don’t take more time
decline in performance.
that the task truly requires. The well know saying
that “work expands so as to fill the time available for
its completion” is 100% true! So set an end time and
stick to it!
5.
Set your own deadlines
While we usually think of deadlines causing stress, a
certain amount of self-imposed stress can actually
Say no to
be helpful in terms of giving us focus and helping us
meetings
meet our goals.
For open-ended tasks or large creative projects,
give yourself a deadline, and then chunk off the
(where possible!)
time so you can stick to it. You may be surprised
Meetings are one of the biggest consumers of time,
to discover just how much more focused and
yet we seem to continue to book them, attend
productive you can be when you’re watching the
them and complain about them! The average
clock!
office worker spends over 31 hours each month in
unproductive meetings. In the tourism industry,
I dread to think how much time we spend in
meetings!
Known in some tourism businesses as “morning
prayers”, teams meet daily for 10 minutes for a
standing meeting. No-one brings coffee, or has a
chat, or sits down. And the results are increased
use of short amounts of time, increased focus and
decreased non relevant discussion.
 6. 8. 9.
Take advantage You control your Minimise
of your commute email! “got a minute”
I am a massive fan of driving (and it’s just as well,
In the tourism industry, we seem to have educated
interruptions
our colleagues and customers to expect a response
because I do an awful lot of it!) because I see it How often does a colleague pop their head into
from us (by email, phone or even on Facebook) at
as “bonus time”. I use it to listen to pod casts by your office and ask you if you “got a minute”? And
any time of the day or day of the week. We also
my favourite “success stories” like Tony Robbins, how often do you feel obliged to say yes?!
allow the notifications on our phones and emails
Stephen Covey or Jim Rohn.
to interrupt us ALL DAY LONG! But think about it.
A quick chat may seem harmless, but even
How can you possibly focus on the really important
Or I just randomly look up interesting relevant brief business-related interruptions can hugely
tasks if you are being constantly interrupted by
topics on YouTube and listen to them through my
car speakers. By the time I get to me destination
(which can be up to 7 hours later!!) I feel I’ve made
emails or calls that can often wait for a response, or
are even pure SPAM?!
affect your productivity for the day. Even if the
interruption is literally for a minute, research has 10.
shown that it can take up to 20 minutes to refocus

Plan ahead
great use of my time and more importantly not on the task that you were interrupted from!
So turn off your notifications and instead set aside
allowed myself to be dragged down my negative
time for responding to emails. Never let them
news stories and whingey chat shows! Minimising interruptions may mean keeping your
dictate how your day progresses. You control your
door closed or working from home for time- One of the worst things you can do in terms of
emails, and not the other way around! (Depending
sensitive projects. But mainly it is about educating negatively impacting your productivity, is to
on your role, the frequency and length of time you
your colleagues on your non availably for “got a jump into the workday with no clear idea about
spend on emails will vary, but at least have a plan
minute” interruptions. what needs to get done. For every minute you
of attack at the start of each day, and then do your
spend in planning, you will get back 4 minutes (or
best to stick to it!)
significantly more!) in enhanced productivity.

7. So before you leave your desk each day, take 10

minutes to clear your desk and put together a list

Settle for of the next day’s high impact tasks. Block off the

“Good Enough”
chunks of focussed time, decide when and how
often to check your emails and also plan your
breaks.
I’m a seasoned perfectionist and this used to
hinder my productivity! But once I gave up on the And most importantly you’ll be able to leave your
illusion of perfection (I mean, what does “perfect” desk for the evening with a clear head, knowing
even mean anyway?) and started aiming for “Good that you don’t have to think about your list until you
Enough”, then I saw a massive improvement in my get back to your desk again the next day!
outputs.
(Well, that’s the theory anyway!!)
So rather than wasting time chasing after your own
version of perfection, why not get through each
task to the best of your ability and move on? you
can always come back and adjust or improve it
later.