Punching a time clock makes no sense for professionals. Their contribution is not the time they spend on their work but the value they create through their knowledge.

1. Know your priorities

Many things that you do at work are probably not the best use of your time. For instance, many professionals often spend much more time than necessary perfecting relatively low-priority tasks.

Understand what really matters to you, your boss, and your organization, and then be willing to be less than perfect on your lower-priority tasks.

2. Avoid meetings like the plague!

In the same spirit, most professionals would agree that many business meetings are incredibly wasteful — they typically last too long, they usually fail to produce concrete results, and they are sometimes completely unnecessary. Yet, just as a misplaced focus on hours allows perfectionism to persist in the workplace, it also allows employees to keep scheduling redundant, poorly run meetings.

3. Don't forget to recharge

On the other side of the coin, an organization that places too much emphasis on time spent at the office probably neglects the importance of time spent away from the office. In order to be productive at work, professionals need to be able to recharge, physically and mentally.

4. Exercise every day and get enough sleep

On the physical dimension, sleep and exercise are often the first two personal activities to face the chopping block when professionals have to increase their hours spent in the office.

5. Avoid burnout

Long hours at work wear people down mentally. All too often, I see professionals work to 8, 9, or 10 every night and go into the office every day of every weekend, even if there is no real crisis. While these professionals might be increasing their output over the short-term, this type of overwork inevitably leads to burnout.

So you should assertively protect your personal time. That means being firm with your boss about times when you are not available — family dinners or your child's soccer games, perhaps.

6. Don't be afraid to speak up

Obviously, asking for more flexibility at work is easier said than done. But while I certainly can't guarantee that every request will be successful, I can state with confidence that there is little harm in asking politely.

Believe it or not, most bosses understand your desire to spend some time with your children or enjoy a romantic dinner with your spouse. Your boss can't address your needs unless he or she knows what they are!

對于職場人來講，掐表計時是毫無意義的。他們的貢獻不在于花在工作上的時間，而在他們的常識所創造的的價值。

1. 知道什么對自己非常重要

你做的工作中大多數都不是最能有效借助時間的。譬如說，不少員工都把時間花在健全那些并不那樣重要的任務上。

知道什么是對你個人，老板，和所在的組織來講非常重要的事情，然后想方法花更少時間在那些不是那樣要緊的事情上。

2. 像躲避瘟疫一樣避開會議！

同理，大部分職場人感覺不少會議都是在費時——它們總是持續時間非常長，最后卻沒能得到什么實質的結果，大部分狀況下這類會議根本沒召開的必要。不適合地關注花了多少時間，會導致完美主義者堅持要在工作中達到肯定的工時數，也會導致重復的計劃和非必須的會議安排。

3. 不要忘了給自己充電

從其次講，假如過多的強調職員花在辦公室的時間，就會忽略了工作以外時間的重要程度。事實上，想要工作高效，職場人士需要常常地給自己充電，這包含精神上和身體上。

4. 堅持天天訓練和保證充足的睡眠

在身體層面上來講，只有充足的睡眠和常常的體育訓練才可以保證職場人可以長期工作。

5. 不要讓自己身心俱疲

長期的超額工作會叫人精神崩潰。我常常看到有的人，天天工作8到10個小時，甚至周末還常常到辦公室加班，仿佛如此做并沒什么風險。盡管超負荷地工作會這類人在短期內提升工作成就，但長此以往，他們最后會讓自己身心俱疲。

所以，你應該掌握保護我們的私人時間。這意味著當你有事的時候——參加家庭聚會或者孩子的足球比賽，你應該立場堅定地對老板說不。

6. 不要畏懼，大聲說源于己的想法

非常顯然，“需要更靈活的工作時間”是一件說起來容易做起來難的事。雖然我不可以保證每一個請求都會成功，但我可以一定的是，禮貌地需要是不會有多大壞處的。

不管你相信與否，事實上大部分老板都能理解你想多跟孩子在一塊，或者想跟配偶吃頓燭光晚餐的想法。假如你不說，老板又如何會了解你的想法呢！

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