Quality Over Quantity — Making Your Working Hours Count

For a long time, old-fashioned hard graft was assumed to be the key to workplace success, with quantity often prioritised over quality. But when it comes to the workplace, more people are realising that it’s not always how much you do, but how well you do it. Here, we offer tips on how to get the most out of your working hours.

You can’t do everything yourself
The truth of the matter is that accepting every single ad hoc request or additional responsibility that is thrown your way will have a negative effect on the overall quality of your work. Knowing when to turn down requests, and being willing to delegate, are both important parts in managing a workload for maximum efficiency. As well as taking a load off your own shoulders and allowing you to focus on increasing the quality of your work, delegation has the added benefit of strengthening the overall team dynamic within your workplace, making the entire process more efficient and streamlined in the long run.

Spreading the workload around your staff allows everyone to take the time they need to focus on delivering high-quality work. This has particular benefits in a marketplace where demand for high-quality, bespoke products and services is growing. Quality has been shown to be a leading concern among consumers, so it’s worth taking the time to perfect that product or service rather than rushing through something subpar or mass-produced in larger quantities.

Take a break
Everyone needs to step back from things once in a while — whether it’s a short break from individual tasks to clear your head, or taking a well-earned summer holiday to recharge your business batteries. The importance of time spent away from the grindstone is now so accepted by leading business people that Richard Branson allows his personal staff an unlimited holiday allowance.

It can be all too easy to allow our workload to stop us from taking the breaks we need, but studies have shown that allowing ourselves a short break or brief distraction every hour can actually improve our productivity. In contrast, there’s evidence to show that long hours and stressful conditions can seriously impair our performance — not to mention our mental health.

Change your environment
If you’re finding an atmosphere of sterile, cloistered offices and a rigid rulebook are sapping all the energy out of your workplace, it might be time to think about making some changes. An increasing number of businesses are embracing innovative new working practices, from ditching their dress codes to inventive employee perks, in order to energise and engage their workforce.

More traditionally-minded businesses may look down on Google’s onsite gym or Facebook’s breakout spaces, but these dissenting voices are sounding more old-fashioned by the day — a happier, more enthusiastic workforce can be far more productive than a stressed and overworked one.

Allowing more options for remote working, or using a coworking space can also be creative ways for people to work in a more laid back environment — from the beachside coworking retreats offered by The Sun Office, to the half work space/half coffee shop offered by The Brew, a coworking space in Shoreditch. If this all sounds a little too laid back, there’s evidence to suggest coworking really could help to improve the quality of your work — according to research by Deskmag, 62% of coworkers claimed it caused their standard of work to improve.

Trying to work until you drop isn’t just bad for you, it’s bad for business too — so don’t be afraid to make some changes to the way you work, and make sure that you have that all-important balance between quality and quantity absolutely right.