You're balancing fieldwork and office tasks. How do you stay productive throughout the day?

As an air quality consultant, I often have to balance fieldwork and office tasks. To stay productive, it is essential to prioritise and plan. It is important to have a to-do-list of what needs to be done to ensure critical tasks are carried out. Time blocking is also essential to ensure productivity throughout the day. I have my trusty diary and coloured highlighters for time blocking!

Balancing the field work and office duties requires relatively simple planning. Field work requires certain environmental conditions in most cases, so the weather drives the when and how. Office duties are completely adjustable, since I have my office packed up in a bag to work anywhere and anytime.

Quando um projeto envolve atividades de campo e escritório é muito importante dedicar um tempo ao planejamento das demandas. Dessa forma, é possível se manter organizado e atento ao prazos. Para ajudar no planejamento podem ser usados calendários e outras ferramentas de gerenciamento do tempo de modo a garantir o acompanhamento da execu??o das demandas.

Time/weather-constrained fieldwork takes the priority. The weather usually offers opportunities for office tasks. Ensure all tasks are prioritised. When a task comes up, ensure what the timeframe is for it. Be honest about your constraints when asked to do things, a lot of people are in the same boat and understand. I keep a list with time deadlines on and work through chronologically.

I think there are a few ways we can manage office work and field work more effectively: timelines, managing energy, not just time; setting boundaries; improving to-do lists; tuning out distractions; concentrating on one task at a time; working in batches; prioritizing healthy habits; taking breaks; improving workstations; and most importantly, prioritizing workload.

To stay productive while balancing fieldwork and office tasks, start by planning your day with a clear schedule. Outline key objectives and prioritize tasks, ensuring time is allocated for both field observations and office work. Use digital tools like calendars or project management software to organize your day efficiently. Stay flexible to accommodate unexpected developments in the field, and take short breaks to maintain focus. Finally, reflect on your progress at the end of the day, which helps you adjust plans for the next day and maintain continuous productivity.

Outro item importante é definir uma ordem de prioridade das tarefas, saber identificar quais s?o as demandas mais urgentes. Posto isto, é essencial identificar o caminho crítico de um projeto, saber quais s?o as demandas prioritárias e tra?ar um plano de a??o com responsáveis, a??es e prazos bem definidos de modo que as tarefas críticas sejam executadas com eficiência e n?o prejudiquem o planejamento do projeto.

One life-saving hack I have been using to prioritise my tasks and stay productive is the Eisenhower matrix. After planning and knowing what tasks are top on my priority list, I get to know what is urgent and important, what is important and not urgent, what needs to be delegated and finally what I need to stop doing to have more time saved. With this tool, there are minimal chances of having bottlenecks.

Where possible, do the most difficult task while you are at your freshest and most alert. It is often easier to meet the hard stuff head on than to push it back and leave it until later in the day.

L' hiérarchisation des taches nous permet une meilleure organisation. Les taches doivent être organisée par ordre d'importance. Passer du plus important au moins important est technique adéquate pour l'atteinte des objectifs fixés.

As an air quality and odour consultant, staying flexible is important. Sometimes workload priorities change which means a shift in focus is required. In terms of fieldwork, as an odour consultant, I am required to visit sites under specific weather conditions which means there is often an element of unpredictability. Having a kit bag to hand which you always take on-site helps you to be flexible.

Embora o planejamento seja um item essencial para qualquer projeto, especialmente, quando envolve atividade de campo, a flexibilidade é fundamental, pois intercorrências podem acontecer e é muito importante saber lidar com as mesmas. Em rela??o ao trabalho de campo, as mudan?as est?o associadas às quest?es climáticas, por exemplo e que muitas vezes s?o difíceis de prever. Diante disso, é importante desenvolver a habilidade de se adaptar as mudan?as e revisar o planejamento sempre que necessário.

The best approach is simply to have your office with you at all times. Laptop plus internet connection anywhere plus a transportable printer/scanner and that's it. Within the field work part, have a contingency plan in place for adverse weather.

La flexibilité est un atout qui nous permet de nous adapter à toute éventualité surtout qu'il n'y a de rien zéro en la matière.

Regular breaks are important when carrying out office-based tasks and when you are onsite. Keeping healthy snacks and water on hand helps maintain energy levels throughout the day. This is particularly important when you are onsite. It is also important to take regular breaks to avoid burnout and boost productivity. I have often worked on projects where it is easy to forget to take a break, but even just five minutes away from the computer can help boost productivity.

Les pauses permettant de récupérer afin d'être le plus actif et le plus efficace possible dans l'exécution des activités. La fatigue et le sommeil ne font pas bon ménage avec le travail.

Technology can be a great help in planning your working day effectively but it can also be a brilliant way to procrastinate. Spending hours in some fancy planning tool, creating beautiful tasks and to do lists or optimising your email inbox is not the same as actually getting on with the work. Sometimes a quick and dirty to do list on a post-it note will suffice.

Il faut toujours faire le bilan de sa journée afin de faire des projections sur les jours à venir. Cette attitude nous d'être dans un chronogramme bien identifier et plannifier.