Sometimes employees perform personal errands while at work to help manage their personal responsibilities. It’s useful to learn when this is appropriate to do and how you can balance your work and personal responsibilities. While it may be necessary to do personal errands at work, it’s important to speak with your manager and ensure that your errand don’t interfere with job performance. In this article, we discuss what personal errands are, why employees perform errands while at work and provide tips for how you can better manage your personal and professional responsibilities.
What is a personal errand?
A personal errand is a task you perform to benefit yourself and accomplish a personal goal. Errands are usually short trips or breaks to serve a specific purpose. Examples of personal errands include:
- Delivering a package
- Making a phone call
- Sending an email
- Shopping for food or a supply
- Transporting a person
- Scheduling an appointment
Why do people complete personal errands at work?
Employees may complete personal errands at work to fulfill obligations for their family or to meet a personal deadline for an event outside of work. Some may feel it’s necessary to perform personal errands while at work because they’re unable to accomplish these tasks in their personal time. Achieving a work-life balance is important and requires time management skills and flexibility at work. If an employee and employer cannot meet these requirements, then in order to accomplish some tasks, an employee may have to complete the errand at work.
When is it appropriate to do personal errands at work?
It may be necessary to do personal errands at work sometimes, but it’s important to be mindful of when it’s appropriate to perform these tasks. Using your breaks or lunchtime to complete a personal errand is a good idea because this is your personal time. If you need to do a personal errand at another time during the workday, this may be acceptable if you finish your work assignments on time. It’s also useful to speak with your manager if you need to perform errands while at work. A manager may help determine an appropriate time for you to do this and may make accommodations for you so that your personal errands don’t interfere with accomplishing your work goals.
Tips for managing work and personal responsibilities
Managing work and personal responsibilities can be challenging, but these tips can help you become better at accomplishing all your professional and personal goals:
Find a job with flexibility
Seeking a job that provides a flexible schedule and encourages a good work-life balance can help you manage professional and personal responsibilities. It’s also useful to consider the hours you’re able to work and apply to jobs with this availability or operation hours. For example, if you take your kids to school in the morning, you may benefit from finding a job that allows you to start a shift later in the morning.You can also discuss flexibility with employers. If they have an interest in hiring you, they may make proper accommodations.
Develop time management skills
Developing time management skills enables you to optimize your use of time during the day. You can try time management strategies such as creating a to-do list, making a weekly schedule, using a planner or prioritizing your tasks. The ability to manage your time helps reduce procrastination, achieve goals, increase your productivity and allows you to stress less. Asking for help with your time management goals can provide accountability and if you ask another colleague or manager they may be able to teach you their methods.
Identify your priorities
Priorities help influence which responsibilities you take care of first. You can identify your priorities by determining what is important in your personal and professional life. Consider the goals you want to achieve and the steps to accomplishing these goals. You may also discover your priorities by analyzing how you currently spend your time. Setting priorities can help develop time management habits and may provide you with more time to accomplish your responsibilities at the most appropriate time. For example, if you want to earn a promotion and train your pet, you may prioritize and manage your time by delegating training to a pet professional and ensuring that you meet all your project deadlines at work and accept additional responsibilities when you can.
Discuss your needs with a manager
If you have difficulty managing your responsibilities, it may be helpful to speak with your manager and request their help. Together, you may be able to negotiate flexibility in your work schedule to create a plan to accomplish your professional goals in a timely manner so that you can give more focus to personal responsibilities.Showing dedication to improve your efficiency at work and an interest in learning to better manage responsibilities can persuade a manager to be lenient. Ask your manager about their expectations of you and be sure to meet these before doing your errands.
Recognize your strengths and limitations
Understanding your own capabilities helps you to determine the amount of responsibilities you can handle. With this information, you can accept or decline additional responsibilities. For example, if you’re working at your full potential at work, you can ask your manager to delegate additional tasks they may assign to you. For personal responsibilities, you may ask family members for help so that you don’t have to manage too many responsibilities at once.
Use technology
To manage your responsibilities, you can use a task management application. This can help create a list of your responsibilities and schedule appropriate times to work on these responsibilities. Some task management applications provide reminders to help you better manage time and prepare for upcoming tasks. Another option is to use a virtual calendar that works similarly and be more accessible to you.
Limit the distractions in your environment
If you can limit distractions in your environment that interfere with accomplishing personal and professional responsibilities, you may be able to increase your focus and work more efficiently. It’s helpful to analyze your surroundings before starting a task so that you can identify and remove anything that may distract you. You can also increase your focus by playing music, introducing a calming scent into your work environment or secluding yourself while you work.
Manage your mental health
Maintaining good mental health is important to keep focus at work. Managing your mental health by getting rest, sharing emotions and taking time to relax helps reduce stress and increases your productivity both at work and at home. Stable mental health can help you form healthy relationships which is useful so that you can ask for help when you need it.
Request time off of work
You can also request time off of work to focus on personal responsibilities. A vacation can help organize your personal life and provide you time to complete tasks. When you return to work, you may feel more energy and be more productive. This can help separate your personal and professional responsibilities.