Getting corporate - every second counts

If you are already in your first graduate job, or if you're struggling through your finals you won't need us to tell you that every second counts.

Getting it sorted

Whether you are planning a gap year, looking for work experience, job hunting or revising for your finals it's crucial that you create files and folders for all the information that you will gather. This is so you don't have to waste time trying to remember where you filed something or worse still what it was about. You should do the same for your work email inbox - create folders so that you can file emails. This mean's that far from being the 'fresh-person' that's always late for the meeting, you'll arrive on time and with the right agenda. If you don't have a work email address because you are gap yearing or job hunting it's a good idea to create an email address specifically for this task. Again you'll be able to create folders for your inbox that save you time and effort when you need to look something up.

Multi tasking - it's not just for girls

No excuses now, everyone can multi task. And it's an amazing time-saver because you can get several things done at once. If you travel to work by public transport you could read up on work news en-route or write up a report, or complete that article that your boss has been screaming for. If your work is not office bound you could write a priority list of things that you need to do when you get in. Why bother? Because it will mean that you get more done when you're at work, which is a lot less stressful than always feeling like you're chasing your tail. It's all about working smart if you can - work will be more satisfying and you'll get more play time!

Back to the future

Avoid duplicating work by keeping your colleagues (or travel companions) up to date. You can play nice and share out the work which means that you can all achieve more in the same time. When sorting out who should do what it makes sense to play to people's strengths, but don't lumber the shrinking violets. If there are any unsavoury or hard graft jobs, put them in a hat so that all of the jobs are shared out fairly. And everybody's effort should be rewarded and recognised.

First over the finishing line

It's very easy to overload yourself with lots of different projects or things to do - whether at work or not. You need to have a finishing line in sight for everything that you are working on. Learn to say "No" and aim to get things completed up to a stage at least. This is particularly important if you work in a skilled or creative industry. Other people will be relying on you to hand over work that's completed so that they can do their bit. By trying to be helpful you may end up annoying your work colleagues and clients or getting a reputation for being lazy when the opposite is true.

For more information and advice on getting a new graduate job click here.