Time management can be tricky and in situations such as task overload at work, one's solutions to it may be out of the ordinary and sometimes not acceptable to others.
At least this is what this Redditor experienced when he tried to deal with sleep deprivation from working at night by taking half to one-hour-long naps under his office desk until he was discovered by his manager.
More info: Reddit
A civil engineer who was reviewing work reports during the night got caught napping under his desk
Image credits: cottonbro studio (not the actual photo)
The man would sometimes start reviewing work reports around midnight and would finish around 4 AM
Image credits: cottonbro studio (not the actual photo)
Image credits: AlAnazi-
To compensate for sleep deprivation, the man was taking half to one-hour naps under his desk where he had a pillow and a blanket
Image credits: Yan Krukau (not the actual photo)
The man would tell his manager he was going to check on his outside projects while actually heading to his desk
A man shared his story with the Reddit TIFU community online after he was spotted by his manager while taking a nap under his office desk.
The man explained that he is a civil engineer and sometimes he reviews work reports at night due to tight deadlines, making sure everything is correct and safe. The man would start around midnight and then would finish around 4 AM.
To navigate through such sleep deprivation, the man moved his desk to a unique location in the corner of the office and had been taking naps under it.
As the man’s job includes outdoor work as well, he would tell the department manager he was going outside to check on projects while actually heading to his desk, where he has his pillow and his blanket under the desk to take a half to one-hour nap.
Many times, the man’s team would look for him, as they were this one time. His colleagues were looking for project documents and he heard his manager’s voice. The co-workers walked over to check the desk drawers and he was exposed.
His colleagues looked disappointed, while he felt awkward, in addition to receiving a formal warning and being assigned additional responsibilities by the manager.
The man's colleagues would sometimes look for him, as they did this time along with the manager
Image credits: cottonbro studio (not the actual photo)
The co-workers checked the drawers looking for some documents and the man was exposed, eventually receiving a formal warning
The man’s post gathered 4.7k upvotes on Reddit and people gave suggestions such as sticking to the business hours or talking the issue through with his manager in case he doesn’t feel like he has enough time during the day to do the reviews.
Finally, others drew attention to the manager’s unsustainable solution of giving additional tasks, rather than getting to the root of the problem.
Forbes listed the top 10 time management tips, emphasizing that time management is about working smarter rather than working longer hours as well as creating a better work-life balance.
The benefits of effective time management may include eliminating or reducing the tendency to procrastinate, feeling in control and lowering one’s stress levels, meeting deadlines, and having more time for non-work related activities.
The tips included doing one's important tasks first; that is, prioritizing based on importance rather than difficulty or pleasantness, as well as using the ABC method to plan one’s working day by distinguishing must-do, secondary, and nice-to-have-done tasks. They recommend finding one’s productive hours and making sure to block them out for getting the important stuff done.
Also, following the list it might be a good idea to to set time limits for each task to avoid them expanding to fill more time than one is able to dedicate. Finally, they noted that sometimes, just sometimes, procrastination can be a good thing, as one may be tired and need a break, or one's mind may need a bit of time to wander, imagine and be creative!
Redditors shared their takes on the situation
