We’ve all been there: It’s 2:00 AM and the presentation to your clients is due in five hours. Red bull cans, coffee cups, and candy wrappers adorn your desk as you painstakingly move that slide title 0.000001 inches to the left. Finally done, you trudge back to your car, hoping to get at least a few hours sleep before the big presentation tomorrow. Somewhere, somebody is getting a full nights sleep.

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Here are three words that probably come to your mind when you think of the term Overtime:

1. Stress
2. Caffeine
3. Deadline

However, I’m going to propose three more that work just as well:

1. Sleep
2. Relaxing
3. Television

While the second list seems extremely out of place, it is just as relevant to working overtime as the first list. The reason for this lies at the feet of two of the biggest misconceptions people have about overtime:

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To preface, I look at the review process one goes through when analyzing anything as working on a bell curve. For those not familiar with it, a bell curve has a single high point where maximum efficiency is reached. Before that high point, your efficiency in whatever you are doing is increasing. After that high point, your efficiency is decreasing. With this in mind, we can move on to the purpose of this article.

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That’s right, save up your Overtime (OT) hours. See below:

• Today’s Tip of the Day deals with taking Comp Time over Overtime. Take a look if you’ve had problems with having not enough leave time.
• There’s a new article on How to Use Slide Transitions in Microsoft PowerPoint. Although I’m not a huge fan of them, I know some people like to have some in their presentations.

Yes, the title of this tip is in English. “Comp” refers to Comp Time, which is when you work extra hours but instead of charging in Overtime (”OT” above) you take time off. I find this to be a great thing to have if you can work it out with your supervisor. For example, say you work 34 hours Mon.-Thurs. Assuming you have a 40 hr work week, technically on Friday you only have to work 6 hours. Some people would work the full 8 hours and get paid 2 hours of OT. For me, I have it worked out so I can bank this time and use it at a later date. I still work the 8 hours, but the extra 2 hours goes into my Comp Time bank. That way, I can use it for doctor’s appointments, car repair, etc. without having to hit my leave time.

This is dependent on your work situation, but I find that most bosses are willing to work something out, as it costs them less money in the end. Sure the money could be nice (and if you get paid a ridiculous overtime rate I would take it), but having that extra leave time has proved invaluable for me on many occasions.