Most people tend to struggle with time management and prioritization at the outset of their careers.  But you don't have to.  Try these four tips to manage your time more effectively and get your work done more efficiently.  

There are so many raggedy job candidates.  Don't be one of them.  Follow these three simple rules to prepare for your next interview and stand out from the competition to get the job that you want.  

Even if you're not an entrepreneur, or even if you have no desire to become one, there are some simple lessons you can use to better manage your career.

In case you've adopted this mindset, and have defaulted to coming in, getting your work done and trying to pay your coworkers no mind, I'm here to tell you to stop.  

You are absolutely there to make friends.  And anyone who tells you the opposite is telling you wrong.  

We've already discussed how to handle this when it comes from a coworker.  But what do you do when you don't even have the job yet?  What if someone asks you something really personal and potentially biased during the interview?  

You're the first person they call for help, but it's not the kind of help you want to give.  You want to give feedback on the important pitch or be part of the team solving the mission critical challenges.  But instead, you're the go to person for getting new toner in the copy machine.  Or handling the coffee order.  Or taking all the meeting notes, but never leading the meeting.  Or arranging all of the office birthday celebrations.  All of a sudden, you're the office mom - even if you don't have kids.

Of all the things to worry about at the outset of your career - building strong peer relationships, managing your reputation, doing impeccable work - bathroom issues should be at the bottom of the list.  But this is one subject that is especially fraught.  Some say that this is the last remaining taboo for women.  I don't pass time in office men's rooms so I can't definitively disagree with that.  

What I do know is that I've personally had this conversation plenty of times.  So, finally, to answer the lingering question - is it ever okay to poop at work?

Can we talk about CP time?  

It's a thing.  And if you come from a cultural or family background where starting times are more of a suggestion than a mandate, it can be a real challenge.  

Whether you believe this to be rooted in our cultural differences or a pernicious and offensive stereotype, the truth is many of your new coworkers may be primed to expect you to be late to work just because of your skin tone.  When you are, they will be quick to be resentful, assuming you think you can flout the rules everyone else must follow.  

If you're Punctual Pam and believe "to be early is to be on time and to be on time is to be late," this may not be a problem for you.  But, if you're like me, where being within 15-30 minutes of the discussed start time is considered on time, if not early, this may be something you have to adjust for in your career.  

If you're here, you have some part of a hustler's spirit.  You work hard.  You see opportunities and you seize them.  

And in this good year of our Lord Two Thousand and Sixteen, you also know that neither tomorrow nor jobs are promised.  You may be killin it at work today and let go in an unfortunate round of layoffs tomorrow.  

So you might have a side hustle.  Or you've thought about one.  Maybe you see your side hustle as your on ramp to a life of freedom and answering to no one.  Maybe you just need some extra cash to float you month to month.  Either way, as long as your side hustle is extra money, not your main source of income, you need to balance its demands and protect your main job.  

A good friend of mine was recently preparing for a big time speech in front of a big time audience.  To prep, she asked a group of us for our best career advice.  Since I've been in CH-mode, jotting down all the nuggets that I've learned along the way and wished someone had just told me when I started working, I had a bunch of things swirling in my mind.  After a little thought, I narrowed it down to the two most important questions anyone can ask in any job, no matter what their role, industry, or organization.

(No they are not how much do I get paid? and when will the direct deposit hit my account?)

Wanna hear em, here they go.