One of the areas I cover most with clients is time management – using your time effectively and maximises your chances of success in any area of life. Below are the 5 most common time wasters. Focus on these and your productivity will increase – guaranteed.
- E-mail.
It might seem quick and easy to just send an e-mail, but sometimes it can be a pain waiting around for someone to respond – and sometimes people forget and never do! Before you send an email, think about whether it can be sorted with a quick phone call. Get it off your plate and move on.
- Multi-tasking.
It’s great to be eager and take on as much as possible, but there comes a point when enough is enough. When you take on too many projects at once, it often results in nothing getting done. By prioritising your tasks (with a to-do list!) you’ll be able to focus and plan out what task to do when, to make sure it gets accomplished.
- Social Media.
We’re probably all most guilty of wasting time on the Internet. Quickly checking your notifications on Facebook or Twitter can lead to hours of wasted time. It’s natural to click from one thing to the next and end up with no progress on your work at the end of the day. If you find yourself guilty of this, there’s an app called SelfControl that lets you block specific websites for up to 24 hours.
- Shortcuts.
Need to know where the nearest stationery store is? Don’t waste your time searching through Google. Get “Siri” in iPhone or “OK Google” on Galaxy to do the hard work for you. Just ask. Also make sure you know all your keyboard shortcuts.
- Meetings.
Gary Vaynerchuk is famous for scheduling seven minute meetings. He says it forces people to be really succinct and make every second count. If you give someone an hour to complete a task, they will take an hour. However give them seven minutes update you on a project and they’ll take just seven minutes!
