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Too Much or Not Enough: How to Eliminate the 5 Biggest Time Wasters in Your Day

Guest post by: Leslie Shreve

Article Overview: My client's time wasters may not be the same as yours, but here are the top 5 I typically find that must be eliminated before you can get more time in your day.

Too Much or Not Enough: How to Eliminate the 5 Biggest Time Wasters in Your Day

As I write this, I recall an appointment I had with a particular client this past week who reported that she has more free time as a result of having little or no e-mail in her Inbox and using her e-Task list to guide her on a daily basis. How nice! More time is just one of the greatest benefits of getting your systems in place to support your ongoing productivity. My client's time wasters may not be the same as yours, but here are the top 5 I typically find that must be eliminated before you can get more time in your day.

1. Too Many Things

Eliminate as many things as you can that don't have value. Free yourself from the burden of "stuff." Once you can simplify, the biggest time saver about getting organized is finding what you need in the same place every time. You can trust your system if you use your system, as you've defined it. A trusted system is invaluable. Define a home for everything and then spend your time on what's most important to you and what you're passionate about.

2. Not Enough Decisions

Look around and you may see lots of unmade or deferred decisions. A person can save an incredible amount of time just by making necessary decisions so that you never have to revisit an unmade decision again. Pick up the pace. Don't let things sit there and stare at you endlessly. Make decisions on everything and move ‘em along!

3. Too many e-mails in the Inbox

It's too easy to get sucked in to e-mail. Limit your time spent watching e-mail. Turn off those e-mail alerts. Create a place in your C: drive to store information for long term reference, including e-mail and attachments. Keep only a few e-mail folders to hold the more fluid and temporary information you get. Then combine tips 1 & 2 above: simplify what you keep and make decisions fast about what's coming into your Inbox. As soon as you get your Inbox down to zero and know that you can keep it that way, you'll have more free time for other pursuits, just like my client.

4. Too many ways to forget

Do you have a daily plan? On the computer? Reflecting everything you need to do, no matter when you'll do it? Get all of your tasks in one place and note the "when" as well as the "what" of everything you plan to do. Having all your tasks in one place will save you time because you won't have to look all over your desk anymore for to-dos on pads and post-it notes or to see what you feel like doing next. You won't waste time chasing your tail or wondering what you forgot to do today. And you can get done what you need to get done and channel your free time elsewhere.

5. Not enough routine

Get systems in place for all of your information and for how you manage your tasks and time and then you'll know exactly what to do with everything when it enters your office. You'll routinely process that information right where it needs to go. Use your calendar, use your contact system, use your file drawers and e-folders, and use a task list. If you have to process the same kinds of information every day, know where it goes... be on auto-pilot and save more time. The more you establish routines around your systems and processes, the more you'll do them with greater efficiency and you'll have more time for your priorities.

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Article Tags: business, getting organized, leslie shreve, organization, productive day, productivity, task management, task management system, taskology
Referred by: http://affiliatepowercentral.com



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Re: The 3 Factors That are Limiting Your Productivity - Eliminate... automate... delegate... Good stuff. Another video for my blog!
Re: UPDATES: New Campaign! New Layout! New Ideas! - We've also expanded the list for Contest and All-Time Leaders. It's great to now see David and Yinka on the All Time list and recognize the contributions they've made to the forums!
No B.S. Time Management - A great book I read on Time Management is No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs by Dan Kennedy.
Re: The 3 Factors That are Limiting Your Productivity - Hi Evan, Thanks for a great article and video on 'The 3 Factors That are Limiting Your Productivity'. I think that no matter whether you are self employed like myself or a CEO with staff, it is so important to manage your time so as to maximize the benefit to your business. Your expression Eliminate; Automate; Delegate is easy to remember and will certainly stick in my mind. There are many good business ideas out there but they will ultimately run into difficulty without proper planning and execution so these tips will certainly help. I have also left this comment on the article and will place a link to it on my blog. regards, Mal.
Books that should be written - [quote:1m0dcpd7]"The Idiots Guide To Sticking With One Thing At A Time and Not Doing Something New All The Time" [/quote:1m0dcpd7] I myself am a 'constructive' procrastinator... I don't know if I'm alone in this. I have about six or seven projects I'm working on at any given time. I get one project almost done... then my interest is piqued by another project and I work on that... I get burnt out and move to another...I know I do this so I have it arranged such that once I get bored or burnt out with one project, I can step right back into project 1 - or 2 or 3, and get that a little bit more done before moving on to something else. As long as you're organized and know where all your reference material/idea sheets are when you're ready to get back to work on each project, it should be fine. I also find that by stepping away from a project - I still work on it in the recesses of my mind so that when I go back to it - it's with some good ideas that I wouldn't have had if I'd continued on with it originally. Maybe I should write a book on how to Procrastinate Constructively... I've actually thought about doing that...because most people procrastinate, don't they...and very few are ever able to stop.


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