5 Tips to Kick Your “Time-Wasters” Habits

It seems like the world is running at such an accelerated speed that we barely have any time to catch our breath. We start the day running out the door at full tilt; only keep going until we crash into bed from exhaustion. Then we get up and do it all over again day after day. The weekends don't seem to offer much relief either. While most of us would consider ourselves effective time managers, few of us actually are. We're constantly on the go and can accomplish a lot in one day, so we must be effective time managers, right? Wrong.

At some point, you have to concentrate on only what's important to your success and sanity. It's a process that all successful business owners and professionals find themselves having to learn, in order to focus their energy on the most important things. All the miscellaneous stuff that consumes your time with little or no return eventually must be eliminated from your schedule.

The bottom line is that anyone who runs their own business has to practice excellent time management, effective delegation and learning to say the word, "No." It is at this point that you have to filter the input so you can begin to regain control over your life. As good as you think you may be with your time management; there are always "time-wasters" that can be eliminated from your daily life. Let's review some practical tips:

Regarding your work email - how much time do you spend typing and replying to emails each day? Now, ask yourself how much of your time is spent on essential emails? And by essential emails I mean, emails that are directly related to the execution and completion of your job. It is estimated that only 10% to 20% of emails that most people get at work each day require their attention and are essential to their job. Even if you estimate that 50% of the emails you receive are considered essential that stills leaves 50% that are time-wasters.

Another popular time-waster is watching TV. This is one of the hardest habits to break - but there is simply much more effective ways to spend your time.

Reduce time-wasters by creating a To-Do List for the following day the night before. Writing a To-Do List before you go to sleep every night will help your mind run through the day and organize it. While you're sleeping, your brain is organizing how to create successful outcomes for the next day's tasks. If you give it a task, it will figure out a way to complete it successfully - and be more focused on success supporting actions instead of time-wasters. Prioritize everything on the list so if you don't have time for everything, you at least get the most important items done (I didn't say the easiest to do).

If you have an assistant at work, evaluate if there are additional tasks you can delegate to them.

Last, but not least you have to learn to say "No." You can still care and say "No" and find another way to contribute without sacrificing your success.

The goal is to slow down and be focused on the highest pay-off activities that will produce the results you desire in the timeframe you want - personally and professionally. The goal is not to figure out how to move faster. It's impossible to create more hours in the day and it's simply not healthy to run at full tilt constantly. Learn how to eliminate the time-wasters in your life to improve your quality of life and success.