4 Ways You Have Wasted Time In The Office Today
It’s a scene common to many of us. We get to the end of the working day, and ask ourselves “where did time go?” With work left unfinished on our desks, we are then forced to do one of three things.
The first is to stay back at work and work overtime. The second is to take work home with us. And the third is to leave those unfinished tasks behind, with the frustration that comes in knowing they will have to be added to the next day’s to-do list.
Identifying the real issue with time management
Let’s face it, most of us can feel a bit overwhelmed from time to time, and feel like there just aren’t enough hours in the day. If you can relate to this problem, know this. Time isn’t necessarily your biggest enemy. In truth, you might be your own worst enemy.
It’s never about how much time you have, but rather about how effective you are with your time. Most people feel like they have run out of time and aren’t being productive because their priorities aren’t straight.
Instead of focusing on your top income producing activities throughout the day you are living life in reaction mode. Certainly, you will have things arise during the day that is urgent and can take you off track, but anticipate those, and keep moving forward.
When you have the top valued tasks you want to accomplish for the day and have those mapped out in advance, it can keep you focused when life throws you curve balls. A great book on this concept of targeting high priority tasks first that I’d recommend is Eat That Frog, by Brian Tracy. You can pick up a copy on Amazon Here.
During your working day, it is in your best interests to find workable ways to improve your daily productivity. This includes cutting down on the various ways in which you may have wasted time. Such instances are detailed below.
Did you spend all day checking your emails?
When you get a new email alert, your tendency might be to check on it immediately, regardless of its importance. While this only takes a few seconds, those seconds add up fast. On top of that, if you then spend time responding to the email, you are going to waste valuable minutes of your time. So, focus on the following.
Firstly, schedule a time in the day when you look at your inbox. Even if you get an alert, try and ignore it so you can concentrate on whatever it is you are doing.
It may not seem like it, but every time you start and stop a task and shift focus, it eats up additional energy for yourself. Rather than falling into that trap, focus on a single task until it is completed, this includes ignoring emails.
Secondly, when you do check your emails, don’t spend time responding to anything that isn’t urgent. You need to prioritize those tasks that need to be completed to a deadline before doing any separate task.
Which can certainly be responding to an email or otherwise. In almost every case the emails you receive are less than urgent, and even so, the urgent ones could probably wait 30 or so minutes while you finish other things.
If you keep getting sucked into tasks like checking emails you may never finish your important income producing tasks.
Did you struggle with something you aren’t equipped to deal with properly?
Of course, you have many talents, but are you focused on using them or spending time on something else. If you concentrate on tasks that go against your strengths, you are only going to get bogged down with them.
Your time is better spent doing what you’re good at, as your productivity will only be slowed down otherwise. I know this has often gotten the best of me from time to time while building my business.
As entrepreneurs we often have the mindset of if you want something done right, do it yourself. Unfortunately, for some tasks, WE are not the best person to do it right. Attempting to do aspects of your business that you are either unfamiliar with or bad at, it can end up wasting a lot of time.
This also comes about from being cheap with your business. Often in an attempt to save a few bucks, us as business owners, will spend hours or days on something that, if we hired out, could be completed in a few minutes.
Therefore, consider delegating certain tasks to those people on your team better equipped to deal with them than you are. Or outsource those areas of your business that could be better handled by somebody else. Such as your IT needs, as an example, so you can enjoy improved business productivity with IT consulting services taking the lead while you concentrate your efforts elsewhere.
If outsourcing makes sense to you or if it may be something you want to start doing, I’d recommend checking out this book Clockwork.
Are you spending too much time in meetings?
Meetings can be important, especially when it comes to relaying essential information to clients and colleagues, but they can also be a time waster. If any important information can be sent via email instead, then do so. It’s more efficient than sitting in a meeting, be that in your own office, or somewhere across town.
If you do have to hold any meetings, try to schedule them early in the day so you can get them out of the way. This will stop you from breaking concentration on the tasks you need to do at work. That way they won’t have to be put on hold when you have to be engaged elsewhere. And during your meetings, cut down on any needless waffle. Get to the point as quickly as you can, so you can then get back to your workload in good time.
Most meetings are unnecessary and the time getting to them and back from them is just lost time. Consider virtual meetings as another option.
Using something like Zoom could allow you to simply log into a virtual meeting room at the click of a button at the designated time. Then it allows you to continue on with what you were doing after the meeting just as quick.
Did you spend your day as a social butterfly?
There is a time and a place for socializing with your work colleagues. However, it’s usually not when you should be doing something else with your time. Fight the temptation to start a conversation with somebody about things that aren’t work-related until your break times.
If somebody tries to banter with you, politely let them know that you have work to do. Resist the urge to communicate with anybody on social media, unless you are using these social platforms for work purposes, and consider using an internet blocker to improve your productivity.
Put your phone on silent too, as this will stop you from taking non-urgent phone calls. This could be calls from your friends, family, or those annoying cold callers. Plus when you leave your phone on silent it can prevent you from getting sucked into non-priority tasks like checking your email constantly.
With your phone on silent, it can put you back in control. How often have you felt like your day is running you, vs you running your day? This can help with that.
Also, you can socialize all you want once your working day is over, unless, of course, you still have work to do at home because you have been too busy chatting to others during your working hours.
Finally
We can all be guilty of wasting time at work, but where possible, we need to take measures to stop this from happening. We will struggle to get things done otherwise, and that will have a negative impact on our downtime, as well as our reputation should clients get frustrated that we haven’t completed something to a deadline.
Think about your day, then. How have you wasted time today? Take steps to stop these events from happening again, for the sake of both yourself and your clients.
Avoid these time management pitfalls to make the most of your day!
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