I once read, “there is never enough time to do everything that you have to do, …and there never will be.”
My first thought was one of relief to discover that it wasn’t just me.
We’re all swamped with way too much to do in both our work and our personal lives, from the numerous work projects we are involved in, to the constant email avalanche, the phone calls, the pile of work related magazines to read, the meetings we need to have and the social media that we need to constantly update… there is a never ending cycle of stuff to distract us
And then there’s our personal lives, the hobbies we want to start, the time needed for our relationships, time to relax and rejuvenate, time for exercises and time to get through the pile of books that you promised yourself that you will get to ‘one day’.
There will always be more to do than you can ever accomplish in the time you have available to you, no matter how much it is.
You start to get control of your time and your life once you stop doing some things and focus on spending your time on the few activities that will really make a difference to your life and learn to let go of the rest.
Sounds simple doesn’t it, so where do you start?
I think the first thing to do is identify what your biggest time wasters are, and if you can get on top of them you can focus on your top priorities, which are the things that really make the biggest difference.
So what are the 7 biggest time wasters for most of us…
At number 1 it’s a…
1. Lack of structure to your time…
If you want to get ‘not just a lot done’, but the ‘right things done’, it’s important to structure your day and to organise your time. My suggestion is that you plan the following day the night before so that you can hit the ground running with a feeling of control and purpose as opposed to reacting to whatever the day throws at you.
So remember to structure your day, block time out to get the things done that you need to at both a professional and personal level. Plan the work and then work the plan.
At number 2 it’s…
2. Over accessibility…
There is no law that says that you have to take every phone call when it rings, or that you reply to emails instantly, or allow others to drop by and interrupt your time when and as they please.
You can choose to turn your phone to message bank and then reply to all phone calls and emails in a scheduled time frame of your choice. You can also set it up with your team or family that there are ‘do not disturb times’ that really mean ‘do not disturb!’
Remember, if you are accessible all of the time you are passing over control of your time and your productivity to everyone else.
At number 3 it’s…
3. Doing too many things at once…
Activity does not equal productivity. Multi tasking might look like you’re frantically busy, but there is a tendency for nothing to ever get finished, or if it is finished it’s not usually your best work.
You’re better to give 100% of your focus to the task at hand, complete it and move onto the next task.
At number 4 it’s…
4. Confusing ‘busy’ work with ‘real’ work…
Take the hardest thing, it’s probably also the thing you want to do the least and make it your number one task. Get that out of the way and not only will it make you feel great but it will probably also be something that was ‘real’ work, work that makes a real difference to your business and your life.
Busy work is all the day to day ‘stuff’ that you hide behind, procrastinating, holding you back from getting to the real work.
At number 5 it’s…
5. Poor or no systems…
Systemise everything that you can. Simple efficient systems save time, create predictability, reduce stress and allow you to get on with the real work of running a business.
Systems also allow you to delegate work to other people, so that the work gets done to the standards that you want without you having to do it all yourself. That then free’s you up to do the things that genuinely only you can do.
At number 6 it’s…
6. Crisis management…
Some things are important, some things are urgent. If you are always dealing with the latest crisis [the urgent] you are never getting to what’s important in which case one of two things will happen, it will become urgent [your next crisis] or it will die of neglect, which will probably cost you in other ways.
So remember to devote time to dealing with what’s important but not yet urgent before it becomes so, that way you will be in control and not reacting to yet another crisis.
And finally at number 7 it’s…
7. Lack of focus…
Pick one task, be absolutely clear about the desired outcome, focus on it, allocate the necessary time needed, gather all the resources you need in order to complete it and do it.
We all have the same amount of time available to us, but some people manage to get a lot more done in the same amount of time. How do they do that? It’s because they choose what the most important things are and then they focus on doing those things.
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Have a great week!