7 Things That Are Robbing You Of Your Valuable Time And Making You Less Effective

1. Email

How often do you check your official and personal emails?

You know the answer and if you are like most people you are checking it way too often.

Does every email you receive have to be answered immediately? Most likely not.

Change this habit, try checking your emails once an hour if not once in two hours.

Secondly set aside blocks of time and write, reply back/act on emails in that block of time only.

You will be surprised at how much time this frees up for you during the rest of the day.

2. Coffee/Cigarette Breaks

How often should you take a coffee break? How long should that coffee break be? Should you stop what you are doing each time your colleagues call you for a cup of coffee?

Silly as these may sound, track your time tomorrow and you will be shocked by how much time frequent coffee breaks take up, not to mention the break in your focus and concentration. Wake up, it’s your valuable time.

As for cigarettes, not only will they burn a hole in your wallet, they will eventually take your lungs too. Value your life, your time, just stop smoking.

3. Cellphone

SMS. Short messaging service. Another time killer. Everyone loves to SMS or text and everyone checks their cell-phones every five minutes if not earlier.

Remember each time you defocus from your important work to check your phone, you are spending more valuable time to work on the same task.

If not for the interruptions you could have finished the task in half the time. Just like email, do you really need to check every SMS as and when it hits your phone?

Get wise, change your SMS tone to something non-interruptive, check it less often and focus on your work.

4. Social Networking Sites

They are called weapons of mass distraction for a reason. There are hundreds of social networking sites that are clamouring for your attention and more importantly your precious time.

Think about how much time you are spending on these sites. Is it helping you succeed? Helping you reach your goals faster? If not change your habits to ensure what you enjoy now does not hurt you later.

5. Work Environment

Do you have a cluttered desk? Does it take you a long time to find important documents when you need them?

Is your cubicle in a noisy area of the office? Are you unable to concentrate amidst the loud conversations, incessant ringing of telephones?

Unknown to you these are sucking up your precious time, your physical, mental energy and your productivity. Take stock quickly, move to a quieter section of the office if necessary and correct the situation for your own good.

6. Television

The Giant Time Killer. There is always another serial to watch, another movie to see. TV sucks up your time without you even realizing it and this happens every day.

Not only does it leave you drained and lethargic, it also robs you of time you could have spent either reading a book that would make you more effective and productive or meditating, exercising to reduce your stress.

What productive things can you do if you reduced time spent on the idiot box? Think and act.

7. Stress

When the mind is filled with stress, it cannot function effectively. Fear overtakes logic and you are constantly worrying.

Apart from harming your mental and physical health, stress also eats up your valuable time by either taking longer to arrive at a decision or leading to poor, zero decision making.

Learn to manage to your stress, learn to relax, learn to free up your mind for creative thinking and save your valuable time.

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