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time-management
Waste Time To Be More Efficient
Waste Time To Be More Efficient
It seems counterintuitive to state that you could be more efficient by wasting time. But, the truth is, when you allow yourself some flexibility in the process, you have the potential to make efficiency happen.
This is not to say that you can spend six hours out of an eight-hour day wasting your time. You need to keep the ratio skewed to being productive. But, trying to get too much done without having some “you time,” is going to burn you out.
The phrase wasting time is actually a misnomer in this case. What you are doing is setting aside some time to be creative or to get some exercise, etc. It could even be a time that lets you clear your head by taking a walk or sitting in a room by yourself to get away from the grind.
People make proclamations that they are too busy to waste time in the manner specified. But, that could be a huge mistake. When you set aside that time to do something out of the ordinary or spontaneous, you often discover ways to do your main tasks better.
For instance, suppose you went to the gym during your lunch hour, and you took a class. In the class is someone who is involved in the same kind of business you are in but works for a different company.
You both get to talking and become friends. Then, you exchange ideas and in the process discover information that you incorporate into your work.
This exchange may not have happened in your workspace. Sometimes, it takes outside entities to get our creative juices flowing. Therefore it’s always a good idea to look for different ways to accomplish the same tasks or talk to people you wouldn’t normally talk to on a routine basis.
You will need to make sure this time-wasting process if it can be called that, is limited to a small percentage of your day or your to-do list. You still need to get your work done.
But, there is a reason why companies don’t harp onto their employees when they take some time to socialize in the coffee room, etc. Even within different departments, you can expand your knowledge base, and that is good for the company as a whole.
Some people will go overboard with this and end up being late on their deadlines. Avoid this at all costs. Set goals for the day that give you a certain amount of time for yourself after completing a large portion of your daily routine.
Can Being More Efficient Lower Stress?
When you learn how to be more efficient, you get more work done, and you tend to do it better, all things being equal. This makes your boss happy which means you won’t get in trouble for not getting your work complete. You may be given more responsibilities as a result, but as long as you maintain your efficiency, you should be able to add those to your workload.
Efficiency also means getting others to help you out. As you prove your effectiveness and your responsibilities increase, you should be able to get support for having others pitch in.
When you get support from your boss, it will be more difficult for your colleagues to resist your authority. Besides, when you show them how to be more efficient, it will get them on board. They will likely ask others for help when that happens.
This increase in efficiency is going to mean more work gets done, but it will take less time. You will constantly look for ways to do things better, whether it be via automation, or use delegation, etc.
Since you are getting more done with less, your stress levels will decrease, and you will be happier at work.
There will be some managers who don’t see the forest for the trees and the more work you get done, the more they see it as an opportunity to increase your workload.
This can get to the point of adding to your stress levels if they don’t support you. For instance, if they discourage you from delegating these new responsibilities, or they don’t give you the tools you need, this will overwhelm you and add to your stress. If talking it out with your manager won’t help, it may be time to look elsewhere.
The good news is your increased skills in being efficient will help you land a new job quicker.
When you learn how to be more efficient, you have greater control of your workload. Most people find they actually free up time when this happens due to economies of scale.
This free time gives you breathing room, and you won’t be so flustered all the time. You won’t be scrambling to get your work done by the deadlines.
Efficient people tend to have more opportunities available to them, in their current employment situations as well as outside the organization. They will always be in more demand. The great part about this is it won’t add to their stress levels.
How To Make Your Workouts More Efficient
One of the reasons people hate going to the gym is because they have to spend hours there to get any benefits. But, there are ways to make your workouts more efficient, which means you won’t have to spend as much time at the gym.
Do some of your exercises at home. If you have some dumbbells lying around, keep them in your family room or whatever room you spend most of your time. While watching television, stand up and use the dumbbells for one set. Do this on commercial breaks.
You can also do a set of sit-ups while watching television or whatever you do in your spare time. If you can get several sets in while you are home, you will have less to do at the gym. By staggering these exercises, you will be more inclined to do them.
Consider using the services of a personal trainer. These people go through a certification which means they learn the best exercises to do in the shortest time possible.
They will also show you how to do them right and correct you when you are not. The downside to this is they tend to be expensive and require you to work with them on a weekly basis.
You should also consider working out with a friend. It’s much easier to keep after each other than it is to try to motivate yourself. A friend may also help to motivate you into going to the gym when you start losing that drive.
It’s probably a good idea to keep the number of people you work with small. The larger a group is, the more they become distracted with talking too much, etc. This can still happen when you work with one person. If it does, you can try to choose someone else as your workout partner.
Another way to make your workouts more efficient is to come up with an actual plan for your workout. You could choose to hire a personal trainer just to come up with your plan and then do the workouts on your own.
But, there is also plenty of information on the internet that can help you structure your own plan. Try out different plans you may find and write them down. Make sure you are consistent in working your plan and have a way to measure your success.
Make sure that you factor in your diet when you are working out. Many people believe they can eat whatever they want since they are working out. This is false, and you will not get as much out of your workout when you do this.
Want to learn more about increasing efficiency and productivity? Then check out the featured resource below to grab a free report; download, read it and take action 😊
Manage Time With A Success Mindset
Manage Time With A Success Mindset
So, you’re anxious to reach those goals you’ve set for yourself and your online business, but you quickly realize that there’s only so much time in the day. No matter how hard you try, you feel as though you’re always one step behind.
One thing becomes very clear: You need a plan.
No matter what business or industry you’re involved in, learning how to effectively manage your time is one of the most important skills that will set you on the path towards ongoing success.
Without a system designed to place a value on each hour you spend working on your business, you’ll find yourself frantically scrambling to meet deadlines, follow through on launches and prioritize what is most important to your business.
This article has been written to help you get more done in less time by levelling up your productivity score quickly and easily.
The strategies contained in this article are designed to help you learn to value your time, make informed decisions about the kind of work you’re focused on and ultimately, beat the clock.
Let’s begin. There’s no time to waste. 😊
Lose The Employee Mindset!
One of the reasons so many people seem to struggle to gain traction in their business is entirely due to the way they manage their daily activities.
This typically points to one major problem: People are stuck in an employee mindset!
They’re so used to that 9-5 grind that they aren’t equipped to adopt an entrepreneurial mindset, which will help them make the transition so they can train themselves to focus on the most important tasks: prioritizing their time and assigning value to the time they spend building their business.
When you work for yourself, your time is more valuable than it has ever been. You’re no longer an employee, paid for each workday regardless of the outcome. If you aren’t ruthless with focusing on the most important tasks, you can easily fall behind or find yourself constantly treading water trying to stay afloat.
As an entrepreneur, you’re solely responsible for your business, so your ability to value your time and make every minute count will have a major impact on how successful you’ll be.
Fail to make this important shift in the way you spend your time, and you’ll always struggle to get to where you want to be.
Thankfully, it’s not all that difficult to break that cycle and transition your way of thinking from that of an employee to a boss. It starts with preparing yourself for the realities of being an entrepreneur.
This means you need to:
Set Realistic Goals. You must be honest about what you’re capable of getting done on any given day. Then you need to determine how many hours you’re willing to invest in your business and then assign those hours to specific projects.
Break tasks down into smaller, focused projects. Tim Ferris, author of “The 4-Hour Work Week”, refers to this as “chunking”. We’ll talk more about the importance of this in a bit because it’s a great way to boost your productivity and get more done in less time.
Cut out Distractions. Your work environment will change drastically from what you may be used to as an employee, and you need to optimize your workspace so that it’s supporting a focused, productive workflow.
Identify the Truth Behind Procrastination. This is one of the hardest things to acknowledge at times, especially if you’ve gotten into the habit of procrastinating for reasons you aren’t aware of.
We’ll talk more about this in an upcoming chapter because it deserves a section of its own. It’s that important.
Be Ruthless in Prioritizing. Does your email really need to stay open while you work so that all those notifications cause you to continuously check your inbox?
Cutting out distractions, as we just mentioned, plays a huge role in your ability to prioritize. Every hour needs to count, and you’ll get a lot more done if you focus each segment of your time on only one task. No outside interference!
Now let’s take a closer look at how you can learn the chunking technique, which will immediately boost your daily output and keep you focused on meeting your goals.
Time Chunking 101
For years, I would fire up the laptop and start my day doing several different things at once. I’d check email, then maybe do some writing, then head over to social media, and then back to email yet again.
This cycle cost me valuable time, and while I thought I was proficient at multi-tasking, the truth is even the most seasoned go-getter will struggle to get everything done if they’re trying to tackle all things at once. Time management needs to be more purposeful to be effective.
Chunking is where you decide to focus on just one major task at a time (or even per day). Depending on the type of business you’re involved in, this might include one day exclusively focused on graphic design, then one day dedicated to marketing.
Consider creating a detailed task list of all the important aspects of your business; the things that keep it all afloat and absolutely require your time.
This can be tricky because we tend to things all things are important, but the reality is, they’re not.
When it comes to any business, there are a handful of critical tasks that need to be taken care of daily, and the rest just adds a little more gas to the tank. They can be done later once the main tasks are out of the way.
You need to learn to place a value on every ounce of “fuel” you have left. That’s where chunking comes into play.
By focusing on one main task a day, or at least per segment of allocated time, you are not only able to focus strictly on getting it done on time, but the quality of your work will likely be much better because you’re not being constantly derailed. Give it a try!
Don’t be tempted to multi-task because this is a productivity killer! So many people make a big deal of being able to multi-task, but all you end up with are a number of tasks that are partly done and an increasing amount of frustration because you never seem to be able to clear things off your to-do-list; sticking to one task at a time is much more productive, believe me!
And remember, one way to stay productive is to be focused and many people struggle with this. If you want to learn more about staying focused, check out the featured resource below for a free report; download, read it and take action 😊
8 Productivity Hacks To Reach Goals Quicker
8 Productivity Hacks To Reach Goals Quicker
We all have goals. We all have ambitions. We all have things that we’d like to have happen in our lives. The good news is that all of those goals, ambitions and positive occurrences are possible.
All we have to do to achieve them is start doing the work that needs to be done in order to make them real.
You’ve probably heard the phrase “carpe diem”. That’s Latin for “seize the day”. If you want to move your life in a different direction, one that produces positive changes, then make carpe diem your motto.
You need to begin seizing the day and using your time productively so that you begin building the future that you want to live in.
The leadership guru John Maxwell once said that “You’ll never change your life until you change something that you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine.”
This article is all about helping you to establish “power habits” in your daily routine that will allow you to crank your productivity to eleven.
Adopting some or all of these habits and incorporating them into your day-to-day schedule will crank you into overdrive. You’ll not only begin reaching your goals, you’ll also begin reaching them sooner than you ever thought possible.
1. Rise And Shine
When you get up earlier than normal two things happen. First, you have more time in you day to get more things done. Productivity is all about accomplishing tasks. The more hours that you have to play with, them more likely it becomes that you’re going to initiate and complete projects.
Second, let’s talk about energy. Now, maybe you’re already are a morning person. In which case, you already know what I’m talking about. However, if you’re not naturally a morning person, it may be time to think about becoming one.
Study after study has shown that the most personally productive hours in the day occur before noon. It all has to do with natural body rhythms and cycles. So, when you get up earlier you not only have more time to get stuff done, you also have more energy. It’s a productivity win/win.
2. Be Punctual
Ok, you should have a schedule of what you want to accomplish on any given day. (If you don’t, then start using one.) In order to make the schedule as effective as possible, you need to be places, take phone calls and generally do things on time, as you scheduled them.
When you’re not on time, you begin to fall behind on what your schedule. That means that you have to start rushing to catch up, and rushing usually means that you aren’t doing your best work.
Make an effort to be punctual. Get to appointments, meeting and phone calls on time. The more punctual you are, the more you’ll get done.
3. Sleep And Move
Besides food and water, your body only has two other absolute needs – sleep and exercise. When you don’t get enough rest, you cannot maintain the mental energy levels that are required for you to be optimally productive.
Likewise, when you don’t get enough exercise you don’t have the stamina it takes to remain productive over the course of a long day.
Make sure that you put enough time aside for adequate amounts of both sleep and exercise. If you do, you’ll find that you have more energy and more energy equals greater productivity.
4. Develop Keystone Habits
All positive behavior is nothing more than habit. When you perform a positive action over and over it becomes habitual. You continue making the positive action without even thinking about it. In addition, one positive habit will lead to other positive behaviors which, over time, will also become habitual. That’s why developing keystone habits are so important to increased productivity.
Keystone habits are nothing more than simple acts that you routinely perform throughout your day. For example, if you make your bed every morning after you get up, no matter what, you establish a tone of positive production that will stay with you as you go about your business.
This effect can be enhanced by layering one keystone habit on top of another. So, you not only make your bed every day, you also make it a habit to rinse and stack your breakfast dishes in the sink or put them in the dishwasher.
The point is that when you routinely do what needs to be done, you start to develop a habit of treating everything that you do in a similar way. The end result is that your productivity soars.
5. Have A Plan
One of the major drains on productivity is simply not knowing where to direct your attention. Let’s face it, each day we are faced with information overload. We get phone calls, e-mails, text messages and more.
We use apps that are supposedly designed to make our lives easier, but instead start to compete for our attention by adding their reminders to the mix of information that is already bombarding us.
What can happen is that we spend our time and energy dealing with situations that do not promote our goals and best interests.
One of the best ways to combat this problem is with a daily plan. When it comes to any task, ask yourself “What is this?”, “Why am I doing it” and “What do I want to get out of it?”
Simply posing these questions to yourself prior to doing anything will allow you to begin to prioritize what truly needs to be done and eliminate what truly is a time waster. Again, the end result is greatly increased productivity.
6. Make Room For Down Time
There is a tendency to want to remain plugged in and on top of all communications simply because we can. However, to do so is a major mistake. One of the key ways to remain optimally productive is to know when to take it easy and not be productive at all.
Think of your productivity like a well. You lower down a bucket and pull up a drink of cold, clear water. However, if you lower down that bucket too many times in a row, you’re bound to come up empty because you’ve drained all the water.
You need to give yourself enough time to recharge and rejuvenate. You cannot be fully productive when your batteries are drained and you have nothing left to give. Remember to walk away from all of your tasks on a regular basis.
This means no checking your phone for messages, no answering e-mails, and no quick phone calls. Your time away is sacred. It is key to you being truly effective at what you do. Treat it as such.
7. Eliminate Distractions
In order to be fully productive, you have to be focused on the task at hand. However, in today’s always connected, modern world maintaining focus is increasingly difficult. Studies have shown that, on average, we are only able to concentrate on a given task for three to five minutes before being distracted by social media, e-mails or other things that interfere with concentration.
Obviously, you are not going to be very productive and task oriented when you are only able to focus in three to five minute intervals.
The secret to keeping focused on what you’re doing is by removing the sources of those distractions. Because social media is one of the biggest culprits, it’s important to install safeguards that allow you to resist the allure of checking for updates on social media sites again. There are now apps that will completely block your ability to access certain sites for specific periods of time.
The less distracted you are, the more you can maintain your focus and the more productive you become.
8. Make Your Workspace Inviting
Each of us spends a great deal of time in the space where we work. Now, that might be a physical office at a remote location or it might be a room or corner in your residence that has been reserved for that purpose.
No matter where your “office” is located, it needs to be inviting, comfortable and welcoming. It has to reflect your personality and your style.
There’s absolutely no reason for your workspace to be spartan, cold or off-putting. You are not an anchorite and your office is not your cell. You are not literally or figuratively chained to your desk. Work should be rewarding, not a punishment and your office should reflect that fact.
Make sure that the furnishings are comfortable. A desk may be a necessity, but it doesn’t have to be uncomfortable. The same thing goes for a chair. Use a chair that makes you feel that your glad you sat down in it.
Lighting, art, music and color all have an appropriate place in your office. Imagine how your productivity will skyrocket when you actually enjoy being in your workspace.
Want to learn more about increasing efficiency and productivity? Then check out the featured resource below to grab a free report; download, read it and take action 😊
Master Time Management Techniques To Help Maintain Focus
Time and stress are always closely tied together. Most of your stress will likely come from you being worried about not finishing your work on time, and that same stress will likely delay you even further, which ends up becoming a vicious cycle that leaves you stressed out and without much work done.
It can be frustrating for you, your co-workers, and your clients. To avoid all of this, you need to master some proper time management skills in order to give yourself enough time to get your projects done easily, and to avoid a scenario in which you’re overly stressed out.
When you’re stressed out because you don’t feel like you have enough time to complete a project, the logical thing to do would be to get to work. However, that rarely ends up being the case.
Chances are, if you’re stressed out about work, you’ll find ways to distract yourself so that you feel better in the mere short term, while in the long term you’re going to be making things much worse for yourself.
There are all kinds of excuses that you’ll see yourself come up with. You might claim that you’re distracting yourself to be more creative for a bit or to get yourself feeling better so that you can then work more efficiently.
Even if that’s true, chances are high that you’re going to be spending more time than you’re saving, leading to you having even less time to actually complete your project. With time management skills, you can avoid this situation altogether, because it’s difficult to get out of once you’re in it.
Plan
First, you can carefully plan out your project’s schedule and how long it’s going to take you to do it. Don’t cut corners at this stage – you need to be completely honest. If you claim that a part of your work will only take 30 minutes, because that’s the fastest you can do it, don’t count on that.
If there’s a chance it’ll take you two hours, budget for that to take you two hours. If you end up taking less time, that’s great. However, if you do take up that much time, you’ll have already accounted for it, so you won’t be playing catch-up.
You need to also cut out any time distractions to see how much of your time is being spent on things that aren’t work. You’d be surprised how quickly time can fly when you’re watching shows online or scrolling through social media. That time could be better spent getting ahead in your work or catching up if that’s what you need to do.
And it’s not just time distractions that you need to be aware of! There are so many things that will try to divide your attention and stop you from staying focused and being creative.
It takes a lot of discipline to try to ignore these distractions, but you do need to try to set boundaries. The question is “How?”
Set Strong Boundaries For Dealing With Interruptions
No matter how hard you may try to avoid it, you’re going to be put in situations where you’re working and getting constantly interrupted. It can happen in many places, whether it be at work with other co-workers, somewhere with friends, or at home with your family.
It can be frustrating, or it can take you off track, so you need to learn how to deal with these interruptions properly so that you keep up with your work while also being civil with others.
For example, let’s say that you’re working at home writing up some documents on your laptop. Your kids might come in and start talking to you or make loud noises in the background again and again.
What you shouldn’t do is get mad at them, but rather you should tell them to be quiet during certain times of the day or interact with them every so often so that they’re less prone to interrupting you later on.
The situation with your family can depend on age as well. Toddlers won’t understand very easily that you need to focus on work, so try and patiently work with them to not come in so often, or try and play with them a bit more when you can so that they feel like they’re seeing you enough.
With older kids they can be a bit more understanding, so you should be able to explain it to them, and with teens they probably want to be in their own rooms anyway. When it comes to coworkers, you don’t want to seem like a complete stick in the mud, but you also have to be able to focus on the work you’re there to do.
Ask them nicely to talk later when you’re not working, and if that doesn’t work, get a little sterner. They of all people should hopefully understand that you need work, and if they’re still preventing you from doing your work, you might have to take the problem to someone above you instead of dealing with it personally.
Finally, you have friends that can be distracting. They might badger you into going out and hanging out with them, or prod you about working too much, but you should be able to tell them that you have to work, and you’ll just have to organize some time to hang out later.
It’s a difficult balancing act, but you should be able to still enjoy the time you have with your friends and family without sacrificing your work.
As you can appreciate, all of this can take a lot of self-discipline and a positive attitude. If you don’t have this, you will probably struggle to manage your time and distractions, so it is well worth your while to adopt the correct mindset; I know this may sound a little cliched but it does really work.
If you want to develop self-discipline, click on the featured resource below to get a free report, The Power Of Self-Discipline; download, read it and take action 😊
5 Ways You Waste Time Every Day
Do you find yourself at the end of a day wondering just what you have managed to accomplish? Are you wasting valuable time each day?
If the answer is yes, check out the most common five ways you waste time every day. Be honest, do you find yourself doing any of them?
I’m sure you will be guilty of at least one of them as modern life is so full of things that can distract us from getting things done.
Many of us spend so much time being ‘busy’ but end up with nothing to show for it. Did you get your tasks for today done? No?
If that sounds a bit like you then this post will hopefully help you to become more productive each and every day by becoming aware of these distractions and time sinks and managing to avoid them to get stuff done.
You’ll also find some handy time management strategies in here too.
They can help you become more efficient and productive and be able to get the most out of your day.
Are you ready? Let’s get started…
5 Of The Biggest Timewasters Of Your Day
Even if you’re one of the more dedicated and organized people out there, you still waste time. Whether you work from home or in the office, we’re all guilty of getting distracted and losing focus.
It may not be deliberate, and you probably don’t even realize you’re doing it until it’s too late.
Here are five ways you waste time every day. See if you can relate.
1. Social Media/Emails/Texts
This is the big one and I can pretty much guarantee that everyone reading this post is or has been guilty of this one!
It’s become a vital part of our lives. But the world won’t stop turning if you don’t look at your social media for 15 minutes.
Another big distraction is hearing that too familiar ‘ding’ that comes with a new email or text message. It prevents you from finishing the task at hand because you keep looking at your phone every five minutes.
Picture this scenario: you’re in the middle of work when your phone beeps. You reach for your phone to see your incoming message. So, you go from message to email to Facebook to Instagram. Then, when you’re done, you notice that 20 minutes have gone by.
Research shows that each time you get distracted, even for a couple of minutes, your brain needs more than 20 minutes to refocus. Imagine how much wasted time that amounts to at the end of the day!
The Fix: Avoid randomly checking social media, emails, or texts. Instead, set up a certain time during your day for doing just that. In the meantime, turn off any notifications or mute your phone.
2. Organizing And Preparing
You’re probably wondering: how is this a time-waster?
But too often we fall down the rabbit hole of ‘organizing’ our day. Sometimes, we take too far that we actually run out of time to do any of the things on our list.
The Fix: Find an online planner and to-do-list. Then, pick one day out of the week where you plan out the whole seven days in advance.
Schedule in work-related projects, meetings, and deadlines. You can also include a workout schedule and get-togethers with friends.
3. Multitasking
Multitasking: another thing that we do to trick ourselves into believing we’re being productive. Yet, the sad truth is, multitasking wastes a ton of time.
It’s counter-productive when your attention is divided among several tasks at once. In other words, it’s just another form of distraction.
The Fix: It’s simple. Just put all your attention and focus on one task at a time. When you’re done, move on to the next task, and so on.
4. Checking The News
In this day and age, it seems something is happening in the news every five minutes. So, it’s easy to use the news as an excuse for procrastination. After all, we all want to be in the loop when it comes to politics, sports, and local news.
The Fix: Force yourself to stay away from checking news updates every half hour. You can use sheer self-discipline, or you can use a site blocker.
One great example is the Stay Focused Chrome app. It helps you ‘hide’ certain websites for, say, 45 minutes. Then, tell the app you want to spend 20 minutes on the so-and-so website. After the 20 minutes are done, the app will block you again until your next break.
5. Errands And Chores
The problem isn’t with the errands or chores themselves; it’s when you do them. Running errands during rush hour is one of the biggest time wasters ever!
Doing chores is another. You might be sitting at your desk, working away when you notice a dusty shelf or a cluttered drawer. So, you do the responsible thing and start dusting and decluttering.
You tell yourself that it’ll only take five minutes. Then, when you’re done cleaning the entire room/office, the day is over! And you still haven’t finished what you’re initially working on.
The Fix: Plan your errands ahead when you know there’ll be less traffic. Also, try to do your shopping when you know the stores won’t be as crowded and they’re in their least peak hours.
As for chores, set up one or two days during the week when you do all the dusting, cleaning, and decluttering. This way, even if you see catches your attention, you can push back in your mind and wait until ‘chore day’ rolls around.
A Final Note
We all get the same amount of time each day: 86,2400 seconds, 1,440 minutes, or 24 hours. It’s up to you to figure out how you’re going to spend that time. Sadly, many of us spend our days doing things that don’t really add any value to our lives—or anyone else’s for that matter.
The good news is you can train yourself to focus more and have fewer distractions. Make a conscious effort to add purpose and value to your life and follow through. You’ll soon notice you’re getting more done during your day than ever before!
OK, there are 5 ways you are wasting time every day. If you want to learn more time management strategies to make you more productive, then click on the featured resource below to download a free report that you can read at your leisure. Download, read it and take action 🙂
