In this post, I will attempt to identify major time wasters that cause us loss of personal productivity.
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1. Poor planning. People don’t plan to fail but a lot of people fail to plan. Without a plan of action set up before your day begins you are likely to get caught up in “stuff”, responding the loudest voice that gets your time and attention. Will you have been productive for the day? Sure, but not as productive as you might have been.
2. Crisis management. When a deadline sneaks up on you it robs you of all choice and you are controlled by the clock. Crisis management, for the most part, is poor time management because you’re rushed and stressed.
3. Procrastination. All the planning in the world does not substitute for the doing. Many find that they just can’t get going on the things that will make a big difference in their success.
4. Interruptions. Unanticipated events coming your way, in person or electronically, can steal your time away. Many interruptions are necessary and part of what you get paid for. However, most are unnecessary thieves of your time.
5. Not delegating. “If you want a job done well you better do it yourself.” What a thief! Look at everything you have to do and ask, “Is this the best use of my time?” If it is, do it. If not, delegate it.
6. Unnecessary meetings. If two or more people get together and nothing productive comes of the time spent together, that meeting was unnecessary and, sadly, most meetings are time thieves.
7. The “shuffling blues”. Many people manage their time through piles. Piles of appear on their desk. Piles of “to be read” emails on their computer and lots of “to be heard” voicemails stored away. The piles require frequent review creating the shuffling blues, which surrenders valuable time. Keep a clean work environment.
8. Poor physical setup. Not having the things you need the most often within arm’s reach and having a lot of the things you rarely need close by causes you to waste a lot of time wearing out the carpet retrieving what you frequently need.
9. Poor networking. Quality relationships with others can be a huge time saver as they open doors for you with all kinds of opportunities. Failing to develop a good network base will cause you to waste time creating what you might have had through your network.
10. Bad attitude. Nothing sinks a day more effectively than having a poor attitude. It causes you to dwell on the problems and not the solutions and makes it possible to throw the day away.
11. Negative people. Some people are the life of the party, and some people are the death of the party. The problem with having negative people around you is you wind up spending a lot of your time listening to their complaints rather than focusing on your success.
