We can’t create more time out of thin air – we all have the same 24 hrs in a day available to us – but we can get better at how we use our time.
How do we get better at using our time?
Simple – quit wasting time! ?
(ok, I said “simple” – but don’t confuse simple with easy. It takes real effort to eliminate time wasters. But totally worth the productivity you will gain.)
Time-wasters fall into two categories:
- EXTERNAL time-wasters
- INTERNAL time-wasters
Let’s start with the low-hanging fruit.
External time-wasters are the things outside of us that make it way too easy to waste time—notifications, distractions, and interruptions.
❌Notifications
Please people, TURN OFF your notifications!
- Every ding on your phone, ping on your internal work messaging system, and pop-up or alert from email or social messaging channels – every one of these notifications interrupts your work. Interrupts your flow.
- It takes TIME and ENERGY for the brain to switch tasks. It’s neuroscience.
- You LOSE 15 minutes of productivity while your brain disengages from your current task, attends to the notification, then attempts to find its way back to where it left off.
- This alone can result in 5 hours of lost productive time PER DAY!
❌Distractions
- Having the TV, radio or podcasts on in the background may seem harmless but it distracts your attention.
Consider wearing noise-canceling headphones if you work in a noisy environment to block out distracting sounds. - This also works to send a visible signal to people not to interrupt you.
- Close all windows on your computer unrelated to your current task.
- Stay off social media during work/focus time. Enough said.
- Focus is one of the main keys to productivity and distractions of any kind kill your focus.
❌Interruptions
- While you can’t always prevent interruptions, you can PLAN in advance to minimize them.
- Train your coworkers, your kids, your spouse – whoever needs to know NOT to interrupt you during your FOCUS time.
- Close your door, if you have one. Leaving your office door open ‘invites’ people to stop in.
- If you don’t have a door, consider the headphone hack mentioned above.
So you can hack your productivity by going after the low-hanging fruit – the external time-wasters. Stay tuned – we’ll cover internal time-wasters next time!
Want help getting your work done faster so you can have more personal and family time?
I can definitely help you with that!
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Here’s to making the most of your time,
Denee