Probably the first rule in economy for making money is actually saving money, sewing your pockets, identifying those unnecessary things that eat your money and getting rid of them – this also goes for time management – the first thing you need to do in order to save time is to stop wasting time.
We all know how easy it is to waste so much time by either doing nothing or doing completely irrelevant stuff that only brings frustration and non-productivity. Let’s check out some steps that can help us getting these obstacles out of the way:
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1. Start with the Truth
This requires something that at times might be difficult to exercise – self-honesty. A good start here would be asking yourself these questions and laying the cards all out on the table (you can even write them down):
Am I completely honest with how I spend my time?
Am I a procrastinator?
Am I often frustrated from not finishing what I have planed to do in a day?
Am I aware of the things that waste my time?
Am I aware of the ways to get rid of the “time wasters”?
Am I aware of my priorities?
Am I satisfied with what I get from the way I spend my free time?
Am I willing to improve my time management skills?
These short interruptions from work are detrimental to your productivity not simply and only in terms of the actual time you have wasted with them – most often we forget to take into consideration the time it takes to regain our concentration after each stop.
3. Remember: You hold the reins
Recognizing yourself as the one in charge over your day and productivity is the key to accomplishing what you want. Assume responsibility and even extract from it the pleasure of being in control of your tasks – you can simplify your time-management using some digital or manual tools such as planners, and calendars, etc.
4. Stop drifting away
Don’t leave your day to chance. Make a schedule (to include time for yourself). Starting each morning without a roadmap will get you wasting time trying to find purpose in what you’re doing, wandering around a sense of direction. 10 minutes of planning will save you even hours within a day.
5. Stop procrastinating – remove the unessential
While some type of procrastination is very easy to identify, there’s another, subtler one that fools even the hardest-working among us. It’s the pseudo-busyness that we ‘achieve’ by filling our time with smaller, insignificant tasks which we then use to justify not getting not work on the real important ones or our lack of energy and desire for commitment.
