Everyone is always complaining about running out of time. How much time is wasted complaining?
We aspire to being 100% productive when we work, but the fact is that nobody is perfect. Time wasting is a bugbear of any busy person.
It can be a matter of using time poorly, or falling victim to things beyond our control. What are the most common, and most influential time wasters of the working week? What are the common negative thought loops that can keep you stuck in a mind frame that perpetuates the problem?
So many of us dread looking at our email inbox after a day or two away – that dreaded mountain that we’ve tried to chip away at from our mobile devices in our free time – now has our full attention. The problem here is that the focus is on the communication method – not the communication content. It’s not a mountain of email we are facing; it is a mountain of questions and correspondence.
With email being such an easy way to ask a question or send some information, there is no easy way to reduce the amount of email you will receive – but by focusing on providing solutions and/or electing not to spend too much time on these problems that other people send through you can start to reclaim your day. So reframe and rewrite those negative thoughts that hold you back!
Meetings are one of the most complained about activities of the working week. Common criticisms are that nothing ever gets achieved, they take too long, that they always meander off course and most importantly, they are a waste of time!
Again, meetings are just a form of communication, and to communicate effectively you need everyone on the same page seeking a similar goal. Too often people use a meeting to raise only mildly relevant grievances, or fail to keep on topic and address the problems being raised. Meetings without a pre-arranged agenda are almost destined to turn into a fruitless chitchat session.
Reframe (be brave) and give feedback to those managing the meetings. And if it is you – then get feedback from those who attend your meetings as to how to make them more effective.
Are there people in your workplace that seem to make a habit of wasting your time? They tend to be very friendly folk that enjoy discussing a lot of non-work related activity. Perhaps they frequently come to you to talk about workplace politics, or even worse, to complain about their workload.
Strangely enough there are a lot of people that consider their boss a source of time wasting. An attentive boss is a great thing, and it’s usually a good idea to spend your time on what your boss considers to be important – but the people that complain about a boss wasting their time are usually referring to the interruption to the work they are trying to complete.
A lot of time can be spent travelling to and from work, and unless you have the luxury of shifting your workplace closer to home, or in some cases work from home, then travelling time is an inescapable part of the day.
The trick is to try and use this time productively. Many people now use the time to read through emails or listen to music or make some calls. These are all good ways of using the time. Consider listening to meditation recordings, or podcasts about a topic of interest to you. Or take those unread articles you put aside for later. If you have to spend time travelling, you may as well enjoy it!
This is the time waster that is the most difficult to admit to and often we don’t even realise that we are procrastinating. It can take the form of doing non-urgent activities ahead of urgent ones, or it can be in the form of just not doing anything instead of the work that needs to be done. Procrastination is a mental battle in which your innate resistance to difficult tasks wins against your urge to get things done.
Procrastination is usually preceded by a feeling and a justification that the workload or a particular task is overwhelming. If you can address the negative thoughts that create this undesired behaviour.
Reframe your mindset to be positive and productive.
Time remains a constant but how we react to the pressure of time determines our success. Once you make time a fun concept, managing it becomes easy and you gain special moments.
Join Eve today at 12.30pm for a free webinar: 10 timesaving tools.
Eve Ash motivates people to manage themselves more effectively. Eve’s podcasts can help you be more effective at work, Eve’s book Rewrite Your Life! shows how to create a positive mindset, avoid procrastination and reach your goals, while her wide range of DVDs can help you be more effective in managing yourself and your staff.
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