How to combat time wasters
Do you waste time daily? Can’t you finish a project? Our day is full of time wasters and it’s our job to control the day by combating them. If you identify what wastes your time, it will be easier for you to fight them. This is a list of the most common time wasters and how to deal with each one.
1. Social media
Social media is one of the greatest time wasters that no one can deny. We usually get lost scrolling feeds without any idea why we are doing so. A way to manage social media is to set a specific time for it with a timer and turn off all notifications.
2. Interruptions
Interruptions, unexpected visitors, unnecessary chats, gossiping, unscheduled phone calls are all potential time-wasters. Set a time during the day to fulfil all these calls and contacts, only if you want.
3. Saying yes
Accepting all invitations, work load, or chats will take from your personal productive time. Make sure that saying yes to any request that will align with your personal productivity schedule and will not waste your time. Take care, too much socializing will turn into time wasting, limit your time and know the difference between being friendly and wasting time.
4. Procrastinations
We always postpone hard, long, important, or boring projects and tasks and replace it with less important activities. The issue is that the task keeps haunting us as it needs to be implemented. So a solution is to learn to bite the bullet. Instead of postponing the task, just get it done. Break the project into doable small tasks and take a break intervally till you get done with it. Try to focus with the task in hand.
5. Lack of self discipline
Self-discipline is knowing what to pay attention to and what to ignore. If you don’t have a specific structure, you’ll feel lost. To combat this issue, use time blocking technique to set each activity at a specific time and stay on track with a structured schedule. Time blocking is a simple productivity method: Instead of completing your tasks whenever you find time to work on them, you schedule time on your calendar in advance to focus on specific tasks.
6. Unclarity of priorities
If you don’t have clear priorities, you will be lost. Set your priorities and have a roadmap for your behaviour.
7. Conflict
Life is full of conflicts, disputes, and disagreements, and unfortunately, they drain our energy to focus and be productive. The solution is to learn how to assess the dispute and handle it in a way to minimize its negative effect on you and your productivity.
The key tool to combat time wasters either the ones mentioned above or others, is to plan. Plan your day the night before or in the morning. You just need to set your tasks in a schedule and stick to it while strictly managing your time wasters. Good luck.
