How to Break Your Time Wasting Habits

As we all know our time is finite. You cannot produce more of it. You have 24 hours in the day and the key is to maximize your use of that time. Let’s take a look at how you can use your time more effectively.

Think Bigger
First, get yourself a larger wastepaper basket for your office. By having more room to throw stuff out it makes the process less painful. You will begin finding your office to have less clutter because you won’t have one more reason to hang on to something.

Set Time Limits
Another suggestion is to give yourself specific time limits to finish the certain tasks you are working on. By giving yourself a time limit, you are creating built in boundaries to get things done in a reasonable amount of time. Have you ever noticed if you don’t have any other pressing things to get done, the amount of time you spend on the task you are working on seems to expand to fill up your schedule.

Use Time Blocks
The next idea for making the best use of your time is to block off 30 to 60 minutes to return your emails. Allow no interruptions during this time. Don’t make or take any phone calls and work on this task until your time is up. You will see how much more you can accomplish in this short time frame where you stay focused on simply returning those emails.

Excuse Yourself
Finally, employ the “I gotta go technique”. The time to use this strategy is when you find yourself talking to someone on the phone or in person who talks incessantly and doesn’t know when to stop. Here is how you use this technique. Wait for the person to make a comment that you can reply to and then right in the middle of your response, interrupt yourself and then excuse yourself from the conversation. It might sound like this, “Joyce, the point you make is a good one and …..oh my gosh I just looked at my watch and I gotta go”. This approach makes it easy for you to excuse yourself and let you get back to what you really need to be doing.

You can break your time wasting habits by using these suggestions and as a result, make the time for the things you really want to do.

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Tom Borg is president of Tom Borg Consulting, LLC. He is a business consultant, speaker, coach and author. He helps companies and organization become more profitable by increasing their value and lowering their costs through the professional development of their managers and employees.