Sure, you’d probably admit that you should manage your time better. Most of us would! The actual statistics on wasted time, though, are really shocking. Time management is a critical issue facing businesses and individuals alike.
Did you know?
On average, at work, a person is interrupted every eight minutes, with each interruption lasting about five minutes. This works out to be about between fifty to sixty interruptions per day. Employees rate eighty percent of these interruptions at little or no value. The end result is four hours per day of wasted time.
Twenty percent of a typical workday is spent on tasks critical to one’s position, and a whopping eighty percent is spent doing things people describe as having little or no value.
A person who works at a messy desk spends an average of an hour and a half per day looking for things, or being distracted by the contents of the space. This results in seven and a half hours per workweek spent simply for an untidy space.
Forty percent of working people skip breakfast; many skip lunch, and of those who take a lunch break, most only allow themselves a maximum of fifteen minutes to eat their meal.
The average full time worker spends less then 30 seconds per day of meaningful interaction with their children.
In addition, the average full time worker spends less then two minutes per day of meaningful interaction with his or her spouse or meaningful other.
Consider this alternative: One hour of planning will save ten hours of doing. Think of all of the goals and dreams you could accomplish by eliminating or simply reducing wasted time! For starters, time management is not doing the wrong things more quickly; it’s doing the right things the first time.
Play to your strengths.
Most people have the habit of analyzing their weaknesses and spend time trying to improve in those areas. Stop! Work to your strengths instead and delegate your weaknesses. We spend around 80% of our time trying to make strengths out of our weaknesses. 80%! That’s a lot of time. It’s time that would be so much better spent nurturing and strengthening our true talents!
Instead of assessing your weaknesses, assess your strengths. What do you do best? If you focus on these things, you will continue to improve, giving yourself the highest possible chance of success.
Work smart, not hard.
There is a common vicious cycle in the world of working harder instead of smarter. Often, without taking the time for feelings of completion, people work harder and longer in an effort to reach that feeling of success, of doing something constantly, which paradoxically becomes further out of reach the more tasks they take on.
Aim for completion.
To be a good time manager, you have to aim for success by focusing on completion. Work on one thing at a time. Though we all lead busy lives that by definition deem us multi-taskers, at the end of the day—make sure you have finished something!
Rank ‘em.
Make high priority items first on your list. When you are establishing the rank of a task’s priority, be sure to consider the long-term effects of that task.
Deadlines.
Don’t set deadlines that are impossible to meet. But when you set your deadline, meet it.
Intentionally set priorities.
Often, some clients are not worth the time we put into them. Prioritize! It is perfectly reasonable for a realtor, for example, to not deal with listings that are going to sap more of their energy than they are worth.
What’s it worth to you?
One way to prioritize your busy work chores is to calculate your hourly worth. Then consider if you want to spend that much on mowing your lawn rather than seeing your daughter’s dance recital, learning a foreign language, playing an instrument or trying something new at work.
R & R.
Consider that without proper rest and relaxation you can be susceptible to chronic exhaustion. It may sound dramatic, but many of us run on fumes. Fill your tank! From the outside your life might shine like a fine automobile, but if your engine’s depleted and out of tune, you’ll eventually fall into a heap on the side of the road. Finding a college student who will help out with busy work can add a lot of time to your schedule and allow you to have time for recreation and rest.
Consider your options. Analyze your use of time management and imagine the things you can do with the time you save. It’s estimated, for example, that one hour of daily individual study (of any subject), for three to five years is the equivalent to that of a full time student. With only one hour per day, you could be an expert in any subject you choose within a few years.
There are many books out there specifically dedicated to additional time saving ideas. Add them to your library! Consider however, this important reminder: after you find new ways to streamline your time, do the things that are most important to you. Don’t ‘waste’ your ‘saved’ time.