How to catch the time thief and get more done by Natalie Sisson

As entrepreneurs, we often think we can work miracles in the space of 24 hours. Looking at your long to-do list of critical items for this week, you probably realize you are not going to achieve half of it. In other words you have planned to fail.

I recently read that, in a given day, most people only get two hours of actual work done! I’m starting to believe that could be true. Time management appears to be a problem for almost the entire human population. So I decided to break down the key characteristics of this mysterious time thief:

Thief #1: Unrealistic Expectations

Look at your daily list of things you want to achieve. Put the number of uninterrupted hours needed to complete each one next to it. I’ll bet that for those of you with long lists you’ve already gone past 10 hours.

Let’s be honest with ourselves, this isn’t sustainable or useful so prioritize!

Outsource, delegate or shift them to the following week.

Thief # 2: Social Networking Addictions

If you have a smartphone you know how easy it is to stay connected 24/7. Do you wake up in the morning and spend 30-60 minutes reading your email, checking Facebook, responding on Twitter and reading some blogs – from your bed?!

This is not time wasted but you do have to ask yourself could it have been better spent focusing on completing items on your to do list that are actually a priority? We all need to acknowledge our social networking time as part of our working day – it’s educational and can be incredibly valuable, like time you set aside to read a book, but it can be a massive ineffective time suck too.

Account for time spent on Social Networks as integral time to expand your business and connections, and work on your sales, customer service and marketing goals. Schedule 2-3 sessions of it into your day.

Thief # 3: Non-Critical Distractions

Oh yes we all have these. “I must reply to that email to that person that has nothing to do with my business and is not a good use of my time”. “I’ll just watch this YouTube video that a friend sent”. “I’ll click on this website and then open up links to all the other sites they suggest viewing”. Why?

Ask yourself: Is this of benefit to my business? Will it make me money? Is this a key customer? Can I help them in anyway that will benefit us both? If the answer is no, then hit DELETE, don’t make that call or shut down that browser or don’t schedule that meeting. Remember your time is precious.

Read more here: http://clubasteriaeducation.com/authors/how-to-catch-the-time-thief-and-get-more-done/