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Most of us are taught not to waste time. However it is easy to get into habits that, upon close examination, can be found to be big time wasters. I'd like to cover 3 points that, if not kept in mind, can cause us to become less efficient and to waste more time.
Email and Phone Interruptions:
As children most of us were taught to answer the phone when it rings. To most of us this action became automatic and has lasted into our adult years. More recently, with the advent of email, many of us have extended this habit to the way we handle our emails. Many folks keep a notification alarm on their computers which rings each time new mail comes in. These systems may check for emails every 5 to 10 minutes. These 2 habits, immediately answering the phone, and handling emails when they arrive can become major time wasters and can essentially stop our production.
If somebody knocks on your door in your office, it is considered polite for them to look in and ask you if you're busy and to come back another time if you are. The interesting thing about phone calls and emails is that they occur without regard to what we're doing. If we saw this in a colleague we would think it rude at best.
Most experts, and most people who get a lot done, agree that it is best to control phone calls and emails and to handle them at times of our own convenience. While this may not always be possible, an attempt to put some sort of control these factors can be very beneficial. One way to do this is to designate certain times of the day to handle phone calls as well as emails.
There are numerous ways of doing this. Each of us will find a workable method that's unique to our type of life and our work. Many folks find it quite useful to first check their email just after lunch. Perhaps they will heck it again at the end of the day. Though we can check it in the morning, this can easily incline us to diverge from our planned activities for the day. This is why many have discovered and now recommend that just after lunch is the best time to check that in box.
It is, unarguably, important to shut off the alarm notifying that email has arrived. What I personally do is turn off the automatic checking for email and check email manually. This way I am in full control of the incoming communications.
Of course phone calls might be our source of new clients and new opportunities. This is important and can be a great lure to getting us to handle each and every call as they arrive. But another workable way is to set aside certain periods of time when we'll be available for incoming phone calls. During times outside those designated periods either use answering system or secretary to take the call and to make a firm promise that the call will be returned by a certain specific time of the day. And, of course we need to keep that promise. What this does is allows us to control our lines of communication so we can have a few relatively interruption-free hours. It is during these interruption-free times that we can get the most done.
How you handle it is up to you, but you might want to try putting a bit of control into your communications. This can be a key to increasing your own efficiency and productivity.
Trying to Be Perfect:
A successful life requires action. Work has to get done. We need to look at action and regard it as what it actually is. It consists of 3 steps; start, change and stop. A cycle of action, in order to be successful and to be under control, needs to contain all 3 of those elements.
Perfectionism is one of the big lies that many of us adopt during our lives. We get the idea, sometimes from childhood, that things need to be perfect before we can end our actions on them and consider them done. The problem with this, because perfectionism is impossible, is that it tends to trap us in actions and we never are able to hit the "stop button". The truth is that doing our best is really the only realistic standard by which we can operate.
If we find ourselves not getting things done because we if we are not are trying to achieve perfection, not turning out products because they are not quite perfect enough, perhaps it is wise to figure out why we are trying to be perfect. Perhaps a simple definition of what perfection is would be of value. You might find it is very difficult to define.
It's best to leave perfection to those in society who cannot get things actually done.
Multitasking:
It is easy to get into the habit of doing many, many things at one time. There are so many electronic gadgets, programs, apps that exist which can all run simultaneously. Many of us do this on a habitual basis.
There are folks that have Facebook going all the time on their computers. Some have Twitter going. Some are checking their email constantly and trying to read it handle other people's communications on other people's schedules rather than on their own. It's easy, after a day of an immense amount of activity, to look back and see that really nothing of importance really got done.
There really is not anything such as multitasking. We might think that pilots are multitasking when they're flying an airplane, but the truth is all they're doing is flying an airplane. That task may be comprised of many separate actions but let's not be fooled into thinking that they are multitasking. Walking consists of an amazing number of actions. But the truth is we are only walking. It is one thing.
Being productive requires the ability to concentrate on one thing at a time. It is best to do one thing, then the next, and the next, etc. If we do that we will find our own efficiency skyrocketing.
Let's face it, efficiency is not something that we are achieving for its own sake. It is simply a measurement of how much we can get out of the given commodity. Time, for the most part, is a fixed commodity and our efficiency is our measurement of getting the most productivity out of the hours that we have. Keeping these 3 points in mind, trying to achieve new habits regarding them, can help us become more efficient and to increase our productivity in grand ways.
Email and Phone Interruptions:
As children most of us were taught to answer the phone when it rings. To most of us this action became automatic and has lasted into our adult years. More recently, with the advent of email, many of us have extended this habit to the way we handle our emails. Many folks keep a notification alarm on their computers which rings each time new mail comes in. These systems may check for emails every 5 to 10 minutes. These 2 habits, immediately answering the phone, and handling emails when they arrive can become major time wasters and can essentially stop our production.
If somebody knocks on your door in your office, it is considered polite for them to look in and ask you if you're busy and to come back another time if you are. The interesting thing about phone calls and emails is that they occur without regard to what we're doing. If we saw this in a colleague we would think it rude at best.
Most experts, and most people who get a lot done, agree that it is best to control phone calls and emails and to handle them at times of our own convenience. While this may not always be possible, an attempt to put some sort of control these factors can be very beneficial. One way to do this is to designate certain times of the day to handle phone calls as well as emails.
There are numerous ways of doing this. Each of us will find a workable method that's unique to our type of life and our work. Many folks find it quite useful to first check their email just after lunch. Perhaps they will heck it again at the end of the day. Though we can check it in the morning, this can easily incline us to diverge from our planned activities for the day. This is why many have discovered and now recommend that just after lunch is the best time to check that in box.
It is, unarguably, important to shut off the alarm notifying that email has arrived. What I personally do is turn off the automatic checking for email and check email manually. This way I am in full control of the incoming communications.
Of course phone calls might be our source of new clients and new opportunities. This is important and can be a great lure to getting us to handle each and every call as they arrive. But another workable way is to set aside certain periods of time when we'll be available for incoming phone calls. During times outside those designated periods either use answering system or secretary to take the call and to make a firm promise that the call will be returned by a certain specific time of the day. And, of course we need to keep that promise. What this does is allows us to control our lines of communication so we can have a few relatively interruption-free hours. It is during these interruption-free times that we can get the most done.
How you handle it is up to you, but you might want to try putting a bit of control into your communications. This can be a key to increasing your own efficiency and productivity.
Trying to Be Perfect:
A successful life requires action. Work has to get done. We need to look at action and regard it as what it actually is. It consists of 3 steps; start, change and stop. A cycle of action, in order to be successful and to be under control, needs to contain all 3 of those elements.
Perfectionism is one of the big lies that many of us adopt during our lives. We get the idea, sometimes from childhood, that things need to be perfect before we can end our actions on them and consider them done. The problem with this, because perfectionism is impossible, is that it tends to trap us in actions and we never are able to hit the "stop button". The truth is that doing our best is really the only realistic standard by which we can operate.
If we find ourselves not getting things done because we if we are not are trying to achieve perfection, not turning out products because they are not quite perfect enough, perhaps it is wise to figure out why we are trying to be perfect. Perhaps a simple definition of what perfection is would be of value. You might find it is very difficult to define.
It's best to leave perfection to those in society who cannot get things actually done.
Multitasking:
It is easy to get into the habit of doing many, many things at one time. There are so many electronic gadgets, programs, apps that exist which can all run simultaneously. Many of us do this on a habitual basis.
There are folks that have Facebook going all the time on their computers. Some have Twitter going. Some are checking their email constantly and trying to read it handle other people's communications on other people's schedules rather than on their own. It's easy, after a day of an immense amount of activity, to look back and see that really nothing of importance really got done.
There really is not anything such as multitasking. We might think that pilots are multitasking when they're flying an airplane, but the truth is all they're doing is flying an airplane. That task may be comprised of many separate actions but let's not be fooled into thinking that they are multitasking. Walking consists of an amazing number of actions. But the truth is we are only walking. It is one thing.
Being productive requires the ability to concentrate on one thing at a time. It is best to do one thing, then the next, and the next, etc. If we do that we will find our own efficiency skyrocketing.
Let's face it, efficiency is not something that we are achieving for its own sake. It is simply a measurement of how much we can get out of the given commodity. Time, for the most part, is a fixed commodity and our efficiency is our measurement of getting the most productivity out of the hours that we have. Keeping these 3 points in mind, trying to achieve new habits regarding them, can help us become more efficient and to increase our productivity in grand ways.
About the Author:
Visit DayPlanner.info for more Time Management and Day Planning Hints and Tools. And Download, FREE OF CHARGE, our own Daily Planning Tool called Time Coach.
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