Top 5 Time Wasters and How to Turn Them into Time Well-Spend

There is one resource in your life that once it is used, it cannot be gotten back. It cannot be earned, it cannot be saved, and it cannot be bought. That is your time. Once the time is gone, it is gone forever.

Now that we have moved past the sobering fact that once time is gone, it is gone, let’s focus on how we can be wasting our time and focus on how we can turn it around. Most of the time, you will find that it is not hard to stop wasting time and start using it.

1. Meetings

Most of us have been to those meetings that are poorly planned, time is wasted, and people end up talking about something that does not have anything to do with the topic at hand. Instead of attending large meetings, met with people one-on-one in order to get the most out of the time you are in meetings and to avoid time wasting meetings.

Do not go to a meeting if you already know that it is going to be a time waster. Simply decline the invitation and focus on attending meetings that are going to help you get things done and be productive.

Remember that not everyone understands how to run a meeting properly, but you can develop the skill to do so. Volunteer to take charge of the meetings that you must attend or take the initiative to step in when the focus starts to wander. Be gentle when bringing the attention back to the focus of the meeting, for example, saying, “I know all of our time is very important to us, so let’s bring the focus back to…”. Those who are attending the meeting that actually wants to be productive are going to really appreciate that you took control.

Make sure you are deciding who you are going to spend your time with. Remember, you do not have to accept every invitation to a meeting and if you think that the meeting or the person you will be meeting with is going to zap your energy, simply decline.

Know your intention. Just before you head out to a meeting, take some time to set your intentions. What do you want to achieve during the meeting? Is there anything that you want to learn from the meeting?

2. Focusing on non-important & non-urgent tasks

Have you ever started your day by simply reacting to the things that pop up in front of you first and then spend the rest of your day focusing on whatever happens to pop into your mind? I think we all have.

On those days, progress is not made and we end up feeling less than fulfilled at the end of the day because we know that we have not used our time in the best way.

In order to remedy this, you need to make sure that your urgent tasks are separated from your important tasks. It is very easy to spend our time being reactive and there are things that can seem very important at the moment, for example, when we receive an email marked urgent or when the phone is ringing, however, we have to stop ourselves from responding if we want to make the most of our time.

You have to be aware of what is going on. When you receive a request from someone, you need to take a step back and determine if the task is urgent or if it is important. If the request is urgent, you will want to determine how you can deal with it. If, however, it is just important, it does not need an immediate response.

Do what makes the biggest impact first. What would happen if each day you did one project or took part in one activity which would positively impact your business? That would add up to a lot of positive impact over time. This may more than any other practice, help you to become more effective in using your time properly because you will not be distracted by other activities and you are going to start to feel more satisfied with the way that you are using your time.

You make the choices. Remember that this is your business and no one else has the right to set your priorities. You determine what your priorities are. Each evening, determine what your priorities for the next day are going to be. You can do this before you leave your desk, as you sit down at night to relax, or the next morning before starting work.

3. Accepting the Wrong Clients

If a client is not a good fit for you or your business, they are going to drain your time. You are never going to feel that the job is good enough and the client is never going to be happy either. You are always going to be trying to make the client happy, always trying to catch up and never feel successful.

In order to deal with this, you need to first understand who your ideal clients are going to be. Take a few minutes and write down a description of your ideal client. Don’t just include their demographics or what their business is but focus on their attitude, how they will treat you, their expectations, and so on.

Stop accepting clients that are wrong for you and your business. This can be really tough when you are doing everything that you can to keep your business afloat and the cash is low. However, you need to remind yourself that you are leaving space open for those clients that are right for you. On top of that, you are not going to have to worry about a client that is dissatisfied with your work, talking bad about your business or services.

Take the time to find the right clients. Get to know your clients before you agree to work with them. Can you meet them? Can you have a virtual meeting? Do they seem excited to work with you?

4. Holding on Too Tight

You may find that you are spending your time on a project that is not the right fit for you, but because you have committed yourself to completing it, because you have invested your time, resources, and energy, you hold on too tightly and refuse to let it go.

Or you might find that you have team members that are just not a good fit and need to be let go.

Perhaps you have a client that you know you are not able to provide true value to but just don’t want to end your projects with them.

In order to remedy this, you are going to have to start understanding when it is time for you to hold on and when it is time to let go. While it is not always easy to know when you should let go, there are a few signs that you can watch out for.

·      What is your intuition telling you?

·      No matter how hard you try, things just don’t seem to be working.

·      You are going to have to continue to invest for a long time before there is a payoff.

Whether you have a client that is a wrong fit, a project, or a team member, it is better that you let go now rather than waiting. As hard as letting go may seem, it is in the interest of your business to do so.

?5. Social Media Monster

Have you ever wondered how many hours a week you spend on social media? How many hours have been wasted on these sites?

It is so easy to get drawn into social media as we tell ourselves that we are doing market research on trends or that we are making connections for our business.

In order to turn this around, if you are using social media for your business, you are going to want to focus on one platform instead of trying to have a presence on all of them.

Make sure that you are limiting the amount of time that you are spending on social media each day. There are all types of apps out there that are going to help you stay on track and to limit the amount of time that you are spending on social media. Of course, an old-fashioned timer will work as well.

Make sure that your connections count. Jumping from one interaction to the next is not a good way to build a relationship with your potential customers or anyone else for that matter. Instead of trying to interact with everyone all at once, connect with fewer people and make those connections count.

When it comes to making the most of your time, you need to figure out what is important to you and then spend your time focusing on that. Of course, we all spend some of our time staring off into space, getting lost in YouTube videos or scrolling through social media, but that should happen in our downtime, not when we are supposed to be working.

Instead, we need to make sure that we are actively engaged in the work that we are doing when we are supposed to be doing in order to build our businesses and expand them.