Finding Your Wasted Time – Time Management Series – Part 1

Do you find yourself running out of time more than you should? How often are you stuck time-crunching a deadline?

I’ve been looking into my own time management, or mismanagement as it sometimes feels, and thought other bloggers, writers or people who work from home may have the same issues and obstacles.

Do you know where your time goes? You can’t effectively manage your time until you know where it’s going.

Take a few days to keep track of everything you do. Keep a pen and paper next to you throughout the day and jot down every thing you do, note the time and how long it takes. You can do this from the time you get up in the morning or when your work day starts, where ever you feel you may be wasting the most time.

Here’s an example of how a typical mismanaged day can go.

7:00 am – 7:45 am – Check and respond to emails.
7:45 am –Refill coffee, tea, soda, etc.
7:50 am –Open Word to start article
7:51 am –Look for notes from research
7:52 am—New email alert, check it.
7:53 am—Respond to email telling friend it was funny, enjoyed it.
7:55 am—Start reading notes for article – again.
8:00 am –Twitter beep, gotta see who it is.
8:30 am—Back to notes for article after replying to tweets and retweets.
8:31 am—A light should be going off here alerting you that you’re an hour and a half into your work day and haven’t written the first paragraph of the article.

Where can some of this wasted time be saved? Is it really necessary to spend 45 minutes on email? Were they all important or a top priority?

Would it be possible or more feasible to spend half an hour on email, twitter and coffee – at the same time?

Let’s say we’ve decided to revise the above wasted time and make a conscious effort to get to work faster.

7:00 am- 7:30 am – Email, twitter, coffee.
7:30 am –Close email and twitter. Open Word, read notes.
7:40 am—Start writing article.

At this point we’re almost 45 minutes into the work day, but we’ve started writing.

Taking account of your time can help you determine where it’s wasted and help you gain control when you begin to actively work on time management.

Routine vs. Habit

One of the first things you need to do is distinguish between the things you do that are habits and the things that are routine.

A habit is something you do without thought. Examples could be checking email when it beeps, or checking Twitter when it beeps. That’s why it’s suggested you turn those things off while you’re actually working.

Routine appears closely related to habit, but it usually consists of some fore-thought.

A routine is something you do with conscious effort, generally following a customary procedure.

Routines and habits can both be changed and/or improved, but it will take persistence on your part to implement the changes.

Routines can also become habits.

Routine Efficiency

Is your routine efficient? Ask yourself questions like, “Would I be more efficient if I checked email later in the morning instead of first thing?” “Is it effective to spend half an hour on Twitter instead of 15 minutes?” “Are there any other things I do that could be done in a shorter time span and help my efficiency?”

Spend the next week paying attention to how you spend your time, note things that are routine (done with fore-thought and planning) and the things that are just habits and time wasters.

Come back next Wednesday (October 7) for Steps to Creating Routines.

Written by Patti Stafford from Patti Stafford
Posted on September 28th, 2009 and filed under Writing
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