How to avoid wasting time?

 

How to avoid wasting time?

 

Waste of time: change your vision and apply these 7 actions

   

Time is a difficult factor to manage when you want to maximize your productivity . Indeed, the more we delve into the question oftime management , the more we realize that wasting time or giving in to procrastination is problematic and has serious consequences. So how do you avoid wasting time  ?

Is it possible to make up for lost time  ? In practice, no. It is however possible to save time, to avoid wasting time, but indisputably, the time spent is lost forever.

Knowing how to recognize the actions that waste your time is beneficial for many aspects of your life. Not only does this allow you to be more efficient, but it encourages you to face the unexpected and to have good stress management .

 

 

What if our vision of time was different?

The value of time is priceless. Expressions such as “wasting precious time” or “saving precious time” are recurrent in our professional life as well as in our personal life.

 

Manage your priorities instead of managing your time to avoid wasting time

Our collaborators and our relatives focus most of the time on the time devoted to this or that mission, this or that activity.Management and business coach Matt Sandrini argues that most of us live with time, but instead of obsessing over the "  quantity of time  ", it would be better to focus on its "  quality  ". Thus, we should not focus on time management, but on priority management .

 

Manage your time and be organized

Time management implies that a person is “time dependent”, which is confusing. Time is linear (on Earth) and whether you decide to be productive or not, time flies, whether it's dedicated to reading your emails and organizing your inbox or being present meetings, and whether care has been taken to delegate this or that task or not. It would therefore suffice to adapt one's personal organization to be more efficient.

 

Time is not wasted. Time is over.

We often say that we have to “  find the time  ” or that we are going to “  waste our time  ”. However, let us remember that time cannot be shaped at our will, stored as we would like it to be or be tangible like something we possess. It is not an object that can be lost or found at will. Because ultimately, we know full well what the agenda is, what are the time -consuming activities , what meetings are wasting our time, what are those that have allowed us to save considerable time.

 

Time can't be frozen

What should also be remembered, when you want to manage time effectively, is that you can't stop it. Hence the need to correctly estimate the time needed to accomplish our tasks. It is impossible to control the time spent and the time that passes. Our only option is therefore to manage our schedule, to be efficient thanks to our ability to organize and manage our future actions. Open your digital toolbox! Many management software are available.

 

People who read this article also read:   Process optimization: the 7 steps for solid processes

 

 

Awareness of wasting time & why is time important?

For fear of wasting his time , an individual will always try to find THE way to have absolute control over his day. He will therefore start by eliminating all the activities that waste his time and will carry out a well-defined list of tasks , because his personal organization will depend on his professional efficiency.

 

Manage your time effectively and indulge your passions

It is only natural to seek to manage your time effectively. The more an individual is able to plan his day, the more he will be able todevote his time to other activities (like his hobbies ). Don't forget, between doing nothing and wasting time unnecessarily, the result is the same. Time flies and you miss your goals.

 

Become aware of your human condition

Effective time management is possible when it is integrated into a pre-established system. One of the prerequisites of this system is to control our emotions and our feelings as human beings so as not to draw too much on our resources. Choices made throughout the day have a significant impact on willpower and self-control. Thus, organizing your schedule effectively involves exercising self- discipline . Making the most of your time means taking into consideration the human conditions that drive you.

 

How to avoid wasting time?

Waste of time is a plague. However, it is possible to avoid wasting your time in order to achieve your objectives more quickly.

 

1. Determine your main source of distraction

In order to avoid wasting time, it would be necessary to determine the main source of distraction that would waste time. Then, it is naturally necessary to reduce it , or even eliminate it .

 

2. Know how to surround yourself well to avoid wasting time

Also, some people do not share the same professional priorities (or for that matter the same personal priorities). They will put you "on the road" or "stones in your way". Stay away from such individuals.

 

3. Prioritization and tools

Organizing your life well and organizing your time allow the optimization of working time and increase your productivity. In order to become effective, it is therefore necessary to free up time to prioritize the tasks to be carried out and possibly to be assisted by the available tools, whether it is an alarm clock or a timer.

 

4. The Pomodoro method to eliminate wasted time

The Pomodoro method consists of working in cycles of a few minutes or a few hours, which you can space out with a break of around thirty minutes or more if necessary. It is a cycle . So for 25 min spent working, you will give yourself 5 min break.Beforehand, you should establish your priorities and determine the amount of work.

 

5. The Eisenhower Matrix

The Eisenhower matrix allows you to prioritize tasks according to their degree of importance and to determine emergencies. This system not only makes it possible to be more efficient, but also to save a lot of time by knowing when is the ideal time to start a particular task. There are 4 categories of tasks:

•             important and urgent,

•             important and not urgent,

•             not important and urgent,

•             not important and not urgent.

 

6. Save time by training?

It is possible to work more efficiently when you take training in time management . Such a step can allow you to define your priorities and at the same time find the right organizational methods.

 

7. Know the rules of time management and learn to organize yourself

It is important to know certain laws of the organization in order to improve its productivity. Before setting a specific pace—number of hours per day spent working and minutes per day spent entertaining—it's a good idea to know these basics .

 

People who read this article also read:   How to get organized: 7 steps to easily achieve your goals

 

 

Pareto's Law

Pareto's law , also known as the “80/20 principle” states that “80% of the effects we obtain are the results of 20% of the causes”.The application of this law can be extended. But we can easily understand that 20% investment can result in simple acts such as setting priorities or knowing how to say no to unnecessary waste of time in order to “get to work”.

 

Laborit's law and wasting time

Starting with tasks that are easier to complete is completely understandable behavior. For a professional who wants to manage his working time effectively, however, it is preferable to determine priorities by highlighting the tasks that require more resources (intellectual in particular) and start with these. Laborit's law alerts us to the fact that we may tend to run away from difficulty.Mistrust.

 

Carlson's Law

Interruptions have never made people more productive. To be able to control your time, it is imperative to pay attention to the quality of your work environment. To do this, it is possible to stay away from your phone and email notifications. Also, it is important to understand the “dangers of social networks” in terms of productivity. These monopolize the concentration. Carlson's law therefore invites us to put ourselves in conditions that will allow us not to be interrupted for maximum concentration and efficiency.

 

Parkinson's law and wasting time

Being able to increase productivity when faced with urgent tasks is essential. On this point, Parkinson's law stipulates that a task can extend over the duration assigned to it. By establishing a professional schedule, with consistent and realistic deadlines, we can be surprised at the time saved and honor the achievement of such tasks with brilliance.

 

When managing your time, you will often encounter obstacles that will certainly prevent you from being productive. Do not panic !Managing your work well is a full-time job. In order not to waste time and avoid loss of time, it is advisable to organize oneself as well as possible and with “a little more efficiency each day”.