Managing Your Time and Reducing Distractions - Part 2
In the previous post about managing your time we talked about creating a list of tasks, spending more time on your most impactful tasks and breaking down tasks into smaller chunks. While these skills are important, it is also important to identify ways in which your time and attention can be taken away by different kinds of distractions or unnecessary tasks. If you haven't read the previous post you can view it here.
You can be busy in your job and still not productive. There are several tasks that you may work on that appear to be productive but do not move your business forward in a meaningful way such as sending endless emails, taking unnecessary phone calls, or other low impact duties. You want to identify and spend less time on these unnecessary tasks and remove them from your schedule if possible.
Review the various constraints and distractions that are setting you back from achieving your goals. What factor is limiting the speed at which you can complete a task? Many of these factors are internal such as your own abilities, habits and disciplines. A small amount of factors such as competition or government regulations are external. Work on removing these constraints to increase productivity.
General distractions can also be a huge detriment to your time. Technological distractions can fall into 2 categories: the need to over communicate with others and the influence of social media. Both of those factors can quickly become a form of addiction and a massive time drain on your business. The solution is to detach from these devices on a regular basis. Close out the social media sites and turn of your phone while you are working.
The main reason you develop time management skills is to free up more time to do things in your personal life. Do your work efficiently so you don't have to spend time outside of work making up for it. Now that you have the extra time in your life you can decide to spend it on your health, relationships, finances, knowledge or building your business.
The critical take away from these posts is to spend a focused and concentrated effort on the task with the greatest positive impact on your business. If you have an account on Casicrane, challenge yourself to create one post or make one sale this week and consider registering if you don't have an account. As always, if you have any questions or concerns you can contact me here.