13 Biggest Time Wasters!

Time is a valuable asset that cannot be replaced, yet so many people find it simple, if not normal to waste massive quantities of time. Guess what? Once time is gone, it is gone forever…you cannot buy more or replace time.

Spending time wisely creates infinite value in life. Spending time wisely allows us to schedule time off and breaks that are much less stressful and thus more fun and healthy because we are not worrying about what has not yet been completed…not worrying about wasted time.

Wasting time leads to increased stress, Increased stress not only leads to health issues, but also directly influences fat accumulation on the body due to increased fat storing hormone activity!

So what are the things that waste the most time in our lives? Here is the list and some ways to change things to be more productive in life…so that you can afford to go on vacation without stress and SPEND your time as you wish.




13. Indecision! Failure to make a decision simply steals time from you, and it is way more that you would think. Indecision leads to procrastination (#12 By The Way), and without making a decision, nothing will ever get done!

When it is time to make a decision, make it and move on. Should you make the wrong desision then fail fast and forward, pick yourself up, make necessarry adjustmenats and changes and give it another shot.

Don’t live in fear, grab life by the horns and ride it!

12. Procrastination!
Continually putting things off puts you in a place of reaction. When you live in reaction you are not in control, just reacting to what has become urgent.

Take care of business as it is happening and within a schedule of priorities. Get the crap off your desk, schedule and pay the bills as they arrive, keep a clear desk and deal with things quickly.

If you are going to just sit around and waste time, make sure it is in your plan and in your best interest.

11. Time Bandits!
How many people do you know who love to come up to you and just steal your time with worthless chatter (assuming that you are not one of these people;-)? They distract you constantly and show no respect for the work you are doing.

Two things I have found that help keep time bandits away:

One is shut the door! Simple but effective most of the time…however there are still some people who just barge in anyway (boy does that piss me off), so then you need to make it clear that when the door is shut, you are not available.

The other is just look busy! Most of the time people won’t bother someone who is clearly busy, or so you hope!

10. Poor Planning!

You must plan your day and then do the best you can to stick to your plan.

Without planning, you will waste your own time constantly by just spinning your wheels constantly trying to decide what to do next, often losing site of what is truly the most important.

Plan your schedule for the next day and always do it the day before.

Put the most important tasks first on the list so they get done. These items should be the things that will yield the greatest returns.

9. Instant Messaging!

Instant messaging has got to be the single largest waste of time in the business world!

What a great way to completely interrupt your train of thought…someone gets to send you a bleep and message right as you are having a huge thought or are in the middle of a project. How are you ever going to get back to where you were at that minute?

8. Multi-Tasking!
How can you possibly give your best effort to more than one task at a time?

It is just not possible to concentrate and complete a task at the highest level while multi-tasking.

Pick one project and complete it perfectly and then move on to the next. Otherwise nothing EVER has your complete and full attention and thus cannot be done to the highest standards (that you hold!)

7. Phone Calls!
Every call is not urgent! You do not have to answer the phone every time it rings, and why would you? Is the person on the other end of the phone paying your bills? No, the work you are doing is paying your bills! (OK, if the phone is your business…you get that one)

Answering the phone is a complete distraction from work that is being done. You get pulled away every time, even if it is a telephone marketer or a friend.

We all have voice mail…use it.

6. Not Having Time Scheduled and Managed!

Failure to schedule your time effectively leaves you not having a plan and thus nothing to follow and reach goals.

Break your schedule into 50 minute blocks and set a timer to keep you on track. Set reminders and follow-ups. If time is up and you are not finished with a task then add it to the schedule for tomorrow.

5. Smart Phones (yea right…smart?)!

Email with us everywhere, text messages, always available. Sure all that stuff sounds good, but do you always need to be in touch with everything? Is email so critical that you have to get to it while at lunch? If it was that important then why didn’t they call?

The bottom line is that we need some time to ourselves now and then. Checking email by phone may be OK some of the time, but not all the time.

When you do use the phone to check your email, what happens when you get back to the computer? The email has to be dealt with a second time! That is wasting time.

4. FaceBook!

OK, FaceBook is fun and can have some great benefits. But how much time do you spend on it? Many people spend their lives on this damn thing! How the hell can you ever get anything serious done when you are always telling everyone what you are doing? Seriously, I see some people posting to this thing every 15-30 minutes of the day…how can they get anything done! Many of them just complain all the damn time. I figure that if Facebook was not in control of their lives they would have more time to get quality work completed at a higher level.

3. Interruptions!

Think about how often you get interrupted during a day…it can be many times. You are working and thinking and then BAM! Something gets you and pulls you away from very intelligent thought.

Was it your phone, cell phone, the person coming to your door, instant messaging, a computer bleep because Bertha Facebooked something about her dog eating the cat food again…now you have been pulled away from your work.

Guess what…

Any interruption during the work process will waste at least 20 minutes beyond the time the interruption actually took. It takes that long just to get your mind back to the focus it had before the interruption.

Limit interruptions and you will maximize time! Deal with things after your time allotment.

2. Text Messaging!

• Hey John! Wat r u doin?
• Nada, wat u doin?
• Same.
• well u should go sit on an apple!
• No you should, then sit on a nail;-)
• LOL! That was funny.

20 minutes later you are a bit dumber than you were before you started that thread of meaningless nonsense.

Now don’t get me wrong, that stuff can be fun when you are NOT working. It is also helpful in certain circumstances, like “hey, accident on freeway, be there ASAP.” But for that dribble and constant state of interruption to occur when you are trying to produce quality work, text messaging is a HUGE time waster!

BTW, being late for meetings means you did not plan your schedule well and now you are wasting someone else’s time…but that is another post!

The Number 1 Waste Of Time – Email!

Email is the biggest waste of time that there is in this decade! No question about it.

Now don’t get me wrong, it is also very valuable and makes our lives much better. It is when we live by the emails and die to check them every second of every day that we have a problem.

Limit your checking of emails to twice per day! You do not need to sit there and watch the screen for a damn email to come in…and I know you have done it because I know I have!

Checking 1st thing in AM is also not the way to go. First thing in the morning should be reserved for your most productive and essential activities. Check email later…they have been there all night and they will be there later in the morning too.

One more email time waster: checking personal email while working. I don’t even need to say more about that one.

The bottom line here is to maximize your time spent working so that you will have success in life and earn the time to go out and goof off! We all need that time and it is the stuff that great lives are made out of. But if we can’t keep from wasting tons of time, how can we ever feel like we have accomplished what we need to in order to deserve a break?

Work hard, play hard, and waste time on schedule;-)

Now Go Workout!

Your Personal Trainer,

Brett A. Riesenhuber B.S., C.P.P.T., M.B.S., C.A.B.C.T.
Master Trainer
www.PrimePhysique.com
www.SanJoseBootCamp.com
408-558-1800

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