Author: Eugene Cheng / Source: Lifehack
Do you ever feel like you just don’t have enough time? Are you always rushing from one responsibility to the next with no time for yourself? Do you just have the feeling that you are wasting time?
You’re not alone.
According to a Gallup poll, 61 percent of working Americans claim they don’t have enough time to do what they want.
1On top of that, 68 percent of people feel they aren’t getting enough rest (with significant crossover between these populations likely). 2
But is this really a result of being overloaded with responsibilities? Or is it simply a product of poor time management?
In this article, we’ll examine all the ways that you’re wasting time, and how to stop doing so… starting right now.
Compensate for Wasted Time
Chances are, you gravitated to the first possibility—after all, being busy has become a kind of status symbol in the United States.
But if there’s even a chance that you’re wasting time without realizing it, you could be saddling yourself with far more hours’ worth of responsibilities than necessary on a daily basis.
Accordingly, you owe it to yourself—and the people around you—to take notice of the time-wasting habits you didn’t even know you had and start applying solutions to correct them.
You might be an effective time manager, but that doesn’t mean you’re perfect. Chances are good that at least some of these tricks can help you stop wasting time:
1. Track Your Bad Email Habits
You’re probably wasting time on email without realizing it, whether it’s taking too much time to draft your messages, allowing your email threads to spiral to unmanageable proportions, or allowing unproductive contacts to interfere with your day.
We spend 6.3 hours a day checking email, so it’s almost certain that a large chunk of wasted time is happening in your inbox. 3 The only way to tell for sure is to use an analytics app such as EmailAnalytics to analyze your email habits and pinpoint where you’re wasting the most time.
Once you recognize your problem areas, come up with a plan for how to address it. For example, you might resolve to start fewer conversation threads, or set a 10-minute limit for yourself when drafting a new email.
2. Just Say No
It’s hard to say “no” to anything, whether it’s a new assignment from a boss, or a social gathering from one of your best friends. Unfortunately, each “yes” you give is a new segment of time you’ll have to spend doing something that may or may not be beneficial for you in the long run.
Saying “no” could free up hours of your time with each instance, and as long as you’re polite and respectful, there likely won’t be any consequences. As an added bonus, saying no can empower you to make fewer accommodations, and possibly command more respect from your boss and teammates.
3. Make Faster Decisions
You spend more time in a state of indecision than you realize. You might have an internal debate over whether to start that project now, at 4 pm, or just wait to start it tomorrow morning.
You might not take action on a task because you know there’s a possibility you’ll delegate it in the future.
In any case, every minute you spend thinking about your decision is a potential minute wasted—assuming there’s no new information to consider. Aim to make faster decisions, and you’ll cut this time waste out of your life immediately.
4. Set Limits and Stick to Them
How often do you check your social media feeds throughout the day, or find yourself wandering to that mobile game you downloaded?
Chances are, you waste more time on these intentionally time-sucking apps than you know. Fortunately, there are ways to set time limits for yourself so you can reduce this time to a fixed, reasonable figure.
If you use an iOS device, you can use Apple’s Guided Access to restrict the accessibility of other apps on your phone, or if you’re on Android, you can use an app like AppDetox to set careful limits for specific apps you know to waste your time.
5. Take Plenty of Breaks
In the middle of your workday, it’s natural to think that spending just one more hour on work, rather than taking a lunch break, will result in higher productivity—but that’s not necessarily the case.
Working too long without a break will make it harder for you to focus on work, which means a task that ordinarily takes 30 minutes might take 45 minutes or even longer.
Research suggests the ideal work-break ratio is working for 52 minutes, then breaking for 17—but this is going to vary based on the type of work you’re doing and, of course, your individual preferences.
The bottom line is that you…
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