1.Being reactive

Most people I speak with stated that reactive activities are
dragging more than 70% of their time. Those are activities that are time
wasters. The reason for that is that in most cases, they give to third parties
entities to determine their agenda
over their day.

One of the major transitions that you can make to change this
situation is asking yourself a very simple question:

What is the ratio between my proactive and reactive activities, and
what would be the ideal ratio?

One way to increase your proactive activities is using time
blocking: Block a specific time of the day when no one will be able to approach
you.

Other ways can be found HERE

2. Fear

For most human beings, fear can waste a lot of time during the day.

The main thing we need to do in dealing with fear is not fighting with it. We need to acknowledge its existence and transform our shift to the goals we need to accomplish during the day.

For that reason, starting your day by writing down your three main goals for the day is highly recommended.

3. Meetings

Human interaction is crucial for building a healthy environment within any business; however, we need to evaluate:

• Are the meetings important?
• What should be the optimal length, structure, and outcome of each one?

Every meeting should have a clear goal and a structured process for monitoring the topics discussed at the meeting. If it is held once in a while, the action points from the last meeting should be used to open up the subsequent meeting.

An example of agenda for a staff meeting:

• An update of the action points from the last staff meeting
• Review of the goals of all staff members
• Idea on how to achieve these goals
• Challenges at work and consideration of possible solutions
• Opportunities and ideas for improving work
• Main objectives until the next staff meeting
• Action points for a follow-up meeting

In such an example, it is important that someone records all the points and sends a summary to all the meeting participants.

Another form of communication that you might want to consider instead of meetings is asynchronous communication tools such as Loom, which offers you to video record your message (include your screen if needed), and the recipient can view your message at their preferred time and reply to your message in the same way.

4. Emails

Dealing with emails takes some people more than 30% out of their day.

One way to deal with this major time waster is to evaluate how much time per day you deal with email and then block this in your calendar.

For instance: you come to the conclusion that you spend two hours per day on email.

You block 40 minutes from 10 am, 2 pm, and 4 pm.  

5. Commute

Commute can be a time waster; however, at the same time, it can become an opportunity.

For example, you spend about 10 hours a week on trains/tubes; instead of just staring at the roads/people, you can prepare for meetings or read some materials that will help you to improve your knowledge in a specific area.

The conclusion for all the above is first to be aware of your time wasters and then plan how you can make lemonade out of those lemons.

If you have other time wasters that I forgot to mention, please write or comment below.

Learn more about the method by downloading the guide HERE