Your Top Ten Time Killers

It’s easy to let other things get in the way of our goals.  Most skills require constant practice so we can’t let these things get in our way. There are lots of things that can get in the way of what we’re trying to accomplish but here’s a top ten list that we can work with in this session. I’m sure you can come up with more.

1. Not enough time off or me time – it probably isn’t obvious that not enough time off can get in the way of your productivity but it really is important to have time to ourselves.


2. Lack of planning/prioritizing – A lot of times we undermine our productivity by not planning ahead.


3. Procrastination – this is a big one for me.  It’s easy to procrastinate on performing a task especially if we feel insecure about what we’re trying to do.  For most of us, it’s easier to find something else, anything else, to do when we know we should e working toward our goals.  So, we start the laundry, or we start the dishwasher, or we cook dinner, or we pop out for a quick trip to the – INSERT PLACE HERE, gym, grocery store, drug store.  If that sounds familiar to you, we’ll talk about some strategies for dealing with procrastination.


4. Interruptions – Interruptions can range from people “dropping by” because since we’re working from home they don’t really consider it working to the kids trying to get our attention when you need to get moving on a project. All interruptions are problematic because it takes time to settle back into the task at hand once we’re interrupted.


5. Lack of delegation – in an office environment lack of delegation generally means we’re trying to do everything ourselves rather than drawing on the resources at our disposal.  In a home-based or other small business, lack of delegation can take the form of not getting the expertise we need to take on those tasks that are not our strong suit.  So, we try to be our own bookkeepers even though we’ve never taken a single accounting class.  Or, we design our own web site rather than getting a designer to do it for us.


6. Meetings – All of us have been to meetings where absolutely nothing got done, right? Someone calls the meeting to discuss things that will be handled at a future meeting?  That’s not the most effective use of meetings but people love to schedule them.  We’ll work out ways to avoid unproductive meetings.


7. Management by crisis – management by crisis generally is the result of lack of planning but it also can be a result of other people’s crises landing on your desk.  This is an issue we all face from time to time even if we are good planners.


8. Telephone, e-mail and the Internet – these three can possible fall into the procrastination category but they get their own category because these are all items we use each day in business and, often, in our personal lives.  We have to find ways to manage these tools so they are not managing us instead.


9. Not saying “No” – Most of us probably think we’re pretty strong willed and stand up for ourselves on a regular basis. But, if we look at our lives, especially we women, we probably have a tendency to do things for others even when we don’t want to and/or don’t have the time to do it. It’s not something to beat ourselves up over but we do need to learn how to manage the inability to say no.


10. And finally, Lack of organization – Again, this could possibly fall into another category – lack of planning; but lack of organization is a particular type of issue that can infiltrate all areas of our lives.  I’m not endorsing developing OCD or anything.  And, very few of us will be as organized as Martha Stewart but most of us can use a little help in the organization department.