For some reason it has become extremely important to save time and always be occupied with something work related. Somehow it reminds me of an old method to look important at the office. Basically you grab a piece of paper and run around the office. Your boss will see that you are constantly in movement and will think you are doing something important.
Unfortunately 99% of us, the human kind, can only be efficient for a few minutes. Often less than one hour at a time. Because of this it does not matter if you learn how to tie your shoes 3 seconds faster.
I am not able to find a source on this one, so feel free to quote me:
A task will always take as much time as you have available.
Sure it is a good idea to save a few seconds but instead of spending time trying to figure out how to save time I recommend you to find your distractions and simply remove them.
By eliminating Twitter, instant messaging, Facebook, forums and similar distractions you will find yourself being more efficient and therefore getting more things done within the same amount of time.
Thanks to this method you can get all your work done during the day and still get time to play with your kids and be together with your family.
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Nice tricks, stay focus is an important quality that every blogger should learn.
Hey Stefan, I like you advice and I totally agree on the example. As a plus, you could also talk a lot on the phone while moving, that way you are even more busy
I’m personally not fond of speaking on the phone since you usually end up talking about nonsense which you wouldn’t have done with a simple mail. But for this purpose (looking busy) I’m sure it’s a good idea.
Facebook is the biggest culprit f why I procrastinate. This reminds me… Thanks Stefan! I fell motivated to cut down my facebooking time wasted
You’re welcome Liane. Truth to be told I’m not even a member of Facebook so I’m sure you will do just fine.
Yes, there always seems like to many thngs to do and not enough time. I have also clamped down on tasks that consume to much time and it seems I can complete more then. We need to find the balance of completing tasks, life and then fun.
Great point Stefan! Your right about a task will always take as much time you have available. Take for instance I have to perform an Internal Audit at work Well I was tasked to do this 3 months ago and believe it or not I actually started 3 months ago. I started off slow because I was like “I have time”. Now the task is due the end of this month and I am not done and it will probably take until the end of this month to get it done. Geez…I tried to start early to get done early, but it didn’t happen.
I like the point about find your distractions and simply remove them. It reminds me of Lean Manufacturing where you look for the waste in the process and eliminate it remove it. Suddenly your manufacturing process doesn’t take as long. Kind of a simple idea, but you do need to sit down and think about it. Not all waste you can get rid of, but there is a lot out there when you really take a hard look at your process
I don’t use any one them. Time is like money.
Hye, Stefan.
Social networking like Facebok and Twitter maybe a huge distractions for people who use it for fun only. But, when we use it for business purpose, I believe, the time spent for social networking is valuable.