stop wasting valuable time on worthless people places and things

Everyone, and I do mean everyone, wastes a hell of a lot of precious time.

If you have been working from home, or not working at all because you’ve been in lockdown, or just got back to work; then the amount of time you waste every day should have been thrown into sharp focus.  For example, most people who work from home manage to get a full week’s work done in about 20 hours instead of 40.  And, if you have just gone back to work you might realise just how often you are interrupted, or have to do utterly pointless time-wasting crap.  The worst is that you may have been utterly idle during lockdown and filled your entire life with utterly pointless crap.

So, here are a few very obvious suggestions to allow you to have more time to do what’s important to you;

• Make some lists instead of charging around aimlessly and forgetting things;  a to-do list and shopping list are very efficient and helpful.
• Stop chatting with people who call at your desk.  Usually they are time wasting jerks.
• Don’t go to most meetings.  In my experience meetings of more than 3 people are a complete waste of time ~ on-line meetings doubly so.  If you are not the most vital person in a meeting you probably don’t need to go.  Just read the minutes instead.
• Stop multi-tasking.  Do one job from start to finish, concentrate on that task, and don’t try to do something else at the same time.  That means don’t read emails or surf the internet when you’re supposed to be doing something important.
• Finish what you’ve started.  Unfinished tasks are a congregation of fighting alligators in your mind, bothering the hell out of you and stopping you from really being effective and efficient.
• Be neat, clean, and tidy.  Some people think living and working in a mess makes them productive ~ it doesn’t, it just means you’re living in a swamp.
• Do the very simple ‘couple of minutes’ jobs first, get them out of the way, and then do the worst, nastiest, and most difficult task ~ from start to finish.
• Stop answering the phone, unless you’re expecting a call.  Calls out of the blue are hardly ever important.
• When you are not at your job, you are not at your job.  So forget it and forget the people there.  Your employer only owns your time for your exact contracted number of hours.
• Take all your breaks, and get outside into the fresh air and sunshine if you possibly can.

Some say the work-life balance is important.  And some go into the ‘office’ when they should be at the beach.  All I know is too much work will kill you.

~

jack collier

jackcollier7@talktalk.net

When you’re up to your ass in alligators it’s hard to remember that you’re supposed to be draining the smegging swamp