I have similar issues. I have found that I have to turn off the instant messaging and close my email for periods during the day so that I can get things done uninterrupted.
I tend to go on the web to review news sites, stock quotes and sports resutls. Specifically, Monday mornings after NFL games!!
Christine, I agreed regarding instant messaging and taking break. Once a day, my collegue and I, take a walk around the building to get away from the computer screen.
Those are bad time wasters for me. In addition, find that I try and visit with other managers to find out what all is going on with the company. That will take too much time out of my day trying to stay in the loop vs working
Not estimating the lenght of time or the full depth of the problem has made me start back over too many times. Take more time out in the beginning to understand scope and who all is needed to make the project work are key for me.
E-Mail!! I waste too much time just getting through all of the junk. Most of the list-serves are valuable to our business but most of the traffic doesn't apply to my specific office. The value is the one time in ten that it saves me from making the same mistake. The solution for now is to set at least a full hour aside each morning for e-mail, then staying off until after lunch for another hour.
Hank,
Email can be manageable if we treat it like any other daily task. It is common for us to think we have to read each email right away and respond almost as quickly. Setting aside email times, and turning email off during the other times, should be pretty helpful.
Let me know how it works for you.
I never realized how many time wasters occupy by normal day. The biggest time waster is not allowing enough time for unexpected interuptions. In the future I will allocate more time for this.
Not Prioritizing lengthier tasks in a time schedule that facilitates it. For example, grading 20, 50 question tests on a day when I have 4 classes to teach rather than on a day that I have only morning classes to teach. It is a waste of time to come to school early, knowing that a task cannot be completed because of other issues.
Robert,
I always found that staying a bit later tended to help me finish checking papers and planning lessons. Students tended to leave fairly quickly after class. Once I helped the ones who stayed, I had some uninterrupted time to get things done so that I was ready to go when I came in the next day.
It is also important to build reasonable expectations in your students. Next day is notalways reasonable.
I would tell them ahead of time when they should expect things to be graded and returned. If I told them three days, I mad sure they were ready to be returned in three days. They did not bug me about them until the date I said they would be returned.
It worked well for me.
Anything on Internet is a real time waster for me in general. I go on to check e-mail and lose track of time. I end up responding to e-mails, following links in emails to lesson plans, new materials, etc. Then from there, who knows? As I mentioned before I have adult ADD, so I sometimes have difficult from keeping my mind on track with my original goals. Time-wasters are abound on the Internet for me.
My "time waster" would be not preparing for the upcoming day. I know in advance most of the daily meetings but knowing there will be student issues and staff issues I am just walking into the building and gearing up to putting out fires. I jump from one task to another and then wonder where the day went. When it comes accomplishing a goal I feel I do my best under direst or stress.
Thanks, Richard.
What is keeping you from preparing adequately?
I have tried saying no or not at this time but with our company NO will not work. We seem to get further behind and ultimately it means staying at work longer or coming in on the weekends.
Our work style is crises management and not sure how to change when your company cant or either won’t change.
My biggest time wasters are corporate procedures that don't adequately address the real issues I face in the day to day operation of the business unit I belong to.
Unnecessary meetings throughout the day, unplanned meetings about prior meetings discussing previous meetings!
Underestimating the time that things I am unfamiliar with will actually take. I have been working in my field for more than 40 years and for the most part I am able to estimate time very well but when an unfamiliar task rears its ugly head I often underestimate the required time. This can and often does put me behind for the rest of the day, and it is very hard to get back on schedule.Also as a person hired for his artistic skills contemplation of the task can often seem to take an inordinate amount of time. I allow for this time due to experience but am often pushed by clients or those above my immediate manager (who understands the demands of creative enterprise) to get things started more quickly which often results in having to do them over.
Hands down the biggest time waster for me is internet surfing. I am an information soak and thus feel the need to feed that throughout the day. I would like to think that a reasonable amount of the information informs the work I do but I suspect a majority does not.
In addition to doing the time assessments suggested in this course, I think I could apply an analysis of my internet time. I do think there is value to a certain percentage of the time spent online but I would like to increase the work related usage.
Thanks, Mitch.
Lot's of folks have a similar issue. I found that staying off the Internet is easier if I make sure all the windows are closed unless I need to have them open for the task I am completing.
I typically take a quick look at a few sites during coffee breaks and lunch.
I wonder why time spent visiting with other managers is considered time-wasting? I would think there are a number of valuable work-related benfits from that time spent. It may be that beneficial relationship building or positioning occurs.
