Are You Wasting Precious Time?
Have you ever sat down and taken a look at what you’re so busy doing when you’re online?
Few people are actually effective enough to sit down and work out exactly what they wanted to do in the time they wanted to do it in.
We get sucked in to more blog posts, stat checking, and opening email more times than required.
Time management skills are needed by bloggers and especially so if you’re maintaining more than one blog. So, let’s talk about how you can evaluate what you’re so busy doing and get done what you set out to do. Perhaps you’ll find that you can accomplish more tasks in a shorter amount of time.
Monitor Tasks
Before you can come up with ways to use your time more effectively, you have to figure out what it is you’re doing. If you find that you’re unable to complete everything you wanted to do in the time period you have to do it in, it’s time to keep track.
Write down every single thing you do while you’re online and how long it takes you. Chances are you’ll end up finding that you checked email 5 to 10 times and spent 10 minutes longer than you expected looking at Twitter.
There’s a time, place, and time frame for all of your tasks but when you’re spending longer doing something than what’s required to complete the task you’re just wasting time. So first, spend a day or two just keeping track of your normal online routine. You might need a couple of days worth of notes to realize patterns that you have in your productivity.
Order Priorities
After you have evaluated what it is you’re so busy doing, you’ll see the common thread of what is important for you to complete on a daily basis. So create a list of your biggest priorities online. You want to write these down first as you’ll want to complete these tasks above all others that you may end up with on your list.
Once your highest priorities are written down, start to list other things you would like to get accomplished on a daily basis. These tasks you should not feel required to do but would like to do to ease the burden of the possibility that you may not reach these tasks on specific days.
Create Time Lines
By looking at how long each task took you those first few days you can plan out how much time you need to complete a simple task. Do you need to spend 10 minutes a day on email or 20 minutes? Maybe you spend more time focusing on networking on StumbleUpon rather than Mixx so you’ll need to factor more time for StumbleUpon than you do Mixx.
Consider that if you feel the need to be up to speed on what comes into your mailbox but you only spend 20 minutes with your mail, then perhaps you should schedule email in two parts of 10 minutes each to give you more time with your mail. Perhaps you can entertain the idea of reading all email in the morning but not spend time replying until the evening. Your schedule and time lines have to work for you or you won’t stick to them.
Finalize Schedule
You’ll have your priorities and time line in place, now compile this information into a schedule that works for the allotted time that you have to spend online. Some of us have the entire day to accomplish tasks while others have only a few short hours per day, if at all. Ensure that your schedule works for you and gives you a way to obtain all of your biggest priorities online.
Test the Schedule
Don’t consider anything set in stone until you know it works for you. Don’t be afraid to add, remove, tweak, and adjust. Some of which you may have to do just based on what is the latest priority or the newest social networking site that you’ve got to spend time checking out.
Free Up Time
When you’ve completed your schedule find ways to free up the time that you do have by making minor adjustments to how you transition from one task to another.
- Turn off instant messages, you should have chat schedules worked out in your schedule.
- Close out email so you’re not tempted to check it when it is not part of the time frame.
- Limit open programs to ensure that you’re running faster and smoother. If your task doesn’t call for a program to be open, close it.
- Monitor interruptions from the phone by turning off the ringer or letting voice mail pick up. (Answer though if it’s your Mom.)
Allow for Wiggle-Room
For those who have a family, or maybe a toddler it’s a good idea to leave wiggle-room in your schedule. While I’d love to have every single part of my day planned out, it’s just not possible when I am first a Mom and Wife. Because of this, my schedule has time padding to allow for the normalcy of constant interruptions I have just by being at home.
Your Schedule
Do you keep a schedule of your tasks online to be more efficient and does your schedule work for you? How do you combat the time it takes to blog, network, socialize, and market and still complete all of your daily, weekly, or monthly tasks?
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June 17th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
I scheduled my time, but don’t too tight with time management. I knew manage time will be hard, and now I need a time schedule software for the desktop. Because I spend most my time in college, I only online for 3-5 hour a day in front of computer and in that time, at least I spend 1 hour for post my blog. I don’t find it’s effective, because when we open the computer and connected to internet, most of my time are for blogwalking.
June 17th, 2008 at 6:59 pm
The #1 thing that helps me regarding time management is to always finish the current task I’m working on before moving on to something else. With emails always flying in, the phone ringing, and 10 browser tabs open, it’s easy to get distracted. I always make sure that any task that doesn’t take more than 5-to-10 minutes gets completed before I move on to the next item.
June 17th, 2008 at 7:21 pm
I am REALLY bad with time management but it is partly due to my brain. I always have a million thoughts in my head so getting down to business and actually DOING the task is tough. I have a daily list now so I stay on track (i.e., Monday, financial, Tues, writing, Wed. researching etc.). And I only check email every 4 hours. And the tasks I have to do each day get done first thing in the morning.
June 17th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
I use an online to do list which I totally depend upon. It stays in my toolbar for the day until everything is ticked off. I also have a microcassette recorder on my bedside cupboard, so if I think of something when I wake, knowing it will be forgotten within a short time, I record it. My email is set to show me when an email arrives, so there is no needed for constant checking.
June 18th, 2008 at 1:15 am
Well, I am not good on time management either. I am trying all that I have to do my best. Its about time to write the time management table and work on with it.
Your article seems very suggestive and informative on making time management working in good way.
Thanks and will look updates for such article in your blog in coming days.
chris
June 18th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Cowy: Sounds like you have a lot on your plate. And management seems to be most difficult for everyone. Good luck!
Jamie: I agree, finishing one task before going to the next is probably one of the most important steps. Without it things start to feel overwhelming and complicated.
Michelle: I sympathize completely. I have more notes on my desk in an attempt to keep track than I care to count. I’m always thinking, always going, always moving.
Lorrainne: Great suggestion with a to-do list! I attempted to do this once, it didn’t work out so well for me but I can see how it could be productive for other people. I need more of a full schedule type of service than I do a list.
Chris: It seems to be all about the management for all of us. I hope that my tips help you work out something that is effective.
June 19th, 2008 at 9:07 am
Task management and time tracking are both difficult disciplines to adapt. But once you get it figured out your productivity will improve. And if you are a freelancer, you’ll increase your billable time. Check out some of the web-based apps that do this. They are really helpful.
June 19th, 2008 at 6:07 pm
I usually spend the day at work and then schedule time for my blog when I come home. And for the most part it’s not that much time during the weeks. And since I usually takes things as they come along I have never bothered setting up schedules.
June 20th, 2008 at 12:39 am
I must say, of all the many time management posts that I’ve read, this is one of the better. You mention some that others miss completely, like taking some time to monitor what you do in the first place.
I’m slowly getting mine into place, I’m currently working on a rather large project, so I need to multitask big-time…
…no room for many pre-set tasks in this case, BUT I can cut down or out a lot of the more time-wasting tasks; email and so forth.
June 20th, 2008 at 6:56 am
I look from time to time here by and read the interesting and always well thought out and leich readable contributions to sight. Thank you and kind regards from Germany!
June 20th, 2008 at 11:39 am
Is entrecard one of the time wasters? I see that you no longer have it on your blog.
Also I know this is not on topic but I am sorry for your loss. I’ve been visiting each day through the SocialCardsters Blogroll and don’t often get much time to comment but I wanted to express my sympathies.
June 23rd, 2008 at 12:03 am
Matti: Thanks for the nice compliment!
Drew: Entrecard has never been very useful to me and though it’s not a time waster as I don’t actively participate, there was no sense in driving my bounce rate through the roof with a service I didn’t use (though I do enjoy the forum there).
Thank you for your condolences.
June 25th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Hi Katy,
As a Virtual Assistant, this is an issue close to my heart. I have only so much time in the day to manage client projects. As I get more involved with social networking, I find it is eating a chunk more time than I’d like so I am limiting myself to certain pockets of the day where I give in to my Twitter, FriendFeed and Facebook indulgences. One tip I can offer is to do one or two tasks on your list before downloading email and firing up Twitter, Twhirl, etc. It is a system that is helping me now with my time management.
June 29th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
[...] Are You Wasting Precious Time? [...]
July 11th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
I don’t I could follow my own schedule..
I just can online whenever I had a free time and when family commitment is come, I’m just stop and concentrate about it. This is maybe because I was a part-time blogger so time management for blogging is not a big deal.