Productivity Busters: How to Do More in Less Time | Business 2 ...

Productivity levels suffer when you allow things to distract you from your task at hand. Discover these great productivity busters and how you can make adjustments to do more in less time.

Lacking a Plan

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Time Buster: You plan your day at the start of each day. You spend the first 20 to 30 minutes trying to collect your thoughts before you can even start your work.

Solution: The night before, spend 10 to 15 minutes mapping out your plan for the following day. Make a list, schedule time into your calendar or create some kind of road map that you can follow. Prioritize these items and then use the list to hit the ground running when you return to the office the next morning.

Checking Email

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Time Buster: People have a tendency to pull up their email on their laptops for business and constantly check it on their cell phone. Constantly checking, reading, responding to and sending emails is a huge draw down on your time. A few minutes here and 20 seconds there adds up to hours of your time by the end of the day.

Solution: Check your email three times a day. Schedule it into your calendar as if it?s an appointment. Allot some time in the morning, at lunch and before quitting time.

Texting

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Time Buster: Similar to email, constant texting is a similar time drain. When you hear the text message signal come in on your phone, it?s natural to grab it, read it and respond to it right then and there.

Solution: Turn your text message signal off while you are working or focusing on a project. Schedule time in your day to read and respond to text messages?maybe even the same schedule for emails so manage all electronic communication at once.

Social Networking

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Time Buster: You constantly have your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Reddit up on your computer. ?You post status updates, check-in with friends and share that cute puppy picture. A few minutes here and there ends up being hours of time that you are not focusing on getting things done.

Solution: Register for a site that allows you to manage social networking sites in one place (such as TweetDeck or Hootsuite). This allows you to read, respond and manage your social networks at one time. Additionally, check the site only once or twice a day.

Multi-tasking

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Time Buster: Conducting several different tasks at once?emailing, talking on the phone and flipping over to work on writing a Word document? seems productive. Wrong! The time it takes to switch and refocus each time you switch ends up taking more time than if you focus on one thing at a time.

Solution: Schedule and focus on one task at a time. When you reach a stopping point or the stopping time allotted for that project, then move on to the next project or task. This allows you to focus your time and efforts on what?s in front of you without any distractions.

Identify the tasks and behaviors that are eating up your time, so you can stop it. You?ll have more free time and be more productive than ever before.

Source: http://www.business2community.com/strategy/productivity-busters-how-to-do-more-in-less-time-0256597

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