Maximize Your Productivity by Slashing These Six Time-Wasting Activities
IN A HURRY? HERE’S THE BOTTOM LINE
Have you ever signed off of work for the day and wondered what you actually accomplished? What a frustrating experience! But if you can identify time-wasting activities that are holding you back - and work to reduce or eliminate them - you can make a big impact on the success of your work. These include busy work, email management, phone notifications, time-wasting relationships, unnecessary content, and unneeded events. Instead, spend your time doing work that creates real results!
GOT A MINUTE? HERE ARE THE DETAILS TO CONSIDER
If you’re working a typical 8-hour workday, you may be surprised to learn that for the average worker, less than half of this time is actually productive. According to Inc., “Research suggests that in an eight-hour day, the average worker is only productive for two hours and 53 minutes.”
As business owners, this can feel really discouraging! Our time is precious, and we know that what we spend our time on directly impacts our results. So how can we make sure that we’re getting the most out of the hours that we’re working?
The answer is simple: Reduce or eliminate time-wasters in your business. It’s amazing how quickly these can creep into our day-to-day habits and cause us to be less efficient with our time. So let’s go back to basics and take a critical look at six hidden time-wasters, and how you can fix them!
1. Reduce Busy Work
I define “busy work” as tasks that are often repeatable, need to be done on a regular basis, and are not necessarily something that only we, as CEOs, can do. I see many business owners who take on busy work as their business grows and evolves, until they realize it’s sucking up way too much of their time.
Look at your current to-do list and be really, brutally honest with yourself. Is there busy work still on your plate? To determine whether or not something is “busy work,” ask yourself these questions:
Is it necessary to do this work?
Are there opportunities to streamline or automate this task so it’s less manual?
Can this work be delegated to a team member?
Reduce your busy work so that you can focus your time on the much more important things that you need to be doing as the owner and CEO!
2. Set Boundaries Around Email
We are constantly bombarded with emails on a daily basis. Are you following good email habits, or are you letting yourself get sucked into “reactive mode” all day long, based on what’s coming into your inbox?
I put parameters around when I check my email, and when it’s not within those boundaries, I leave my inbox behind and focus on other work that needs to get done. I recommend setting aside blocks of time so that you are focused on your inbox, such as right away in the morning, after lunch, and once more before you log off for the day, and intentionally stay out of your inbox during the rest of your day. I also use Boomerang to pause my inbox, so I’m not distracted by new messages coming in.
When you have healthy email boundaries in place, you’re less likely to get distracted and derailed from the work you need to accomplish throughout the day.
3. Turn Off Phone Notifications
I find that I get really distracted by my phone if I have it within reach while I’m working. That’s why I keep it on “do not disturb” so that new notifications aren’t distracting me. I still have my ringer on, because I want to be reachable in case of an emergency, but by having my phone away from my line of reach, I'm far less tempted to grab it and mindlessly scroll.
This intentional practice will be immensely helpful for keeping your brain focused on one thing at a time. Research shows that multi-tasking is an inefficient way to spend our time, after all.
4. Reduce Time-Wasting Relationships
At the beginning of 2024, I completed a time audit of how I spent my time in 2023. It revealed some surprising insights about how I spent my time, and revealed some areas that were no longer serving me. You can read all about my time audit, right here.
For example, I found that it was a big waste of time to meet with / work with clients, team members, and vendors who were just not a fit for me.
Non-Ideal Clients: You may have experienced this when you worked with a referral that you knew, in your gut, wasn’t the right fit. Or perhaps you were asked to meet some requirements and make some accommodations that weren’t ideal for how you normally run your business. Sometimes, we accept those non-ideal clients and make it work for as long as we can, but ultimately, we learn our lesson!
Non-Ideal Team Members/Vendors: Listen to your gut and think about who you have on your team. Are they a fit for your business as you continue to grow and evolve? Every time I have onboarded a non-ideal team member, it has ended up being a big waste of time and money.
As you look at all your business relationships, evaluate them against the results that you are looking to achieve in your company. When you look at the relationships through the lens of the goals that you've set, it becomes more clear where you need to cut ties. This article goes more in-depth into how to declutter these relationships from your business life.
5. Stop Creating Unnecessary Content
Critically evaluate the content and other marketing activities that take up your time. Are they really meeting the needs of your audience?
For example, when I looked at my most successful blog articles and email newsletters, I found that my audience was much more interested in the behind-the-scenes content vs. the nuts and bolts topics. I adjusted my content strategy and am now writing less content but am finding that it has a greater impact.
I also found that some of my virtual events were not fruitful for the time and energy that went into them. While they were great events, and I really enjoyed the content we presented, I found that the attendance was just not worth the effort. I surveyed my audience to get their input, and decided to discontinue the events as a result.
Keep tabs on what your audience needs from you, what they are enjoying the most, and what the analytics are showing. I encourage you to do more of the marketing activities that work for your audience and release yourself from anything that’s not working.
6. Cut Back on Events and Groups
During my calendar audit, I found that I was attending events and participating in networking groups that were no longer aligned with the direction of my business. One of my clients did the same thing, and decided to bow out of a networking group that was really repetitive and not producing results for her business. As a result, she freed up a ton of time that she could put into more impactful projects.
Once you’ve taken a critical look at the groups and events that you’re attending and cut some of them out, you now have space to either work more on your business or find events/networking opportunities that are more aligned for you!
Ready to Focus on Quality Over Quantity?
I hope that this article has inspired you to take a “quality over quantity” approach to the way you spend your working hours! As CEOs, we need to focus our precious time on the areas that will make the most impact in our business.
If you’re still having a hard time making this happen in your individual situation, please schedule a no-obligation consultation.