All successful people in their trainings inspire us with one idea: time is the most valuable asset in the XXI century. You need to spend it usefully - to develop new skills, learn something new, be engaged in hobbies, relax and work hard to achieve success and effectively manage your free time. But why is there not enough time for even a half of these business?
Let's look at the main reasons:
1. We live without goals and do not have dreams
Why do we always run out of time? The answer is simple: for people who do not have a dream, it makes no sense to use time usefully and keep up with everything. A person without a spark in his eyes lives mechanically, and all dreams are reduced to the words: "I didn't really want to" or "I need money for this, but I can't earn it". Such people are not interested in personal and career growth and development of their business. They don't need to increase their productivity, so they spend more time to solve simple tasks.
What to change: ask yourself the question: "What kind of person do I want to be?". Determine your lifelong dream or goal for the next year. Think about how you can implement it and try to do what will lead you to the finish line. Then you will definitely spend your time in a new way.
2. We do not adhere to the regimen of day
If there is no dream, why wake up at 6 am? In the morning we sleep until the last, and in the evening we constantly watch TV shows. We reminisce about work before going to bed. What kind of productivity can we talk about if you are tired and sleep-deprived instead of a healthy regime?
A few words in favor of the regime:
- You can work out early;
- Engage in self-development;
- Have a breakfast in a quiet environment;
- Get to work without traffic jams;
- Work in the morning in silence;
- Have a full sleep;
- Harmony with the organism;
Disappears the question : "Why is there not enough time for yourself?".
What to change: Determine how many hours of sleep you need to feel good. Go to bed and wake up at the same time. It will be difficult at first, but you can conduct several experiments to create the most convenient schedule for you. If you will have enough rest, then productivity will immediately increase.
3. Don't write down a to-do list
Without goals, we don't have a specific list of tasks. We remember about the daily routine: throw clothes in the washing machine, buy milk and bread, wipe the floors on Monday, vacuum on Thursday, buy new shoes for the child on Saturday. But we can forget about matters that are important to us personally.
Let's tell you a secret: everything needs to be recorded, even all sorts of little things! The feeling that there is not enough time, appears when we are strongly engaged in deals, but at the same didn't complete nothing important during the whole day.
What to change: we strongly recommend to buy a diary or a small notebook to record all the things you need to do – from daily routine to serious tasks that need to be completed this month. So you will not forget anything and will be more focused throughout the day.
4. Gaps in understanding the essence of time management
There is no clear to-do list for the week, month – no daily time planning. A person who knows what he need to doduring a day is more productive. He schedules all his time and controls it.
When there are problems with time management, it is difficult to do everything in time: you have already arrived home and remembered that you had to pick up your coat from the dry cleaners and to buy a pie for the school fair. And here you are again rushing around the city, wasting time on the road and traffic jams. Or you could do everything on time on your way to home from work.
What to change: Plan your day's activities based on your daily routine. Identify more important tasks and lower-priority tasks. Make a good use of every frees up.
5. Taking on too much
Let's give an example: often when we join a new team, we want everyone to like us. We smile, bring tea and cookies, perform work at the highest level and do not refuse to help. Someone asks to talk to customers because they are in a hurry to pick up children from kindergarten? Of course! Make a report for someone who's already too busy? Give me two! At the same time, you want to go to the premiere of a movie in the evening or to go with friends for pizza, or to read a book at home.
As a result, you have too many plans for one day and don't have enough time for household chores and rest. You don't even have time to pay attention to your family.
What to change: Objectively evaluate your abilities, do not take on too much out of politeness. Be able to refuse when you don't have enought resources. If you want to spend your time in a variety of ways - plan the fun in advance, do not try to go everywhere in one day.
6. Where did the priorities go?
After typing a whole mountain of tasks, we don't know what to do. It seems that the task is easy, and that can be done in an hour. And there is an important one, but very tedious, and we do not want to do it now. And so time passes– we thinking about task to start.
Again, we return to point 4 – if it is planning, it will be the order of actions.
What to change: you always need to prioritize your work tasks. More urgent ones should be done immediately. We recommend starting with urgent, but small ones. The main idea - to take up the most important matter and you will not have to solve it in a hurry.
7. Only I can do it well
Agree, sometimes it is difficult to entrust the solution of the problem to someone else, because you will do it in the best way. But usually there is no time to do everything yourself. And we postpone this action until night, when the forces are no longer left.
What to change: Many psychologists recommend delegating tasks if it is possible. For the manager of an entire department or company, it is important to give a mission to everyone, so that all things will be done on time and no one will sacrifices his personal time.
8. We want to be cooler than Caesar
Another reason for the lack of time is multitasking. You can't entrust the work to anyone and everything needed to be complet in the fastest possible time – and you start doing all the tasks at the same time. When you are doing several things at the same time, your friend calles and you need to talk to him. Also you need to cook dinner at this time. As a result, nothing is really done, and it is already evening, and there is not enough time to finish all that.
What to change: Our brain is a powerful computer, but it is not worth to overload it. It is better to create a plan of actions for yourself, do tasks separately, and focus on a specific subject in turn.
9. Perfectionism is our everything
Excessive perfectionism is a time eater. You can make a task a long time ago, but still a couple of hours to look for small flaws and fix them, although this is clearly unnecessary.
What to change: Be less demanding and more realistic about things. The best is the enemy of the good. Be careful not to get a completely unnecessary result at the end.
10. We need more discipline
You need to wipe the dust, throw the Laundry, and much more. What do we do instead? That's right, everything, but not what you need. We are distracted by the phone, the TV, what is happening outside the window. And then-11 o'clock in the evening, it's time to get ready for bed, and You are just starting to solve things, because there is no place to put off further. And it's good if it only lasts a day. After all, at the end of the week, raking all the "tails"is not a fountain.
What to change: it's Hard to force yourself to do what you don't want to do. But without discipline, we can procrastinate for ages. It won't do anyone any good. Pull yourself together, motivate yourself with a pleasant rest after completing all the tasks.
11. Time on the Internet is for the soul
How many time do you spend on Instagram or Facebook every day? See some review videos on YouTube? We reply a message, decide to update the Facebook feed, and it took 20 minutes. Now it's lunchtime, and there aren't as many things done as we'd like.
Of course, everyone needs a break. But when you are constantly distracted by unnecessary things, you will never finish that you have planned.
What to change: Be more disciplined. Decide for yourself that you have a specific time for work and separately for entertainment. Make it a rule not to be distracted for a while (for example, 30 minutes) and then have a rest for 5 minutes with your smartphone in your hands, go outside or make yourself a tea.
12. Doing everything too slowly
We woke up in the morning, while we were watching the weather forecast, made coffee, buttered bread, looked out the window - it took at least half an hour. Now you have to go out, and the needed shirt is not ironed, you can not find the keys, again you forgot something... You wasted more time, than you planned. Now you are late for work, again have a lot of things to do, you're in a rush, can not concentrate, do not have enought time...
What to change: Spend less time on the routine, move faster, think fast, prepare everything in advance for the morning.
13. Not enough quality rest
Every day swe are in a hurry, have a lot of deals to do. But the more running around, the more tired a person gets. To perform your duties efficiently, you need to find time to relax and gain strength. Rest – it's not just to lie on the couch in the evening, thinking about tomorrow's work day and how much more needs to be done. Rest - means a change of activity, when the mind begins to think about something else and the body is not sitting at the computer, but is actively moving. To really relax, you need impressions, new experiences.
What to change: Go to the river, to the forest, to the mountains or for fishing. Forget about work and just spend time with your loved ones.
14. Winter and summer in the same color
You have been working for the company for a long time, spend the whole day in the office, and watch TV at home on weekends. You have weekends on the same scheme for several years in a row. Not everyone can stand such monotony. You haven't some new experiences. This displayes on mood and on productivity. I'm tired of everything, I don't want to do anything – and you don't do. Or delay the execution of tasks. As a result, you don't have time to finish everything in time.
What to change: changing the situation gives you strength. Visit a new place, refresh your home, try new dishes, take up a new hobby – this will give you the energy to conquer all the peaks.
15. Living without pleasure
All the aforesaid time eaters do not take as much energy as the job we don't love. Even If you are a planning guru, live on a schedule but you do not like what you do - life passes by. When you don't feel the pleasure of completing your activity and implementing your list of plans for the week, you don't need to keep track of time. Here is procrastination, because you postpone everything until the last moment. There is a constant distraction in the Internet and other things.
What to change: Your way of life. Start to get pleasure from each day. From the fact that you went to the gym, met with friends and on the weekend you will go for a hike. Then you will want to do everything in time.
Analyze your usual day or week. If you remember at least one point that can was mentioned in our list, we strongly recommend you change something in your life. And then you will work more productively, and life will become more saturated!
And for those who really want to keep up with everything and distribute their time as efficiently as possible, we recomend to try our Checkiant time tracker.
Read also:
Time traps and how to fight them