10 Time Thieves You Need to Fight Every Day

The feeling of having much to do and little time available is not unfamiliar to almost
anyone. That’s why time management has acquired great importance in our society in the
recent decades. But it’s not time what we really manage but ourselves and our attention
span.

There are many things that make us waste time, or rather, steal our attention. But most of
the time, they do so with our consent. We don’t put too much effort to avoid them. Which
means that we’ll need more time to meet our commitments, usually at the expense of our
family, friends and hobbies.

Some of these time thieves are external, and others are generated by ourselves. Some are
obvious and others go unnoticed; they steal a few minutes each time, but at the end of the
week they become hours. The first step to remove them is to become aware of them:

1. Too Many Interruptions

Besides the time stolen by the interruption itself, an average of 15 minutes is needed to
regain lost concentration. Politely cut the unnecessarily long phone conversations, postpone
the emergencies of others for a time that is right for you, be firm and assertive with the
usual bores in the office and disconnect the phone when you need maximum concentration.

2. E-Mail, Social Networks and Messaging

If you have these programs open, you will receive notifications, you will read them, and
you will want to answer. Shut down everything and plan to have a couple of moments a day
in which to go on those programs, empty the inbox and leave everything in order.

3. Not Knowing How to Say No

This is one of the greatest enemies of personal productivity. You can be a generous person,
but by always putting the satisfaction of others in front of your own, you stop living your
life. Moreover, you get into a vicious circle in which you constantly have more things to
do, and many of them don’t even bring real value to you.

4. Meetings

They invariably tend to waste a lot of time, with the aggravating aspect of affecting many
people. If six people lose an hour in a meeting, there are six working hours lost. Always
evaluate the actual need for the meeting. If it’s finally inevitable, convene only the people
involved and prepare it properly beforehand, defining the topics to be dealt with and
establishing a maximum time limit.
5. Not Delegating Properly

If you're not able to delegate certain actions, you’ll end up doing things that others can do
better, faster and at a lower cost. And that, of course, is also a big waste of time.

6. Poor Communication

Poor communication makes the time required to perform a task unnecessarily longer. When
you accept a job or delegate a task, make sure there is clear communication. Convey your
needs without leaving room for ambiguity or misinterpretation, and make sure the message
has been received correctly. If the work is done wrong, it will need to be modified or
redone, and that will interfere with your current plan and can create a crisis situation.

7. Poor Concentration

The inability to maintain a good level of attention can take their toll. Attention is like a
muscle, it develops as it’s exercised. And it can also be depleted and needs recovery. There
are many small habits that can be incorporated into your daily life so that your
concentration and focus improves over time.

8. Procrastination

If you continue leaving those tasks you like the least for another time, they will end up
having a destructive effect on your personal organization (also causing crisis situations).
We all suffer from this problem to a greater or lesser extent, and there are many strategies
to fight it.

9. Crises

It’s when everything is turned upside down and any previous planning becomes
meaningless. Most crises are a result of something that was done wrong or not done at all.
You have to prevent these as much as possible. How? Clearly defining your goals and
tasks, organizing, planning, making decisions, communicating clearly, saying no to the
unnecessary, delegating properly, eliminating interruptions and, above all, having good
personal organization. Which brings us to the main problem:

10. Poor Personal Organization

If you are not get well organized, you will lose plenty of time deciding what you are going
to do next and how. If you don’t know where you are going, chances are you'll just keep
going round and round. You can use a method for a personal organization, I could
be GTD (acronym for Getting Things Done) as a method for personal organization, but any
system that allows you get organized is perfectly valid. Spend every day a little time
organizing your goals, projects and tasks. In addition to winning a lot of time in the long
run, the feeling of having everything under control is the best remedy against stress.