I was going to write about procrastination but then I thought I would do it next week.
In the meantime, I have been organising my inbox, sorting and deleting old emails, unsubscribing myself to newsletters I never read and signing up to Throttle (which generates unique email addresses for you when you sign up, delivering everything to your inbox when you want it as a daily digest). You could use a spam email for that and I often do but this is more flexible. In general I check emails at 10, 12 and 4 so that I don’t get disturbed when I am working. This helps with productivity as I can ignore people at my own convenience. I also don’t answer the phone. Phone calls are batched and delivered to me so I can ring when it’s convenient. The exception is when I am actively working with someone and then I am more available.
All of this can sound a little rude but trust me: It works. I can get a lot more done in less time and therefore look after my clients in a much better way.
The other thing I do to save time is ignore facebook and twitter. I do spend more time than I would like on you tube as I am learning French and unfortunately interesting looking videos keep being served up. Normally I avoid youtube as I prefer to read (Most people read twice as fast as someone can talk and skim through even faster if they want to skip the bits that are uninteresting or irrelevant to them).
The last thing I do before finishing work is plan my next day, writing down the 5 most important jobs to get done. This means I can “hit the ground running” and avoids wasting time mentally “milling about”.
All in all, I keep in mind that time is precious. Everyone starts the day with 24 hours (it’s the most egalitarian of resources) and making sure I get the most out of it is paramount.
Have a great week
Paul
PS Thanks to Steve Elliott of Thrifty Sites for the cartoon