How to Eliminate or Reduce Time Wasters, New Year or Not

New Year.  Pondering on new year’s resolutions, letting go and letting in…

Most likely you have your own list of resolutions. The list is all about reducing time wasters, new year or not. The ones that immediately came to my mind are as follows:

• Being overwhelmed, and therefore not being able to do anything at all. Cool it! Go for one thing at a time. I take a coffee break to untangle the cobwebs in my mind.
• Spreading self too thin trying to do many things at once. Set priorities, and try utmost to stick to them.
• Addicted to emails.  I no longer open my inbox when I have a deadline articles to do.
• Slave to the phone. How about screening calls or using an answering machine?
• Procrastinating or putting things off. I’m continuously addressing this, don’t we all! You probably have your own resolve. Here’s one: Get the unpleasant tasks done first, nicer and easier ones will follow. Others may want to do the other way around. Afterwards? Reward yourself for tasks, well, done.
• Not wanting to delegate, assuming you have other people with you you can turn to. You don’t need to do everything yourself – unless you are alone!
• Difficulty in saying ‘no.’  This is not that easy to do if we aren’t even sure of what we really want to do. So, let’s identify what we must do, then what we want to do, and presto, refuse all other requests.

Have a pleasant day!

Note: I originally wrote this list in 2010. I’ve decided to add a bit more as a reminder for this new year.