Top Time Wasters: How Can I Have Better Time Management?

by admin May 16, 2020

Top Time Wasters: How Many of These Do You Do at Home and in Life?

Have you ever thought about what the top time wasters are so that you can change them?

Take actions from today’s podcast:

Track your time and discover your time wasters
Understand why you waste time
Create new habits to stop wasting time at work
Plan to tackle personal time wasters
Implement healthy alternatives
Stop wasting time

Certified life coach, author & award-winning professional life organizer Julie Coraccio shares steps and tips to support you in creating the life you choose, deserve and desire through decluttering your life, end of life planning, mindfulness and how to organize your life.

TRANSCRIPT

Julie Coraccio 0:02
Today on clear your clutter inside and out. We’re talking about time wasters.

Do you know how much time you’re spending on social media? or watching TV? Where are you losing time at work? How many time wasters do you have in your life? Learn how to be more aware and stop wasting precious time as we continue our month focused on time management. Do you control your clutter? Or does your clutter control you? unclear your clutter inside and out will teach you awareness as well as action steps to create change in your life. Come on. Let’s get started. Today’s episode was inspired by clients, people who say to me I don’t have to Time to get organized and to clutter. I don’t have time to paint or write my book. I don’t have time to go to the gym. Probably have the time, but you’re choosing not to do something. And this is making you lose time and another area of life. So this is about where the rubber meets the road folks. It’s looking at your life and be like okay, I am wasting time here. What can I do? to course correct. I wanted to share some statistics. This was from distracted phi and epic bash.com. Now the distracted fi It’s from 2015 astounding facts about how we actually spend our time. And then I also found some additional stats epic bash shared a post 30 mind blowing facts about how we actually spend our time and they look like they had taken from from distracted So I pulled out some that I thought were really interesting and wanted to share. I wouldn’t have guessed this. So here from those two sources are some statistics. This is the awareness part. I want you to think about yourself, as I’m sharing these statistics. Is this true for you? What do you think your statistics would be? So in general, the average person watches TV for 9.1 years, 9.1 years. Two of those years are spent washing commercial. Thank goodness for on demand TV, right at least we save some time. They’re women 17 years of their lives trying to lose weight. I would say I probably sadly fit in that statistic. We spend 1.1 years cleaning If you’ve been on the fence about hiring a cleaner that might give you some incentive. You drive a car for 4.3 years. I think I’m above that because I lived in Los Angeles for 10 years. So I hope I’m hoping I did not double that statistics. You work for 10.3 years. If you work 40 hours between the ages of 40 and 65. I think I might have surpassed that. I don’t know. I’d have to look at that. Maybe not. I was laid off one time for nine months. So maybe this would be a accurate statistic. You spent three months of your life in traffic that’s very sad. At about 38 hours a year. Again, I don’t want to think of what my statistic would be after Los Angeles and that’s one of the reasons Raleigh When we downsize, I drove to a client’s yesterday. And I’ve been to this I’ve worked with this client we you know, work on an office under tuneups and everything and coming from North Raleigh as opposed to Andrew where I live. I kind of cracked up. It took me probably the same amount of time. But I remember one time I hit rush hour coming home working with him like oh, and it definitely took less time from here, but I was able to take back roads. So the first half of it was took about 40 minutes. So that rush about about 40 minutes and 20 minutes. I’m like, yeah, hardly seen anyone This is great. But it was pleasant. There wasn’t any time that entire 40 minutes, and I left the house at 830 in the morning. So that’s still kind of a traffic hour. It was fantastic. No traffic at all. 70% of our waking life is in front of digital media. That’s scary.

women spend eight year shopping. I don’t know if that wasn’t specific of like, for instance, I’m thinking because I don’t spend that much on clothes shopping, but I do grocery shopping. I’m the one that mainly runs that errands. But eight years of my life. women spend nearly one year deciding what to wear, I had to share that because that kind of made me chuckle. an office worker spends five years sitting at a desk. Now that’s an incentive to get one of the sit stand desk and I did a review of one on my site. But for health reasons, if you’re sitting thinking about that sitting for five years at your desk, oh, and another thing I just read this the other day, make sure you’re squatting more like that deep kind of your bomb almost to the ground like kind of in a V shape with your legs because I learned that we don’t squat enough. And for instance, in my client yesterday, I was telling her this and she said you know she’s traveled all over Asia and She said, Yeah, she’s like, that’s the norm. And I said, well, that what it does is it’s I don’t know what the fluid in between your joints. It stops processing if you don’t use certain muscles, and that’s how things can lose lubrication and potentially break. That’s my little tip for the day. The average employee spends two years sitting in a work meeting. Oh my gosh, I think I’m gonna be less than that. Whoo. That is a total advantage for being an entrepreneur. So if you’ve been thinking about that, that might be the stat you need to make the leap 90% of your time indoors. Right. One of the reasons I talked about green cleaners last month is indoor pollution. If you’re spending all this time indoors, what are you breathing? What do you think your statistics are? Did anything surprise you? Anything you’d want to change? For me, definitely watch less TV. I know that I watch probably more TV in 2019 than I typically did. I think the reason for that was it you know, we had to do stuff The good thing is when we from here, we’re not gonna have to do anything but we had to do stuff the other house that took up time energy, downsizing, it was just very emotionally and mentally draining. As much as I was organized and as much as we declutter. It took a lot out of me more than I think something would and so I definitely watched more TV than usual last year. So it’s one of my things not to watch as much TV and I think one of the things my iPad and I do everything on my iPad that serves as my phone because I really talk I do so much video now. They give me a weekly report. And so I’m really trying to get that down. The biggest challenge is I read on my iPad, like I don’t watch the news anymore. And I’m trying to go read less, but it is a challenge. So those are my big things where I want less screen time, Nick, I want less time on social media. So here are the top 10 business time wasters. This was from business, personal coaching top 10 time wasters. It was now defunct, I’d found this and then I was like, Oh, let me research and see this was I felt like this was a good decent list from doing some research. And it’s a good starting point for you, you’ll at least have 10 things that you can examine. Number one, lack of planning, prioritizing and focus, right? That makes total sense when you think about it. We’ve talked about those in different shapes and forms. All throughout the podcast since I started about taking the time to understand your priorities, what they are, plan it out, map it out, and then focus, right we get distracted. We chat with our co workers. We go to the water cooler. We don’t plan something we don’t map it out and oh my gosh, do tomorrow. Number two procrastination. Why are you procrastinating? I believe I did a podcast episode on that. So definitely check that out. If you are procrastinating. They think oh, I’ll put it off tomorrow. And I get that. As I you know, I do these. When I shoot these episodes, I shoot them in one week. So I don’t, for instance, do four episodes in a day. I’ll do like Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.

And so a lot on my mind is that’s why I might repeat things during the month. And so working on the small clinic thing I’m like, Oh, I procrastinated the first week. And I said, Okay, break it down. I know you don’t want to do this, but part of me super wants to do this part of me just like, Oh, this is thing. I just want this over. It’s exhausting. So I’m like, okay, you have motivation, you can get some money. You are publicly calling someone out like they’re some motivating factor. So if you procrastinate, try figure out why you’re doing that. And what steps you can take to move forward again, I did a podcast episode on that previously, that goes into a lot more detail. I think I didn’t if I didn’t, I’ll have to do one on that. Number three is interruptions. I completely get that. I mean, I remember someone wants to stop by and chat. Hey, did you watch the new episode last night? We want to go out to lunch. Where should we go like constant interruptions throughout the day. I want you to This is why I always believe that clear your clutter and get organized. I had my last job that was just nuts. This woman I’d never seen anything like it like it was surprising me they a lot of having to stand office is a total mess and she’d be like, Oh yeah, I know where it is. I’m like okay, then you come and burger to me. I don’t have time to sit here for 20 minutes while you go through your stacks and do that. But it was one of those things like if someone needs from someone like they’re always interruptions, you’re focused on your work, then boom, taken away or like my last job or there was an emergency like every five seconds. Number four is lack of delegation. I know I did do a podcast episode on that. That was about cauliflower rice, the handyman and a comforter. Where are you lacking to delegate? You know when I was at this lovely client yesterday. And like you need a top notch admin, that you can delegate a lot The stuff too, because you’re mirrored over here and the unimportant stuff that’s not allowing you to focus on the big picture. So lack of delegation. Now, again, some of you might not have that you might be the admin. And so it is not an option for you or there’s someone that you can’t delegate work to. So then that goes back to prioritizing and planning and making sure you’re getting everything done. Number five meetings. Yep. I believe that I think you have. You focus on no more than three things. You have a very clear agenda. you summarize it, you can say I’ll do a wrap up, wrap it up, summarize it, you’ll get an email everything, but people just Oh, yeah, we have to meet over that. Well, could it have been solved by email? Maybe, you know, maybe you do need a brainstorming session, but I think I actually was when I was in my 20s and I really liked this boss. He was great, but I remember it’s only time in my life. And I’m very particular, like if there’s a lot of noise, I can’t sleep. I managed to sleep with my eyes just open enough for them to think that I was paying attention. The only time in my life ever do that work, work meeting. You need to be really clear. Do we really need to me? Number six, crisis management and firefighting. Yeah, I’d agree with that. Again, life happens, work happens, these things arise, but if you plan, you prioritize and focus, then a lot of times that’s not going to happen. And again, if it’s crisis management, then you have to look at well who are the employees? Are they in the right job? Are they doing their job, different things like that, where you’re not going to have all these problems come up. Number seven, says the telephone, email and internet I would probably also add social media that list because I see people flying need to be on social media? Like I’ll check and I think aren’t you at work? I mean, thank goodness social media didn’t exist when I was at work, I’d probably be in trouble. But so telephone surfing in that email. That’s one of the top time wasters. Again, it’s maybe playing phone tag, but you can do smart little tricks like leave you know, to leave your name your callback number, you know, or when you have an answer your voicemail the pertinent information. You know, I know some people that change their voicemail daily depending what’s going on, and here’s my email. Here’s my number. I know please know that I check email twice a day. during these times. I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. Number eight, not saying no. I know I’ve definitely done a another podcast episode on that.

But I get that not saying no, Hey, can you do this or Hey, can you help out as a priority for me to raise money or as a priority for me to learn Like envelope, again, like if someone else was making that call, but what can you say no to? Or where are you struggling to say no? Why? What boundaries? Can you put it be put in place to say no to. I read this incredible story that this man and he started it when he was a manager because he was hired by his brother in law. And people were resentful. And so he started writing, he would send a birthday card and Christmas cards, and he sends thank you notes. And so he is now the CEO, and 9800 Christmas cards go out. And Ethan’s birthday cards to all his employees. And I was like, wow, and he says he trapped. So when he’s traveling, he travels with a bunch of stationery. And that’s when he gets it done. If that’s impressive, I’ll tell you that. Nah, I’m not impressed easily. I’m impressed with that. And I know one thing I’ve done when I see someone you know at the age where my friends Parents are passing. And so I always write. I see it a handwritten note when I can and I can’t tell you every time I do that someone reaches out to me because I don’t think that people do that anymore. And that’s something he said yes to but he talked about he said, sure enough people would come by and speak to him and that resentment faded, and it has gone a long way in his company’s culture. Although that was a little sidetrack about something he said yes to, but where can you say no? feel stuck, but have no clue what you need to do to move forward. Would you like to feel energized and excited every day? Are you ready to create the life you desire? Julie’s crotch to support you and finding the answers within and then taking action to make changes happen? Visit reawaken your brilliance calm to learn how Julie can support you with life coaching Number nine, I love this one lack of organization and untidiness. I shared earlier about how I’d walk into this colleagues office and the stacks and stacks and she’s like, Oh, I know where it is. But she has so disorganized and so much clutter would take her 10 to 20 minutes to think about that. And she was in a position where people, she was a hub of information where people would have to come to her for certain items. If you’re having to spend 10 to 20 minutes looking for something every single day. Well, that’s your day. That’s your day for some people. So take the time to be organized, and clear your clutter when I was mapping out my entire year for us to do this and to continue to downsize. And as I’ve done it every year, office was a priority. That’s the first thing we’re going to organize. That’s the first thing we’re going to clear clutter to make it happen. And number 10 This is really important. Not enough time off or time for yourself. At the end of 2019, Tony gets six personal days a year. And if you don’t use them, you lose them. And so I think he took three in December. And I was like Connie, you’ve got to spread that out and then vacation rolls over, which is good. But they’re there for a reason. I used to take mental health days, I took at least one sick day a month now sick had a broad definition in my book. But that’s phenomenal to me that that is considered a top 10 time waster, but it makes sense. If you think about if you’re burnt out, you’re exhausted, you’re not going to be as productive and you are going to want that distraction. You’re going to want those interruptions to make sure that you’re getting enough time and you’re taking your vacation and you’re taking your personal days. Now from solve your problem calm time management 10 time wasting activities. This is where we waste the most personal time. Again, this was interesting and then a little more research because there are a couple of men end up one that really cracked me up. But the first one is worried. And I thought how true is that? How much time have you taken yourself out of the present moment and worried about what the future is bring? Okay, I’m going to share the keeping it real kids.

So we’re going to move and so we’re moving to my hometown. The plan as it stands is next year. And then I was like, Oh my gosh, we would have whoo Oh, no, we’re going to be able to find out you know, we definitely want you know, the houses in my hometown are older, like North Carolina constantly has building going on has constant construction. Although what’s interesting is there aren’t a lot of ranches meaning one for one story, we love this. I mean, I’m gonna cry when I have to leave this house because this is the absolute perfect I just love this house. I love abundant Avenue. It’s just all good stuff. And so I was like, Oh my gosh, you’re Not even move for you. What are you doing? Why are you all the way out there in the future worrying about it? And I laughed because this was the third house that we looked at it was 333. And because I’m into numerology and all that good stuff, so I kind of was laughing because we looked at the first tune, I was like, oh, we’re never gonna find anything and then came both absolutely fell in love with it. So where are you doing that? Where are you worrying? Don’t and what is my father always says it think he says don’t invite trouble. Where the attention goes, the energy flows. Don’t focus on that. Think about how much time you’re doing that number to TV. I definitely was guilty of that last year and haven’t stepped up my game a little bit this year. But think about that. And one of the things that I’m trying to do is like, Well, can I educate myself? If I’m watching TV, can I learn something? Can I understand a complex problem like I want to learn? I watch I thought oh, I’m not gonna like this and ended up liking it on Amazon Prime they had with john Krishna ski. I don’t know how you say his name, uh, jack Ryan series. And the second season focuses on a Venezuela Venezuela I thought, oh OMG there’s so much here. Again, it’s TV but you know, there’s it’s based and steeped in, in some factual stuff. And it after watching that may realize you need to study and learn about Venezuela more because there’s, that’s you just need to do that. But I need to watch TV. That’s what I’m striving for. So think about that again, just track it. How much time are you doing? So we don’t track it. We don’t know. You think like, Oh, you know, or limit yourself. Don’t try to go cold turkey. say okay, I’m going to limit it to two hours, every night, two hours on the weekend, whatever it is. Just take that stuff and start somewhere. Number three is video and computer games. I can’t really talk to that much because I don’t play video or computer games, but I know people who, Tony, there’s a new thing coming out this year and he said, I’ll be probably take a day off. I’m like, do whatever you get work stressful, I want you to be happy. I mean, he plays video in computer games, but I also know for him that’s a way to relax and, and decompress. So that’s number three. Number four is internet time I get that. I mean, especially with Google, you can spend all the time surfing and again, what you want to take from here is where am I wasting time? And what is it taking me away from because if I’m hanging out playing video games, watching TV, surfing the net, what could I be working on? Could I be hanging out with loved ones could I be snuggling with the cat? Could I be painting what could I be doing? It’s it’s a trade off. And that’s what I want the awareness to come in. Where am I wasting time? What am I not able to do? Cuz I’m focused on this other stuff. Yeah, this cracks me up number five telephone chatter, that maybe we should change that to telephone and tech chatter. I have a couple friends like especially caught in LA that I do phone time I don’t consider that chatter I don’t consider that a waste of time. To me that’s community and connecting and I have a friend around here and you know, we catch up every couple weeks and talk for an hour. Number six is traffic and commuting. Again, you know, that’s why I left la that was there were several reasons I left la but traffic and commuting was a definite factor. And within the last two or three years, they

implemented had him in LA so I was used to him but they have you stopped so you have two lanes before getting on the freeway, and they let the two cards go the two behind them have to stop and then next. So for whatever reason they’ve explained it. It helps With traffic flow, but I was like, that’s how I mean traffic’s just grown in this area. And that’s something to think about it if you know a lot of people live in high cost cities are relocating and Raleigh is now can be added to this traffic and commuting. And we have less of that since we have downsize and move just a little bit outside of Raleigh, and my husband works off hours. So think about, you know, what options could you have there. Number seven is hobbies and again, you know, I kind of take issue with that if it’s you’d love to paint and it’s relaxing you then to me, it’s okay. So again, it’s just about are you using your hobby because you love to do something or you’re doing your hobby, because you don’t want to open the bills and face your debt. So that awareness part number eight daydreaming? I don’t know. Like, I think we can most of us need to daydream more to actually take To feel what it’d be like to accomplish that. I don’t know too many people that waste a ton of time daydreaming. But that’s you again examine, what actions can you take to get you out of daydreaming into making things happen? Number nine meetings. Again, there’s the same here. Hmm. Do you have to have a family meeting about something? Or can you answer some questions over email or do something like that? And then number 10, time wasters is planning, which is really interesting that they have that because if you plan well, it usually in the end saves you headache and time. But again, like if you were spending all this time planning and not doing them planning becomes a time waster. So it’s about paying attention to knowing yourself. Now I would also add to this list social Media because I think that’s the big time sucker for several people. And again, that’s something I’m trying to get better with doing. And then I laugh. So as I was doing research, I’m like, Oh, I have to share these because these are totally funny. When I was doing research someone had reading junkie books. Now I don’t know what is classified as a junky book. I was thinking like one of those romance books that you know, that’s what came to mind to me so I don’t want to offend anyone who reads romance novel but reading junkie books so I guess you can interpret junkie as however you like, and having affairs now that completely cracked me up. And I was like, why? And I said, Well, I guess that if you’re have to drive somewhere and you’re taking out a time for Ronnie view, but I just that those are two items that would not have made it in on my list and I would have never thought of giving you a little humor there. Why do you waste time I’ve started to talk about that a little and sharing about the top time wasters to avoid something. unwind. drac procrastinate what other healthy alternatives could you do? For example, if you want to unwind How about reading more and less TV? I’m talking to you pointing my finger at me. If you can become aware, then you can take actions to course correct and again, don’t judge yourself. Look at yourself as an archaeologist trying to find information that can support you in doing it. You know, there is a lot of times there could be in these things bottom that’s fear. What What are you afraid of? Are you afraid if you put something out there and that’ll be criticized and I’m already telling you all the keyboard warriors today probably will boy. So it might get criticized with time or two, but it might make make a huge difference in someone’s life. We all have our gifts to share. This is why I do this podcast I want you sharing your gifts with the world because each and every one of you listening and watching has them. Let me come from Okay, this is why I’m wasting time. What steps do I need to take to overcome a fear to distract myself less? What is it that I need to do?

And I guess I think probably think of this more. Again, reaching 50 I’m halfway through life. What I want to do have are like chop chop. Gotta definitely contribute here. Now on one hand, I look at a completely different person and I’ve done a lot of personal growth. Some people might consider that wasting time, Mito, I’m a better person because of that, to me, that’s a contribution to me. That’s something really important. So become familiar where you’re doing that and why take actions for today’s purpose. Cast. Track your time and discover your time wasters. Understand why you waste time. Create new habits to stop wasting time at work. plan to tackle personal time wasters. Implement healthy alternatives. Stop wasting time and start living your life. On our next episode, we’re talking about the cluttering your time. Go out, clear your clutter, to create the life you choose deserve and desire. When you clear your clutter, you can share your gifts with the world. Sign up for our free newsletter at reawaken your brilliance calm. If you’ve enjoyed clear your clutter inside now, please rate review and share us

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

About Clear Your Clutter Inside & Out

Clutter is stuck stagnant energy and prevents you from creating the life you choose, desire and deserve. We discuss clutter in all its forms: energetic, spiritual, emotional, mental & physical, relationships, health, finances and more. We share tips and take action steps for clutter free living and how to organize your life and death with end of life planning. We’re thinking outside the box on areas where people might not realize where clutter is blocking them. When we remove clutter from our lives we can discover our passions, lead the extraordinary lives we are all meant to live and share our gifts with the world.

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