I hate to admit it, but sometimes I am a total wastrel when it comes to using my time wisely. There are days when I've been in my office all day - without a break - and it seems I've accomplished nothing.
I'm even appalled at my own lack of discipline. But some tasks are
distasteful; others are overwhelming. It's hard to get started. So I
check my email again only to discover 19 new messages demanding my
immediate attention.
But before I know it the day is gone forever, filled with the successful completion of useless tasks that I feel compelled to do - and not one step close to getting the main things done.
That's why I fell in love with Leo Babauta's article on ZenHabits today called "20 Strategies to Defeat the Urge to Do Useless Tasks."
I think he wrote it just for me - but you can have a peek.
Check out his multi-pronged strategies to beat the urge to do the useless - and get on to the more important things - like LIFE!
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Love the photo - it's one I've also used in a presentation of my own. Looks like we both look like we could be sitting at that desk!
Good point on the timewasters - it's one of the blockers to selling that I see many of my clients' reps engaging in. "Being busy" often replaces the need to focus on one or two big things. If we could disconnect with the idea that picking off a lot of little things is success - and focus on the high value tasks and be satisfied if we only did a few of them, I think we'd all be suprised at the real progress we can make over time.
Posted by: Lisa Dennis | 08/19/2008 at 03:14 PM
Man do I hate those days. One thing that has helped me is a sweet dialer. My company and I looked for a dialer that would try to do some of those useless tasks, and guess what? I found the dialer that does it. My company and I think it is so awesome because now we never have those days of doing useless tasks because our dialer emails, leaves messages, and faxes things for us, automatically.
Posted by: DJ | 12/30/2008 at 03:39 PM
The pic is cool & a great post about time management. Thanks.
Posted by: Sales Management Strategy | 02/17/2009 at 06:18 AM