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There are many time wasters that contribute to poor time management and might lead you to wish you had more hours in the day to complete your work.

The truth is that there are a few classic time wasters plus a few relatively new ones that help to sap your time and prevent you from having a productive day:

1. Visits from your coworkers. Having coworkers popping into your office or to your cubicle to talk can be one of the worst time wasters because not only does it take up your time, you might be hesitant to ask them to leave so you can get some work done. If you have a door that you can close, do so. People should get the message that you’re busy. Otherwise, try to find a quiet place such as a meeting room where you can be alone and left undisturbed.
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2. Making and receiving phone calls Another classic time waster is making and receiving personal phone calls. If you have caller ID, you can use it to screen calls and let certain calls go to voice mail so that you can handle them later. If you find that phone calls are hurting your time management, try to block out time when you make and receive phone calls if this is possible, so that you are not simply answering the phone every time it rings.

3. Leaving your desk. Leaving your desk for one reason or another often leads you to get distracted especially if you run into people that start talking to you and steering you away from doing your work. Certainly if you are a smoker and run downstairs several times per day to have a smoke, you’re probably wasting upwards of an hour per day or more when you consider the travel time, smoking time, talking time and then the time involved to remember what work you were doing when you left your desk each time you go for a smoke.

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4. Email. One of the new classic time wasters, sending and receiving emails can certainly be a big time waster. Like receiving phone calls, responding to emails the moment they arrive can help to decrease your time management if you allow your email to rule you. As with your phone, you might decide to only send and respond to emails at certain times.

5. Internet. Like email, Internet usage (personal usage specifically) can be a big time waster. Actually, work-related Internet usage can be a big time waster too. Use common sense here. Wasting time using the Internet probably just means you have to end up staying late at work or bringing work home that you could otherwise do at home.

Carl Mueller is an Internet entrepreneur and professional recruiter who wants to help you find your dream career.

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This entry was posted on Friday, October 26th, 2007 at 7:01 am and is filed under Management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.