What takes up your time?

I sometimes get bogged down by loads of activities – meetings, projects, clients, team and all that fills our work day. It is very easy to get trapped into the busyness of mundane activities and loose the focus on what matters the most. Sometimes, it seems we are moving too fast. How do I tackle this? I knew that some of my good virtual friends on the blogosphere would have some insight and here it goes.

“Be Excellent” has an excellent list of top 22 time wasters – when we get caught up and bogged down by humongous task lists, it is easy to loose focus and purpose of activities that take up our time. By tackling these top time wasters, we not only save time but also direct our energies on purposeful activities by doing things based on priorities. When we have time, we can think and prioritize and work accordingly.

Thinking Faster blog has a nice post called “Slow Down – you move too fast“. As the post rightly says, “amidst all the busyness, much gets left out” – how true! The post suggest a three step approach to tackle busyness.

• Prioritize (on tasks that are important and can best use your time)
• Plan ( your activities and work according to a plan – this reduces workplace chaos)
• Communicate (most tasks take longer because of lack of clear communication)

Key Learning? Being busy doesn’t neccessarily mean being effective.