Are You Wasting your Time or Investing Your Energy?

Are You Wasting your Time or Investing Your Energy?

I read an interesting article today 15 Time Wasters That Successful People Avoid. The article named the top time-wasting industries; #5- software and internet with 2.2 hours wasted each day, #1 – insurance with 2.5 wasted hours a day.

Top 15 time wasters: Not listening, Not finishing, Working late, Lack of focus, Bad planning,, Technology interruptions, Initiative overload, Drop-in visits, Bad delegation, Poor organization, Procrastination, Improper use of “yes” and “no, Unproductive meetings, Not learning, and Not engaging. How many of these time wasters populate your day?

Minimizing time wasters is only half the story. The other half; what to maximize? My take from working with hundreds of successful people is that they maximize their investment of energy in their highest priorities.

Do you focus your energy and attention on what matters most? Our energy, not our time, is our most valuable resource. This is why we sometimes accomplish an amazing amount quickly and other times accomplish little with out time. Our most productive energy investments are when we are in a state of flow. Flow is like “the zone” in sports or the feeling you have when playing an addictive video game. We enter flow when we are challenged and have the ability to stretch to meet the challenge. And the magic of individual and group flow is that we are fully engaged and productive and we also happy and satisfied.

Taking Action: You can design your work to promote flow by: 1) structuring it with clear goals and progress measures; 2) providing for immediate actionable feedback so you can adjust performance to maintain flow; 3) balancing the challenge of the work with your skills.

Posted by David Sherman