Avoid wasting time while working from home. Home office expert

No one who works from home can afford to waste time, but there always seems to be more tasks to do than time to do them. Whether you realize it or not, your day is full of time-stealers. Checking e-mail one too many times and taking calls from chatty friends are clear time-wasters and ones you can avoid. But what about the other time-wasters that aren’t so obvious and can take minutes, even hours out of your day?

Before you can eliminate these hidden time-wasters, it’s important to identify them.

1. A need to please others 

A friend of mine can’t say no, because she’s worried about disappointing her clients, friends, and family. She commits to meetings, deadlines, and tasks that she cancels, misses, and forgets to do. By saying no upfront, she would stop wasting other peoples’ time, quit disappointing others, and even accomplish a few tasks on her to-do list.

2. Getting caught up in technology

The beauty of smartphones is that anyone can find you anytime, any place. That’s also the drawback. At the end of the day, it’s important to unplug. When you’re with your family, friends, and clients, make a conscious effort to be in the moment.

I’ve met several people who didn’t realize they were constantly checking their smartphone at stoplights while waiting in line, or while someone else was talking until family and friends pointed it out to them … repeatedly.

3. Focusing on perfection instead of progress 

Most of us know or work with a perfectionist who focuses more on doing things right, than doing them at all. There’s nothing wrong with having high standards, yet they need to be realistic. When you keep your eye on the big picture and focus on what you need to do rather than try to do everything perfectly, you’ll be more productive.

4. Leaving tasks to chance 

Working from home gives you the freedom to set your own hours. There comes a point, though, when all of this freedom can make it hard to accomplish anything. Get in the habit of setting some type of schedule — make it flexible — to make sure you have the time to finish the tasks that need your attention and the ones that have firm deadlines.

5. Not working in blocks of time 

Work on certain projects during one block of time, handle social media during another and take breaks between the different blocks of time.

The key to accomplishing more, making every minute count and not wasting time, is figuring out the time-stealers that are keeping you from being productive. Then you can find ways to avoid them and take back your time.

This post was originally published on The Work at Home Woman