Practical Guide to Avoiding Distracting Tasks

Consider how frequently the following has befallen you:

You think about laboring on generating some web traffic or at long last getting an article done. You start this work, but then you drop it as soon as you are distracted. Disregarding the first task, you then pour yourself into the distraction with lots of energy in an attempt to prove that you're really on the right track.

This interference is in all likelihood more entertaining than your necessary priority. You will do the interfering activity, but your time management has been set back tremendously. Your competence and yield could not become more unfavorable. You can accomplish a whole lot more. The more time you stay away from your necessary activities the more problems you will have trying to restart. This makes most of us begin to search for more interferences immediately.

Are your work habits like this? If you are an employee in an office environment then it is likely your boss will have picked up on this and requested improvement. If you run your own business then this work habit will cost you money. You will find the only one who can help you in this case is YOURSELF. Your friends and family aren’t going to help you because they are probably the main cause of distractions. They will want you to spend time with them and test your loyalties by expecting you to choose whether they are more important than your work. Let them know your business requires your time because you want to be successful. Actively work on become more efficient and less easily distracted.

Just a little common sense can go a long way. This is especially true in a work environment but the same applies to home-office based businesses. Simple time management rules can keep managers and small business person's from being easily distracted by their friends and family, even their co-workers or employees.

To be more productive there are two important rules:
1. Touch Things once
2. Give priority to those tasks which are important

You've encountered a lot of advice before: you've researched on web sites, you've followed bloggers, you've pored over whole books about time management written by experts in the field. But did you actually put that advice to use? If you did, how long did it last before you fell back on your old ways? The advice clearly didn't stick if you find that you can still describe your work habits as distracting habits. You may have studied aspects of time management such as arranging a To-Do List, establishing priorities and delegating tasks, but…

You can develop habits and tools which will better leverage your time if you just do some additional reading and gain some practice as well. For the introduction to my series on time management, I picked out a couple of common sense beginning points which you can start using as soon as today.

Easy, isn't it? When a job has been started, finish it. Put other activities on your To-Do List and keep your eyes straightforward on the important job you have to do until it is completed. When the initial diversion comes you have already been working for a minimum of five minutes on your most important job. If you let this diversion take away your concentration you will require ANOTHER five minutes to get to the place you are at now. This should be enough good sense to use Touch it Once.

Part Two of Touch It Once: If you are at the end of your workday, don't begin a task you cannot complete that day. In order for you to do a task correctly, you need to have time to get it done. Particularly if it is important. An important task you cannot complete today should be the first thing you work on the following morning. Prioritize important tasks ahead of others not considered as important.

Email aside: Use email subjects that are to the point! Ensure that your partners and employees follow your lead. Everybody involved will have a better understanding of what to expect in the message. I see a lot of correspondence carrying the same subject forward even though the topic under discussion has changed greatly. Write two or three emails if necessary so that your associates can sort them out for appropriate action.

You begin working on creating web traffic or writing that article you have been putting off for too long. You get started, but abandon the job the first time something else grabs your attention. You ditch the job you had started, and joyfully dive into the new distraction, trying to prove you are moving forward with your work.

Ron Finkelstein is a small business owner who has spent a fortune and lifetime improving his Time Management Strategies. If you liked this time management tip, you might also like to learn about the Eisenhower Method or some more of my Time Management Tips

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