No One Told You When to Run, You Missed the Starting Gun

Time is our most basic common commodity. Some spend it wisely; some let it get the best of them. Recently speaking with a business analyst who now works from home instead of going into the office every day, he commented that he can’t believe how much more productive his work day has become. A friend of mine who works at a large accounting firm also recently told me of her geographic work change, stating that she’s now working from home 2-3 days a week. It’s more of an adjustment for her, one which you might say the jury is still out.

When it comes to vacation time, maybe you’re one of those people who can’t truly disconnect from the office – or maybe you don’t think about the office during days off. Either way, according to Robert Half International, 51% of CFOs say they don’t check in with the office at all when on vacation. This statistic is up from 26% just a couple of years earlier. With that large of a gap in only two years, color me skeptical.

What wastes time at work? Excessive birthday cakes with accompanying songs? A recent study didn’t have that one on the list, but it did have these five gems:

Top 5 Business Time Killers:
1) E-mail
2) Procrastination
3) Social networking
4) Meetings
5) Surfing the Internet

What’s killing time in your business day?

Here’s a terrific post by Gini Dietrich titled Time Management: Six Tips to Be More Productive and Get Things Done.  I’ve always been an advocate of #4, which many people find to be impossible to do. Hogwash. It has nothing to do with how busy you are; it’s all about organization. I’ve heard presidents of companies and plenty of other people with high level positions that make sure they’ve got no more than a handful of emails in their inboxes at the end of the day. The practice makes for an amazing difference in your workflow.

Now, #6 on Gini’s list is one that I need to do more often. I should walk in the woods during the workday every once in a while and just think. I have a feeling this practice would make me more productive and focused in the long run. Now where are those boots …..