How many times have you heard this: “Time is money.”? We in the self-employed world know better than most that time is money. We have to plan our time off judiciously because when we don’t work, we don’t get paid. It’s difficult enough to plan time off, but when we find ourselves wasting time when we should be getting things done, it just adds insult to injury. The productivity challenge isn’t limited to the self-employed – we may just feel it more acutely in the wallet than others.

However, the point is if we’re wasting time, things don’t get done; and if things don’t get done, business doesn’t happen. If business doesn’t happen, we don’t make any money. For all of the upsides that come with being your own boss, this isn’t one of them. In fact, this can be a big down side of owning your own business if it's not managed well.

You don’t feel like working today? It will cost you; literally.
Therefore, it makes sense then that the less time we waste, the more productive we are; the more productive we are the more money we make.

To improve your productivity, your first step should be to identify your biggest time wasters. Once done, you can then address how to eliminate or at least neutralize them to see an improvement. So, what would you say are your biggest time wasters?

Answer these two questions:
#1) What things outside of your control get in the way of your productivity?

#2) What things within your control get in the way of your productivity?

Pace Productivity, a Canadian company asked these same 2 questions in a survey of 690 entrepreneurs and employees across North America.

The first question was designed to find out what factors hindered productivity that were outside of the respondents’ control. The second question was designed to find out how people take responsibility (or not) for wasting their own time.

Question #1 received more responses than #2 however; every person surveyed was asked both questions. It appears people submitted more than one response to the first question, which was not the case with the second. In fact the most common response to the second question was no response at all. Interesting, right? How's that for accountability (or the lack thereof)?

Which brings me to my second point, accountability. You would be surprised at how much control you really DO have over your day. Most of the time it is YOU who decides to allow others to interrupt you. YOU decide how often and how much time you spend checking email, searching the internet, visiting with co-workers, etc.

You don’t have to hurt people’s feelings telling them you happen to be busy at that point – can they call you back later in the afternoon. You CAN turn the email notification sound to “mute” so you’re not interrupted every time you receive a new email. You do have more control than you think.

Think about your time wasters and be accountable. There are very few things about which you are helpless to improve.

HOW do your “time wasters” rate rate in the survey? See the survey results here as well as a few more tips on how to how to increase your daily productivity at work.

And remember ...Be BOLD! Be Productive! Make it Happen.

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