Time wasters at work? Say it ain’t so!!

I know. I know exactly what you’re thinking.

But Pam, I work from home.

I’m a coach.

I don’t have to deal with watercooler catch ups and mid-day cubicle gossip sessions.

I’m the mistress of my time!

Oh… I hear you alright.

But are you really safe from time wasters?

Really?

Yeahhh… I’m thinking not.

You see time wasters are sneaky, little gremlins. The kind that creep up without warning no matter where you are.

You can be at an “office” in a job that sucks the lifeblood out of you.

Or you can be a coach, pursuing your life’s passion.

These gremlins aka time wasters know no bar! At least they don’t know one where they can go and get wasted instead of wasting your time! 😉 Sorry, just couldn’t resist that one!

Okay I digress…

Here’s the thing.

Time wasters at work can throw your schedule out of whack like my precious puppies throw mine when they decide it’s puppy playtime or they just want to snuggle.

Simply put, time wasters are present everywhere for everyone.

Yup! Everyone!!

With that out of the way, let’s look at the top 7 {yes, m’friend… SEVEN!} time wasters that can drain your hours faster than I drain my glass at Happy Hours!

7 Time Wasters at Work for Coaches: Protect Your Productivity by Banishing These Greedy Gremlins

1) Replying to emails.

That’s right. That’s the reason I’ve given you actionable advice on turning your emails into productivity powerhouses, because honey…you can get sucked into replying to them and lose a good chunk of your day, before you know it!

 

2) Struggling to send out your newsletters.

Ack!! I’ve seen this one. You want to engage with the people on your email list, prospective clients and future customers. But the whole thing takes SO much time, you’d rather bang your head repeatedly against the keyboard than type out a story to share with them. That is why I have THIS.

 

3) Checking social media, all through the day.

First things first, being on social media is NOT your job. Your job is to build your coaching practice, with discovery calls, client calls, follow-ups and creating courses or hosting webinars.

So, turn off those pesky push notifications and instead, either hire out your social or schedule time to check it. Simple. It’ll take willpower… but just do it. Thank you Nike!

 

4) Doing things in bits and pieces.

Do you find yourself starting a project, then getting distracted by something else, leaving the first one and starting the second?

Or maybe you find yourself with a bajillion tabs open while you wonder what did you really want to do? (I’ve been guilty of this one oodles of times.) It’s kinda like opening the refrigerator and looking inside, wondering… “what do I eat?”

Here’s what I want you to do, chica… focus on finishing ONE project before moving on to the next. That’ll ensure that you not only get more done, you’ll also enjoy the momentum that comes with finishing a task.

 

5) Getting caught up in non-work during work hours.

Do you find yourself chatting with a friend for way too long during work hours? Or maybe you need to answer and find stuff for the kids all.the.time.while you try and get some work done?

Now, I get it. I get that the reason we work from home is because we want the flexibility and we want to be with our kids…but when you dedicate hours to ”work” you need to protect that time, like the mama bear protects her cubs.

Fiercely.

 

6) Keeping the TV on in the background while you work.

This may sound silly but you have NO idea how many coaches I know who do this. They put on their fav series, sit down to watch while they reply to emails or maybe, write a blog post and the result is they do neither one well. Multi-tasking with the TV does NOT work.

 

7) Hyper planning.

This is sneaky for sure. You think you’re saving time by planning your day and well, really you are. But when you start to plan every little thing, leaving no white space in your calendar… well girl, you’re letting the gremlins get ahead.

Think about it. Do you spend more time planning than actually executing the plan? If yes, you know what you need to do!

There you go! 7 sneaky pesky productivity pests. Bring out the bug spray aka tips above or call in the exterminator AKA yours truly!

So what’s YOUR number one time waster? Tell me all about it in the comments and we’ll stamp out those sneaky little gremlins – together.