Image credit: ZEN WORKSPACE — CREDIT: JOE ST.PIERRE. LICENSE: CC BY–NC–SA 2.0
Launching a successful startup requires you to focus all of your time and effort on the task at hand. There are only so many hours in each day — time is the one commodity that every entrepreneur wished they had more of. There are many common distractions that suck away your precious time every day. These seven examples can be eliminated easily to give you more time to dedicate towards reaching your goals.
1. Anxiously checking your email
There is a good chance that you could spend your entire day responding to emails. Rather than anxiously refreshing your inbox every few minutes set it to auto-refresh every hour. This allows you to scan your inbox each hour and respond to urgent emails right away and then tackle the rest later when you have some free time. Try responding to emails first thing in the morning before your day starts, once at lunch, and then finally before you leave the office for the evening.
2. Going out to lunch daily
Think of how much time is wasted daily going out to get lunch. Fighting traffic, waiting for service and then making your way back to the office can suck up a lot of time from your busy day. While it is always great to get out of the office and unwind, limit that to a couple times a week. Pack your lunch a few times a week. Not only is it healthier, but you can also get little tasks completed while you eat.
3. Unnecessary online surfing
Have you ever jumped online with the intention to just check something very quickly, but it turned into an hour-long browsing session? It happens all the time — you check sports scores or read your favorite blog and just keep surfing online. You can break up your day with little breaks to check these websites — just avoid the random surfing, as it can really suck a lot of valuable time from your day.
4. Non-business related social media
Facebook status updates, tweets and Instagram pictures are a great way to stay connected to friends and family, but they will also kill your productivity at the office. The status updates and tweets are still going to be there when you end your day. When you are updating your company’s social media accounts resist the urge to check your own.
5. Altering your day for unscheduled meetings
If you take unscheduled meetings it will cut into your productivity, but it also sends a message to the person that your time is not valuable. Sometimes emergencies will come up and you have to adjust your schedule and take a meeting, but if it isn’t an emergency then don’t drop everything.
6. Disorganized office surroundings
Your office surroundings are hectic it is going to be hard to be productive. Make sure you have a nice quiet space that allows you to stay 100% focused while you work. If you have a team of employees pulling you in a million directions make sure you establish a time each day that you are off limits, allowing you to have a period of time that you know will be distraction-free.
7. Mobile phones and tablets
Phone calls and texts can be a major distraction. Now add in social media notification and email via mobile devices and you can see how it can be a major distraction while you are trying to be productive. To really eliminate mobile distractions, turn it off or set it to airplane mode while you are working.
What distractions have you eliminated to make yourself more productive?