This is a list of 17 things you shouldn’t be doing any more because they waste time. Old habits die hard and it can be difficult to shift yourself from an old familiar way of doing something to a new, better way.
Take a look at the list and see if there is anything you can change to help make you more productive. If you have any suggestions please add them in the comments.
- Manually Depositing a Paycheck — That is what direct deposit is for. If you spend 15 minutes every two weeks dealing with depositing your paycheck that is 65 hours over the next 10 years. Put this time to better use.
- Writing Checks for Bills — That is what the bill pay service from your bank is for. Use this time for something worthwhile.
- Partially Filling Up with Gas — Yes it might go down 3 cents next week, but how much is your time really worth.
- Looking for your Keys or Cellphone — Always put them in the same place (hook by the door, etc).
- Unpacking your Laptop Power Adaptor — If you go from work to home with your laptop, get an extra adaptor for each work area so you don’t have to unpack and crawl under the desk each time.
- Check Multiple Email Boxes — Get a program that will show you all your email in one place or filter by individual accounts. Apple Mail, Gmail and several other products do this.
- Watching Commercials — Use Tivo to skip them. Use Netflix and just skip television all together. Buy the shows you want to watch off iTunes. If you had a friend who spent 20% to 30% of your time trying to sell you things you didn’t really need, would you put up with it? (If you have a friend in network marketing, you may have already experienced this.)
- Losing Telephone Numbers — Your cell phone should sync with your computer. We are past the days where a phone only held 25
numbers. If someone calls, take the few seconds to record their name in your phone, so it will be transferred next time you sync your computer. - Commuting to College — Take your classes online. Spend your commute time studying instead of driving.
- Commuting Through Heavy Traffic — Talk to your boss about working from home–even for just a few days a week. Shift your schedule to miss rush hour.
- Dialing into Voice Mail — Get your voicemail setup to send you messages as email attachments that way you only have to check one mailbox.
- Backing Up to CDs or Disks — Get an external hard drive. It will be fast enough that maybe you’ll go ahead and backup more often. Plus if you do it right, you can create a working version of your entire computer on the hard drive. If you laptop is stolen you can start working from your last backup with all your programs and settings just as they were. (Here are some more tips about relying on technology.)
- Visiting Lots of Blogs — Use a news reader like Google Reader. Most people don’t realize how much time they waste looking at the same sites over and over again to see if there is anything new. With a newsreader you’ll know whenever something new is posted.
- Removing Spyware — Use a computer or web browser that doesn’t get infected.
- Wasting Time in the Car — Subscribe to podcasts and get a connector for your MP3 player in your car. Spend your time learning instead of just sitting there driving.
- Getting Lost in the Car — If you spend a lot of time driving to unfamiliar areas, go ahead and invest in a GPS with routing capabilities or figure out how to use your cell phone as a GPS. That way you can spend your time focusing on your work instead of honing your navigation skills.
- Clubbing Baby Seals — Just in case this applies to you, this would be a good thing to stop as well.
Other posts you might enjoy:
- The Iron Chef Productivity Fable
- Convince Your Boss to Let You Work From Home
- The Rat Experiment – Managing Other’s Expectations
- Social Glass Ceiling
- Two Types of Technology Users
FYI: You can get Productivity501 fed directly into Google Reader or other RSS reader here:
LOL arthur re clubbing:seal ratio. haha. Yeah this list was pretty week. useful reminders. fortunately do almost all those. except the two adapters one. not likely, but may look into that.
Great tips! As a self-employed I often find myself wasting time on some of the mentioned things. I like to use this as an example: In stead of wasting 45 minutes on waiting for the bus I often take a cab (which are extremely expensive here in Denmark). It might cost me like 50$, but if I can spend that time on a client and earn 80$ I’d rather do that.
Sorry, but I have to disagree with item 9. Commuting to College. As a full-time student who has taken some online classes (and only because an onsite equivalent was not offered), as far as I can see, they are “watered-down” and a waste of my time and money.
@Josephine – I can’t speak to your school, but there are some very well done distance education classes out there. Obviously I’m not suggesting to take classes from a place without a good program. If you aren’t limited to nearby locations you can take from a school that has really good online classes.
I strongly agree with tips number 12. Backing Up to CDs or Disks. I’ve been doing this whenever I am reformatting my computer. And such a waste of time backing up my files in a CD or DVD. Now all I have to do is get an external hard drive.
It will be fast enough that maybe you’ll go ahead and backup more
often.
Thanks for posting!
I already follow most of the items here but I loved the newsreader idea and I got it immediately after reading the article.
Thanks for the tip!
This is the worst list I have ever seen. Complete pile of shit. Besides, we have all the time in the world. Also notice these are the things we WOULD be doing if we had the money.
3. What if you can’t afford a full tank? Happens to me all the time.
4. Some people forget about the little things.
5. Oh… can’t afford 2nd cord? Thisuns’ out!
6. What the **** is Apple Mail! If you can’t find it on Google, it ain’t there!
7. All for people with big bucks. I don’t want to pay 20 dollars for 4 or 5 episodes.
8. Don’t have a phone that can do this. Sorry. Well, I would be if this list wasn’t so useless!
9. Good. No problems. Not needed if you don’t go to college though, still no fault with it though.
10. …NO. Plain **** outright stupid. Losing pay, time, and pissing ALL the wrong people off!
13. What am I doing right now?
14. Everything gets infected dumbass. Getting stupider as we go! t(”t)
15. This causes drivers to be distracted, thus crashing, wasting time with more paperwork than you would need to if you weren’t distracted.
16. Can’t afford.
17. wtf?
EPIC FAIL! What a gigantic waste of my time.
If you can’t afford a full tank of gas, it is simply a cash management issue. You are still going to use the same amount of gas and the same amount of money over all–it is just a matter of how much time you spend at the pump.
I’m not sure how working 7 to 4 would lose you more pay than working 8 to 5. If it saves you 15 to 20 minutes a day of being in traffic I don’t see how you lose any time.
I think you need to offer him a refund! LOL. He can’t afford a tank of gas? Explains everything.
I’m sure that horrible attitude and foul mouth saves a lot of time and money. What a sad individual.
Great list and so true, it is amazing how many redundant things we do over and over to avoid stopping for five minutes to eliminate it.
“Partially filling up with gas” – What about the savings you make from the vehicle being lighter due to less fuel being carried around?
Well if your time is worth nothing…. Plus any savings is likely offset by running your engine longer to make more frequent trips to the gas station.