Time Thieves: get rid of them in your everyday life

Time Thieves: get rid of them in your everyday life
Bernardo Peña

Reviewed and approved by the psychologist Bernardo Peña.

Written by Lorena González

Last update: 09 October, 2022

If you feel like you don’t have enough time in your day to complete all of your activities, and you notice that you’re working but not seeing any results, then you have to get rid of your time thieves that don’t allow you to be productive. 

For the most part, you usually waste time on trivial things, but they’re distracting enough to get you completely off track.

Know what exactly is wasting your time

Sublime picture of time

In order to take care of this problem, you first need to know how to identify your time thieves.

  • Every person has their own thieves whether they’re other people or factors.
  • You should find out what exactly is wasting your time and stop it from hindering your everyday activities.

Plan your day

Planning out your daily activities isn’t always easy.

  • However, if you want to make the most out of your time, you need to keep a list of all of the things you need to accomplish in a day and those that you do at another moment.
  • By organizing your activities, you can cross off all of your to-dos in a structured manner.

Read this article too: Learn the Benefits of Waking Up Early!

 Keep your proprieties

Fundamental: you need to know how to organize your activities according to their level of importance.

By doing so, you’ll be able to take care of the most important tasks first. After completing your top-priority issues, you can move on to the rest of your activities.

Learn how to stick to saying “no”

Stick to saying no

You need to know that you don’t always have to help everyone.

  • You should be able to say NO without feeling guilty about it.
  • If you know how to say “no”, you don’t have to do everything that other people want you to do. Rather, it forces you to set time aside for your own activities and prevents them from piling up.

Make a schedule

Just as everyone has their own characteristics, we all have our own levels of productivity.

  • Some people can work whenever and are always productive– it’s a huge advantage. However, not everyone is like that.
  • So, you need to know what time you’re mostly productive and try to avoid having any possible interruptions that could affect your productivity.

Delegate

You need to know that you’re not the only person who is a good worker. If you take on all of the responsibilities all by yourself, you won’t have enough time to finish them. Therefore, you need to know how to delegate activities to others. From the start, you should assign everyone a job that everyone can do, so others can pitch in when needed.

Control your phone use

Long conversations tend to be a big time thief. You should try controlling the length of your phone calls.

  • If you know that an incoming call isn’t urgent and can wait until you’ve finished your activities, avoid picking them up to prevent them from interrupting your work flow.
  • Likewise, in the case of texts, don’t waste time in conversations that can wait until the end of the day.
  • Following the news on social media is another factor that wastes your time. You should pay attention to your phone, but only when it’s necessary.

Limit meetings and hang-outs

Get-togethers are always big time thieves. Before you decide to hang out, see what they’re about and if they’re necessary or if they can wait until you’ve finished with everything you need to do.

If they can’t wait, try to keep them as short as possible.

Check out this article too: Choosing the Right Time of the Day to Exercise

Take a small break

It’s always good to take a little time to ease the tension. After a couple hours of continuous work, you should rest for some 10 minutes and then get back to work.

Keep things organized

Organized room

If you keep your things organized, your work will become easier because you won’t have to look for the things you need along the way. In addition, keeping your space clean and organized will help brighten your work atmosphere.

Don’t be a perfectionist

Everyone knows that things should be well done. However, you don’t have to be obsessed about making things perfect because trying to do so will only drain your time, and you won’t be able to finish the rest of your activities.


This text is provided for informational purposes only and does not replace consultation with a professional. If in doubt, consult your specialist.