Time Management

Unless you live on some other planet you have the same 24 hours each day to eat, sleep, work, spend time with family, pursue hobbies, etc as I do.  This means that the time I have allotted to each of these activities needs to managed as best as I possibly can.

I recently came to the realization that in today’s Internet-connected world it is possible to be too connected.  Sure, those 25 Google Alerts that fed me information on my company’s market each day sometimes provided great information, but most of the time are just a waste of time.  The same held true when I reviewed the “news” that I was following in Google Reader each day.  Sure, lolcats are funny, but does that really help me grow my company or provide any real value other than some humor?  Do I really care what the competition is doing since I already know they are doing it wrong anyway?  And, we all know that Jimmie Johnson will win his 5th NASCAR championship this year so is there any point in reading about it every week?

This past Monday I starting removing the things that waste my time and divert my focus away from what really matters.  Almost all of my Google Alerts are gone, and I am down to reading just the blogs that really add value to my life.

If you were to step back and look at your day, what things are you wasting valuable time on each day?  What “simple” things could you remove that would be a huge productivity improvement?