Tackling the Terrors of the Time Drain

Tick tock, tick tock – how often do you glance at the clock and marvel at how quickly the hours have flown by? Improving our time management skills is essential for everyone – so take a minute and read on

In this article, we’ll explore some of the common challenges and examine the patterns and behaviours that lead to time drains—those moments when a five-minute task turns into an hour-long journey down the rabbit hole of procrastination!

Too Much At Once

Multi-tasking is a critical skill for practice managers, but it can also be a double-edged sword. When we juggle too many tasks simultaneously, it becomes challenging to ensure that the crucial tasks receive our undivided attention. Inevitably, our focus is divided, preventing our brains from fully engaging in any single task. The result of this, of course, is that it can be easy to miss small details which may turn into big details later.

Revamp Your To-do-list

We love a to-do-list, but they’re only as useful as long they are practical. Take a good look at your list for the day. Is it realistic? Can you manage it all without feeling overwhelmed? Are you adding tasks with a clear plan of how, when and where you’ll check them off? Or are you just piling on things because they seem necessary? A SMART task list is gold, but a chaotic scrap of paper crammed with tasks you feel pressured to tackle, without a clue how to start, will only demotivate you—and probably lead you to avoid them altogether!

It’ll Only Take a Second…

How many times a day have you heard this? ‘Can you find out if…’ ‘Could you call…’, if you add up all the jobs throughout the day that will ‘only take a second’ you’ll probably find they add up to a considerable amount of time.

Often, we say yes to these requests because we want things done promptly, believing it’s faster to handle them ourselves. But how often are these small tasks ones that could be politely declined, thereby reinforcing our boundaries and safeguarding your precious time?

Consider how many times in your day you start a task, only to pause and address an urgent issue, then return to the original task later – that is time that you could have used to finish the initial task in half the time!

So, next time you find yourself glancing up at the clock and wondering where the time went, remember – it’s not about chasing every second, but making those seconds count. There are many varied time management techniques to dive into so why not give yourself a week to try each one? Who knows – you might just find yourself with a few extra minutes to enjoy a well-deserved coffee break.