Saving Time Online

Guilty!

 

I am so guilty of wasting time online.  Are you?

Oh, I want to excuse it.  I want to give you all the reasons that the time I spend reading, researching, looking at sites is all useful.  That it is furthering my education.

And, to some extent, it is.  But, it is just furthering my education.  Not my productivity OR my pocketbook!

So, one of my goals for the year is to make my time online more productive.

Here are 3 of the ways I am doing that:

1.  Separate my Business E-mail from my Personal E-mail

This way I am only responding to the business email during the day and not getting (too) sidetracked. The really BIG TRICK then, is to only check my personal e-mail at night.  This way I am only responding to the business email during the day and not getting (too) sidetracked.  

Time saved: 30 min

2.  Unsubscribe

This is one of the hardest things to do.  I really do enjoy reading the newsletters, tips, blog feeds, e-zines.......  I get a lot of good ideas and information from them.  But, I can also spend a lot of time with them.  So, I have pared down.  I choose a few that I feel are invaluable and I am unsubscribing to the rest.  

Time saved: 20-30 min

3.  Know my Action Steps

Writing down the must-do things of the day still ranks as the number one way to stay on task.  And I use the very old-fashioned pen and paper (actually, I use index cards) because I absolutely love the feeling of crossing those suckers off the list.  But, however you do it, make a list.  And the best time to make it is at the end of the day - make your list of 6 things you must do.  Then rank them and go in the order of most to least important.  Whenever you get off task, just go back to that list.

Time saved:  at least 30 min a day

There, I have shaved 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours off my day.  Time that I can now devote to things I get paid for!

Here's to Inspired Time Management!

I would love to hear how you save time online too.

Comments

[Marian Sparks]

Excellent ideas! I do the same. And for #3, I go a step further...I write the one thing that I need to get done online (for example, find plugin x for wordpress). I put the post-it on the righthand side of my screen. Then when I start to "drift" (happens frequently), I am reminded about what I was trying to do b4 I got distracted.

Cheers ~Marian

[Tom Blackwell]

Ah, aren't the distractions frustrating - or maybe a sign of genius!
That is a fabulous idea - keeps your number one goal right in front of you at all times.

To Your Success
Holly