{"id":38733,"date":"2021-06-07T23:05:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-08T03:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=38733"},"modified":"2021-08-14T13:01:27","modified_gmt":"2021-08-14T17:01:27","slug":"time-wasting-activities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/time-wasting-activities\/","title":{"rendered":"Eliminate Time-Wasting Activities in 4 Easy Step"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What are three to five time-wasting activities<\/a> that affect your day-to-day work? Can you think of ways to reduce the amount of time you spend on them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wasting time on things that don\u2019t produce results is unfortunate but unavoidable. In his book The Effective Executive<\/em>, management consultant Peter Drucker offers four-step advice on how to minimize time-wasting activities and free up time for tasks that yield real, tangible results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Follow these four steps to root out your time-wasters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Peter Drucker: Cut Your Time-Wasters <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

1) Identify and eliminate time-wasting activities that don\u2019t produce results, including things that don\u2019t need to be done in the first place. <\/strong>For each item on your time record, ask yourself what would happen if you hadn\u2019t done it or don\u2019t do it going forward. If the answer is nothing, stop doing it. Drucker claims that most executives could eliminate about 25% of their activities without anyone noticing; he cites speeches, social events, committee memberships, directorships, and lunch or dinner events as often unnecessary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Should We Cut the Activities Drucker Recommends?<\/strong>
<\/strong>
Today, the activities Drucker suggests cutting might be considered an essential part of branding, marketing, or networking. A way to evaluate these activities and decide if they\u2019re useful enough to continue is to borrow the lean manufacturing idea<\/a> of determining which ones are value-added versus non-value-added: Value-added activities add customer value to a business process<\/a>, product, or service. This aligns with Drucker\u2019s advice to say \u201cno\u201d to doing anything that doesn\u2019t help your organization or enhance your contribution to the organization\u2019s performance.

Similarly, in Eat That Frog<\/em><\/a>, Brian Tracy writes that you should creatively procrastinate<\/em> or put off, eliminate, or delegate activities that don\u2019t add value to your work. Also, he says you should keep reviewing your activities for time wasters, looking especially hard at major time consumers.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

2) Determine which activities could be done just as well or better by someone else, and delegate them. <\/strong>While some people view delegating as being lazy or taking advantage of a subordinate, Drucker emphasizes that as an executive, you\u2019re being paid for your unique contribution to the organization\u2019s performance\u2014and when you allow yourself to be distracted from this by tasks someone else can do, you undercut your effectiveness as well as the organization’s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to Delegate Effectively<\/a><\/strong>

In High Output Management<\/em><\/a>, CEO Andrew Grove identifies the following requirements for effective delegating:You and the person you\u2019re delegating to need to have the same information and agree on how to do the task.You can keep the tasks you like doing as long as you\u2019re fully aware of your motivations for not delegating them.You monitor the person you\u2019re delegating to.You delegate tasks you\u2019re familiar with, because it\u2019s easier to monitor things you already know how to do.If you\u2019re delegating decision-making<\/a>, monitor the decision-making process<\/a>.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

3) Identify the ways in which you waste others\u2019 time (and therefore your own).<\/strong> Drucker advises asking <\/strong>your employees and colleagues what you<\/em> do that wastes their<\/em> time (that doesn\u2019t increase their effectiveness or contribution). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You may be doing something that\u2019s productive for you but that still wastes others\u2019 time\u2014for example, requiring an employee to track weekly data and produce a report that you occasionally refer to but that isn\u2019t useful to the employee creating it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4) Cut time-wasters resulting from poor management<\/a>. <\/strong>Drucker identifies several types of time-wasters resulting from poor management. They\u2019re under your control and are therefore fixable:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wasted time resulting from lack of planning. <\/strong>An example is the <\/strong>recurring crisis\u2014for instance, the annual audit\u2014which suddenly requires everyone\u2019s full attention because it was left until the last minute. A recurring crisis around a regular event can be foreseen and prevented by creating a routine that administrative workers can handle. (Shortform note: Management by crisis<\/a>\u2014not the same thing as crisis management\u2014has many downsides. The biggest is that a preoccupation with putting out fires keeps you in fight-or-flight mode, blocking the higher-order thinking needed for problem-solving. Also, it prevents you from troubleshooting future problems, planning, or communicating effectively.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wasted time resulting from mishandled information. <\/strong>Examples include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n