Don’t Let Time Vampires Ruin Your Day

Do you ever start your day and before you know it, it's just gone? Time is gone and you can't figure out where your day went. You're looking at what you've accomplished and the only answer you can come up with is... nothing at all.

Have you taken the time to think about what's happening? What's draining your day? What's keeping you from completing the tasks you needed to get done?

Well, maybe you have a phone sitting right on your desk or a computer constantly staring at you. When your phone rings, you answer it. When an email pops up, you respond to it. Maybe you just can't seem to tear yourself away from playing games on Facebook or sending tweets on Twitter.

Did you know studies show that every time you get interrupted, it takes you an average of thirteen minutes to get back on track.

Thirteen minutes each and every time you stop what you're doing to check email, to answer the phone or to see who's doing what on Facebook. Thirteen minutes is just an average. It doesn't include the time you actually spend on that interruption.

How often do you do those things in a single day? If you have some kind of interruption ten times during your day, that's 130 minutes, or two hours and ten minutes, where absolutely nothing is getting done, because you're trying to convince yourself to get back on track and back to the task you were on before the interruption happened. That's just if you have interruptions ten times a day.

You're a smart business person and you probably have more interruptions than that in your days.

The way to honor your time is to stop doing this. Stop reacting to every email that comes in. Stop jumping to answer the phone every time it rings. Stop having people knock on your office door when you're working on something. Stop getting sucked into social media in the middle of the workday.

Now you might be wondering, "What about those clients who are calling and emailing?" What are you supposed to do about them?

Let them call and let them send emails, but don't let it get in your way or consume your immediate attention. People know how to leave a voicemail. People generally expect at least 24 hours before getting a response from a business.

If your clients don't already expect that, then you can set that expectation. Add a note to the bottom of your emails and on your answering machine that tells them you check your messages and your email twice a day or to expect a response within 24 hours. Set the expectation that you're not going to let someone else's emergency, problem or challenge become yours.

It's your business. You have the right to run your business any way you want to and so does everyone else.

Now it may mean, when you do business on your own terms, that people do business with you. It might also mean that some people will make the choice to find someone else to do business with. That's fine. That will happen.

When you take control of your time, you take control of your business. When you stop letting all those little interruptions keep you from doing your business you'll find you actually have more time than you thought you had. You'll be less stressed and other people's burdens won't become yours.

So, stop letting the phone and email run your life and your business. Start responding instead of reacting to other people and their challenges. Take control and start accomplishing everything you want to accomplish with your business.