Entrepreneurs – Say “No” to Time Vampires
Toddlers love to say "no" to just about everything. For them it’s sport. For us, as entrepreneurs, saying "no" is about survival.
To better protect your valuable time, I want to suggest some simple actions you can take to say “no” to time vampires and say “yes” to your life.
- Cut down the “Chatter”. If you have Instant Messenger, Skype, or Google Chat open, set your status as “away”, “busy”, or even “invisible”. If there’s an emergency, people will find you. If there isn’t an emergency, you’ll have focus for the time that you need it to get things done.
- Turn off email notifications. If you get a little flash, beep, or any type of interruption whenever a new email comes in, turn that off. Every single time that your eye gets drawn to the flash it distracts you and causes you to lose your train of thought. Even if it’s a split second, it adds up and cuts into your productivity.
- Speaking of email, unsubscribe from most of your email notification lists. Choose just a few that you really enjoy reading and dump the rest. If that’s a scary thought, then set up a new email account and re-subscribe with the new email address. Plan to check it once each week. You may find that the new email account never gets opened.
- Use your Caller ID. Turn off the ringer on the phone while you’re working so you can focus without interruptions. To stay available for kid’s emergencies, set the phone by your desk so you don’t have to get up and run to answer it. Check caller ID and ignore everyone that you can. Call them back later on your schedule. You wouldn’t call them at work to chat — don’t let them do it to you.
- Set Work Hours. If you have a client who is calling you at home, give them certain hours when you’re available. Don’t allow that person to interrupt your family life.
- Don’t Twitter your Time Away. Avoid Twirl, Tweet Deck, and any other Twitter applications that flash and beep and keep Twitter in front of your face all day long. Log in to Twitter, check your “@ replies” and answer them. Play for a bit and then log back out.
Any other ideas you’ve got that keep the "noise" out of your life, please share them.
Tags: entrepreneur hours, set work hours, time vampires, use your caller ID
