One of your most valuable resources is time. Time is a limited resource; you can't buy more time. There are 24 hours a day, and every person is given the same hours to accomplish whatever they desire. Five time stealers are robbing your peace and productivity.

If that’s true, why do some people seem to accomplish a fantastic amount while others seem to lack time to do the same, even given the same time to get things done?

The truth is that many people sabotage themselves when it comes to productivity. They waste time without even thinking about it and then wonder how they’ll ever be successful with the limitations given to them.

Here is a quote that helps me stay on track.

“It's not enough to be busy; so are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?” — Henry David Thoreau

5 Common Time Stealers

First, talk about the many typical time stealers you probably want to stop right now. You’ll likely find more as you work toward discovery in your situation, but most people can agree that the following are ordinary time stealers that you should stop doing now.

1. Not Setting Goals for Each Part of Your Life

First, you should set goals based on your morals and values for your entire life. Set goals psychologically, physically, and spiritually in each area of your life, including personal, relationships, and work. For example, if you want to be healthy, you’ll need to set healthy eating goals, healthy exercise goals, and so forth, according to the results you desire.

2. Not Planning and Scheduling What’s Important to You

Once you have identified what’s important to you, it’s essential to create a plan and make a schedule of the steps in chronological order of what you need to do to get to success and reach your goals in the time frame you’ve set up for yourself.

For example, if you believe eating dinner with the family four nights out of seven is essential, what are you doing to ensure it happens? Likewise, what must you do to get there if you want to publish an 80,000-word novel by December?

3. Lack of Organization and Systems

One reason people don’t reach their goals is that they don't organize based on the real amount of time they have to do the tasks. If you want dinner on the table at 7 p.m. each night, plan the meal carefully, taking the time it takes for all the parts to be ready by 7 p.m.

Systems without automation are big-time stealers. For example, there is no reason to spend hours paying bills monthly when you can automate the process via your bank. You can even organize and systemize family dinners by assigning each person a task that realistically results in dinner being on the table by 7 PM.

4. Not Delegating and Always Doing Everything Yourself

Whether you’re an entrepreneur, a leader, a writer, or a parent, you can’t do everything yourself. Learning to delegate and stop trying to do everything yourself is crucial to your productivity and inner peace. People in your life can help you; if you don’t have those people, you can find them.

Your spouse, children, friends, and even the people you hire can help lighten the load for you just as you do for them. However, if you’re a people-pleaser, you may ask yourself, “Who can help me complete this task?” If you cannot find an answer, you can build relationships with people who can help or hire.

5. Not Setting Boundaries and Saying Yes Without Thought

This is usually related to being a people-pleaser, too. Some people call these people “yes” people. You see them in Church Groups, volunteer activities, with family, friends, and entrepreneurs. The people-pleaser may be seen as the “go-for” who gets things done for others. These people are often stressed and overwhelmed and believe that others will validate them by saying yes.

Many people-pleasers say yes when people ask of them without even thinking. This is a huge time stealer because there is no reason why you need to say yes to everything. First, weigh the things people ask you to determine if it’s worth being involved or not. An excellent way to decide is to have criteria for saying yes.

For example, ensure this will get you closer to your goals in each life area. Check your calendar to ensure you have the time available before saying yes. Say yes with enthusiasm or no without guilt.

Now, you must look at your life and identify and eliminate time stealers. Only you can determine what a time stealer is and what is not. Spending five minutes on social media is a time stealer for some, but it might be how you schedule your downtime. It’s your time, so if you can reach the goals you set for yourself, you can choose the tasks you want to do and those you don’t want to do.

Identify The Time Stealers in Your Life

The first step in eliminating time-suckers is recognizing them for what they are and how they affect your life. Once you identify what is wasting your time, either delegate the task or item or eliminate it. That sounds easy, but some things may be more challenging to locate than others.

What is a time stealer?

For many people, time stealers are apparent. They consist of activities that get in the way of productivity and inner peace, like watching TV, surfing social media, and talking on the phone. You may need to dig to figure out where you’re leaking time. For example, if your friend calls you every day and talks for an hour or more, this could be a time stealer.

Even things that seem significant on the surface, like talking to mom, can end up becoming a time sucker if you are allowing it to get in the way of your overall schedule. Write down any item that you think might be a timewaster.

Do you procrastinate?

Now, let’s look at some tasks you procrastinate on. Make a list of tasks without any judgment. Don’t classify them as timewasters or essential tasks. If you tend to put them off or often don’t do them until the last minute or even at all (even when needed), write them down.

Most of the items you procrastinate about will be time-stealers, but they might not immediately come to mind as timewasters. Of course, you must pay your bills, but if you put them off, pay them late, do it last minute, and don’t schedule and organize, you’re wasting time somewhere.

What time stealers can you identify?

Look at your day or week and write down any times that seem overwhelming regarding the time you have available to do what needs to be done.

For example, are you having trouble creating healthy meals every day? Are you missing deadlines to submit work to clients? Do you often feel rushed and overwhelmed? Write down each time that happens during the week that you monitor.

Each situation needs to be analyzed so that you can figure out how to improve it. For example, when preparing some meals, eating leftovers for dinner, such as leftover turkey wraps that can easily be thrown together in 15 minutes and eaten with hands, would be helpful.

What Is Getting Done?

Sometimes, the things that are getting done don’t need to be done and are getting in the way of you getting important things done. Sometimes, it’s just a sign of what you’re doing correctly because you’ve designed the process in a way that works for you.

What’s not getting done?

Make a list of things and tasks you or anyone else is not getting done because they are overlooked. Put these in order of importance. Put them on your to-do list if you want them to get done. If they don’t matter in the scheme of things, eliminate them.

Are you losing track of time? Why?

During some portions of your day, you may lose track of time when doing things. For example, some people lose track of time on the internet. They’re looking for a 30-minute recipe to cook their favorite meal, but they get sucked into the internet, and it takes an hour or two to find the recipe.

Other things might be less noticeable. However, if you think something takes 30 minutes to do, and it takes an hour or more, you’re losing track of time for some reason, or it takes longer, and you need to adjust your schedule.

Why are you doing this task?

What is the point of doing this task, the reason, and what would happen if you did not do it? Go back to your list of tasks so that you can remind yourself what you’re thinking of. How does this task relate to your goal? Does it help you succeed, or does it block your success?

Can you delegate the tasks to someone else?

Assess every task to decide whether to do it yourself or let someone else do it. For example, at home, it doesn’t matter which capable person folds the towels as long as the task gets done. Any mission that you don’t need to do specifically should be delegated. Underline any task that can be transferred, even if you don’t know who to ask. Just note the ones that can be delegated.

Does this task align with your goals?

One way to determine whether a task needs to be done is to ask yourself how that task aligns with your goals. For example, if one of your responsibilities is to post five posts a day on social media, why are you doing it yourself, and is the data showing that it’s moving you closer to your goals?

If you’re helping a school, a church, a spouse, a child, or someone with something, if you feel any resentment at all about it, it’s important to ask that important question about your goals and how the task helps or does not help.

What results from doing this task?

What is the result of doing this task? For example, if you have a goal to lose weight and one of your tasks is to walk for 45 minutes a day, you can track that this is working and delivering the desired results. Other tasks might require a deeper look to determine their results.

Does doing this task move you closer to your goals? How?

All of us can be guilty of doing busy work in life. You can eliminate most busy work by asking how the task moves you closer to your goals. If it’s not, and you can do it another way, you should examine that other way to determine if it’ll work. Questions to ask yourself are: Is this task, going to meetings, writing copy for my website, or reorganizing my meditation space helping me reach my goals?   

Can you identify an outside source that’s distracting you?

Sometimes, time stealers seem uncontrollable because they come from outside sources. Not all distractions come from you. They can be family, friends, colleagues, bosses, and others, causing the issue for you. Identify these issues for yourself. Once you realize what’s happening, start setting boundaries or find a way to work around the person or thing that’s distracting you.

For example, most people cannot multitask at all, and they just think they can. If you have set aside time to journal each night to become more thankful, you may be wasting time by keeping the television on while doing it. However, knitting a birthday sweater while you watch TV might work out great. The only way to know whether you’re more productive is to try doing things without multitasking and time yourself.

How to Increase the Time in Your Day

Now that you’ve identified the time-suckers in your life, you can work on finding more time in your day. Once you let go of time wasters and focus on being productive without over-scheduling, you will meet your life goals faster than you think.

Check Your Attitude

If you don’t believe you have control over your own time and that you can eliminate time wasters, gain more time, and get more done, quite simply – you won’t. It can be challenging to develop an abundance mindset regarding time. You can eliminate time wasters but buy more time with intelligent delegation.

Go to Bed on Time

It might seem counterproductive when you want more time, but going to bed on time and sleeping 7 to 9 hours a night, depending on your needs, will give you more energy. You’ll be more productive after a good night’s sleep. When your mind is clear and you’re not sleepy, you can do more, better, and faster.

Be Honest About How You’re Spending Your Time

You’ll need to get honest with yourself. It’s so easy to say that you don’t have time for things, but if you spend time on the net, watching TV, reading, coloring, gaming, and doing things that do not lead you toward meeting your responsibilities and realizing your life’s goals, you can spend your time better.

Be Mindful

TV, internet, games, email, social media, and phone calls can be substantial time stealers but that doesn’t mean you should never participate in those fun things. However, when you are doing it, do it with purpose. Know how long you’ll spend and make it a fun event, not something you do out of habit. If you must, set a timer so that you stop at the time you need

Find Your Finish Line

One thing about being productive and managing your time better is that it is crucial to accept that perfectionism, micromanaging, and procrastination are all roadblocks that lead to wasting time. Accept the towels folded differently than usual. 

It’s okay that the report is formatted slightly differently if that’s what the client wants. Accept dinner delivery tonight instead of making it from scratch. If tweaking something no longer changes the substance, consider it done. Let go and accept being done, and you’ll discover more time in your day.

For most people, the first step toward eliminating time stealers is to identify and acknowledge them and then work toward replacing them with planning, goal setting, and decisive action. 

Next Action Step

• Please list your time stealers and a strategy to eliminate each of them.
• Take a look at my time management course, The Time-Savvy Entrepreneur: Designing Your Day for Business Success and Work-Life Harmony.

Nancy Dadami is an Inner Peace Strategist, Intentional Creativity Guide, and Medicine Painting Mentor. She helps empower leaders, visionaries, creators, and entrepreneurs called to growth, learning, service, and freedom so they can thrive by living the best version of themselves, creating a life of abundance, self-awareness, purpose, and inner peace. Linktr.ee/nancydadami