To achieve maximum success and productivity in the work place it is essential that we understand how we use our time at work.

Time Wasters Include
* Telephones - particularly personal calls during work hours
* No planning of tasks - focus gives direction
* E-mail - constantly checking your e-mail throughout the day
* Surfing the Web - Jumping from one site to the next
* Casual Visitors - Unscheduled or non work related visits
* Cluttered Workplace - Includes your desk, work area, computer and other organizing tools
* Poor Quality Resources/Tools - Having the wrong tool or poor office equipment can waste hours of time every week


Here's some good habits we can form to eliminate time wasting;

Understand how you use each day
Honestly review your day and understand how you are wasting time, then commit to becoming more efficient with your time. It's important to be honest and objective about how you really spend each day.

Set Priorities
Even with a well organized schedule and good work habits, there is still often not enough time in each day for workers, particularly small business owners and managers. So it is essential that we prioritize tasks and categorize them into Urgent, Very Important, Important and Wasting Time categories.

Plan Your Time
Setting daily, weekly, monthly and yearly goals can dramatically increase your focus and productivity.

Review Your Progress
Many work habits have been formed over a life time, so we will often slip back into them if we fail to continually review our progress. Some habits will be harder to overcome than others, but the effort we put into overcoming them will be rewarded with added productivity, profitability and a more focused workplace.

Take Time Out
We're only human, so we should also plan for times when we can wind down and do less important tasks. Browse the web, call a friend or have a longer lunch sometimes. It's only when we make a habit of doing these time wasting tasks that they become a problem.

Through better planning and a commitment to improve our use of time we increase our job satisfaction, become more confident, less stressed, increase productivity, cut costs and improve our chances of business success!