We all wish we had more time to do what we want to do (or just to get things done in general). There are certainly a variety of reasons why you would want to have more time on your hands.

The guy mentioned here even uses Excel to keep track of his time. Wow (he does have some very innovative points, I just don’t know that I’d ever use Excel for that purpose).

I’m not going to suggset you get that organized. It’s more about what you don’t do, rather than adding more time-tracking techniques into an already busy schedule.

Let’s get into some quick tips.

1. Stop checking your email.

How much time do you waste during a day checking your email?

Constantly checking your email also creates an expectation (whether conscious or subconscious) that we are always available by email, while also wasting time responding to one or two emails here and there.

If you’re always available to answer others’ questions, you will never get any of your own tasks accomplished. It’s OK to be unavailable. It’s easier to answer ten emails at once then to keep going back ten times to answer one email.

2. Stop measuring measuring small successes.

We’re all guilty of doing this. We write a paragraph in a report or email that we think is particularly good and we go back and read it again.

There are many times where it’s easy to stop half-way through a task and think about the job that we’re doing.

While it’s good to be reflective about the tasks your taking on, don’t stop every few minutes to contemplate whether you’re doing a good job or not. Just keep going.

3. Write down what you need to do and how long you need to do it.

Don’t spend a huge amount of time doing this. Write down a quick note to yourself of the most important things you need to do, and approximately how long you need to do each item.

Take a look at your list at the end of the day: did writing that email that you planned to take fifteen minutes to do actually take you an hour?

From this list, figure out where your weak spots are. The point here is not to try to cram an hour task into fifteen minutes, but rather to be realistic about the amount of time it takes you to do something.

4. Keep to your schedule.

While there are various events that will come up in your day that are unavoidable, keep to your schedule as much as you can.

While that may mean cutting certain meetings with people or conversations short, it’s important to maintaining your own efficiency that you don’t spend too much time on one specific task or topic.

If you’re still having trouble getting focused on the task at hand, you might find these 10 tips from Matthew Stibbe over at badlanguage.net useful.