If You End Every Work Day Feeling Behind, Here's What You Need To Do
Track your time.
Our memories are flawed, leaving us to put a positive spin on everything. While that's a great way to stay optimistic, it's a terrible way to figure out how much time you're wasting each day. Be honest with yourself and spend one week jotting down everything you do and for how long.
Some options for tracking:
- Keep it old school with pen and paper
- To automate the process, try RescueTime
- Keep it minimal with Spreadsheets
Analyze.
After tracking your time for a week, review your notes and ask yourself:
What activities had the worst outcomes?
What did I spend the most time on?
Perhaps you notice a pattern here - the time you wasted was spent on the same few activities. Choose the top one or two most damaging activities and tackle those next.
Rewire bad habits.
Find a trigger - for example, always having your browser up makes you want to check your email or go to Facebook. Then, build a replacement trigger - like turning off WiFi when you have important work to do. Remember, rewiring your actions takes time, so even if you're not perfect at switching good habits right away, give yourself the space to learn and adjust.
Reflect and repeat.
This is probably the most important step. After the rewiring phase, stop and reflect. Did you succeed in replacing your habits? If not, why? Were there too many distractions? Did you choose the wrong trigger? Don't be afraid to ask a lot of questions - it's the only way to learn.
