Five Time-Eating Traps At Work

Are you always the last person to leave the office, frantically trying to finish your workload, even though you arrived at the same time as everyone else? Does time seem to fly faster for you than for your colleagues in the office, with a mantra of "oh my goodness, is that the time already?". Even the best, most organised people can fall into one of many time-eating traps, and here are five of the worst that you should avoid:

Being overly social

Okay, so Brenda stops you in the canteen to tell you all about her new promotion and you end up having a ten minute conversation about salary increases, then you finally get the food you went for, only to be caught at the water cooler by James, who wants to tell you about the great weekend he had. Great that you're so popular - not when it eats anything up to half an hour off the time you should be at your desk. That's not to say that you shouldn't be social - it's the lifeblood of morale and getting on with people (and making friends!), but you can say "congrats - can we catch up at lunch and you can tell me all about it?". You're entitled to your breaks, so use them effectively - and have fun!

Never saying "no"

Delegation is part and parcel of working life - but if you're a constant "yes man" (or woman), then you're going to end up doing more of other's work than your own. By all means, help your colleagues out, be a great team player, manage workloads effectively, but learn to say no when you really can't afford the time. People will respect that and will be less tempted to treat you like the office dumping ground for unsavoury tasks. You're not a walk over, so don't let too many demands ruin your own time.

Technological procrastination

Gone are the days when we used to work on trusty pen and paper, where the worst procrastination was to doodle. Working most of the day on computers gives us the internet - a playground for procrastination - and mobile phones. If we're not Tweeting, we're Poking on Facebook or MySpace, texting, or instant messaging. Instead of working. If your employer hasn't firewalled your connection up to the limits, no doubt there's always something available to you to waste your time on - try to restrict the amount of dead time spent on things you should really be doing at home.

Bad routines

In work at nine, at the coffee machine at ten past, checking your emails until ten, getting a cup of tea for the boss at eleven, lunch, then chocolate for the three o'clock sugar slump, then noticing your deadlines... sound familiar? Some people work better in the morning, some later in the day, but try manage your tasks evenly and get the most hated ones out of the way. Otherwise (and we all know the feeling) the clock creeps forward with you feeling more and more stressed about what you said you'd do today and absolutely nothing has been ticked off. Better time management means better spent time!

Wrong Estimations

If you're assigned a new task, you can assign a certain amount of time to it - but because you've never done it, always allow longer. Don't plan your day inflexibly where if one task goes wrong, you're behind for the rest of the day. Do things that you know are easy and familiar first - you know how long these will take. Leave complex tasks for days when you have more time, and therefore more focus.

Overall, it's easy to waste time at work, but just as easy to claw some of it back. Time management is heavily linked to stress levels so relax, focus - and stop falling into those time traps when you see them coming!