Slay Your Time Vampires

My business coach, Catherine, and I were chatting on our weekly call when I mentioned some people in my orbit asked me “how do I do it?” I replied with the obligatory, “How do I do ‘what‘?”

“Stay as busy as you are, or at least your social media portrayal, yet still feel productive?”

“Oh, that,” I quip with air quotes. “You learn to slay your time vampires.“

I’ve written extensively regarding my time view. You can read my post here, or listen to the podcast which the title literally incorporated 86,400 [seconds]

I digress.

Slay Your Time Vampires

Catherine suggested that I should post about that… slaying my time vampires. What is this ‘time vampire’, you ask? Time Vampire(s) is any activity, or person(s) that drain your limited amount of time of the day like a vampire parasitically draining your blood.

Or worst yet: distractions. They are worse because they are self-inflicted wounds that could’ve been avoided if you simply concentrated.

Am I saying, that I’m the patron saint of concentration? No.

What I AM saying is that if you can recognize your time vampires, then slay them, you’ll discover you can be busy, yet productive.

Mine? Oh, social media is my biggest distraction, therefore my largest time vampire. Literally hours of lost time could be accounted for by tinkering with social media. Even as I compose this post, I clicked away from it to address some posts that could’ve waited.

In the morning, or even the night before, I review my scheduled events, tasks, errands, chores, activities. I group together activities to categories, next into smaller tasks, and finally prioritize them by time.

Once I’ve organized myself, I discovered I’ve created an itinerary for the day, which will dictate what I need to wear, what resources I’ll need or need access to, and in what order to be the most productive.

The Other Day

The other day I wasn’t scheduled to work for my #ClarkKentJob but that didn’t mean I didn’t have work to do. My first of four events was in Monroe at the YMCA, then off to Woodinville to meet up my financial advisor, next to Northgate for Accelerated Results 365‘s seminar: The 4 M’s of Business Success, and lastly, #TwoStepTuesday with Power Team Entertainment at Normana Lodge 3 in Everett.

Each meeting had a different type of dress style per event but I didn’t wanna tote around a full suitcase. I also intended to accomplish errands, and have some fun.

So … I played a game in-between all the meetings and errands called Geocaching. I mixed business with pleasure; literally.

I Challenge

I challenge you to identify your time vampires! No, I’m saying your children, family and/or loved one are time vampires. Remember I said those activities that TAKE YOU AWAY from your goals or what you wanna accomplish.

Activities and/or people that suck your precise, productive time away from you and the task.

Once identified perhaps you can slay them. You never know until you attempt it. Remember F.A.I.L. simply means First Attempt In Learning.

Deuces for now,

‘los