7 Ways You Waste Time Every Day

When it comes to your Avon business, avoiding activities that waste time can make all the difference.

We all get the same 24 hours in each day, and although we have things, like work, that are major components to how we spend that time, there are still numerous minutes in each day that we get to have some choices in how we spend them.

Even the busiest person can learn to be more efficient and intentional in using those minutes in the most productive way possible.

Growing your Avon business is pretty simple.

There are only 4 main steps:

1. Prospecting for new customers & recruits.
2. Getting a brochure (either paper or digital) to every customer every campaign.
3. Following-up with every customer you gave a brochure to every campaign before you place your order.
4. Take the order, submit it to Avon and deliver to your customer, or send them to your Avon Online Store to place their order

And then Rinse and Repeat.

It’s really that simple. You just do these 4 steps over and over again, and you will have a strong Avon business.

We have our Daily 8 System to help you work on the activities that will help you grow your business.

The Daily 8 system is a proven formula

When followed consistently, the Daily 8 Plan will help you maintain the consistency required to build a thriving team and an exponentially expanding residual income.

Instead of working 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week your goal is to capture 8 POINTS a day, 5 days a week for a total of 40 POINTS per week.

Print this sheet and use it to track your weekly points.

Follow this plan consistently for 90-days and teach your team to do the same. At the end of 90 days, REPEAT and then REPEAT again. This is your Daily Method of operation.

The real secret to your Avon Business success is that there is NO SECRET!

It simply takes a simple plan and the dedication and commitment to WORK THE PLAN consistently! That’s it!

Click Here to Download the Daily 8 Plan!

Want to be part of our Daily 8 Challenge?

Click here to log your Weekly Numbers.

And be sure to join our Online Beauty Biz Facebook Group for all the fun!

Everyone is welcome! Whether you’re on our Avon team or not, we welcome you & invite you to join in. 🙂

 

Today We’ll Talk About 7 Ways You Might Waste Time Every Day

I find there are some common time wasters and some that are more obvious than others.

And I also find myself as an offender on more than one of these things too. 🙂

By avoiding or limiting these as much as possible, you will find more minutes in your day to build your business.  And can’t we all use a few more of those?!

Let’s look at some of these ways and how you can become more efficient and productive to get the most out of your day.

7 of the Biggest Ways You Waste Time Throughout Your Day

Even if you’re one of the more dedicated and organized people out there, you still waste time.

Time wasters are all around you.  And this is especially true if you work from home!

With so many distractions happening around you all the time, staying focused is a task in itself.

And when a day is lost getting nothing done, we always say “tomorrow I will definitely be more focused.”

And at that moment, we mean it.

Unfortunately, it takes a little more than just saying it to get it done.

Here are seven ways you waste time every day. See if you can relate.

1 – Organizing and Preparing

You’re probably wondering: how is this a time-waster?

Most people feel they’re “busy” doing things but what they’re actually doing is being busy getting ready to do things.

Making lists, organizing piles, sorting papers, creating a spreadsheet; you get the idea.

And you can probably relate.

The Fix: Find an online planner and to-do-list. Then, pick one day out of the week where you plan out the whole seven days in advance.

Schedule in work-related projects, meetings, and deadlines.

You can also include a workout schedule and get-togethers with friends.

2 – Working on the Wrong Priorities

If you want to grow your Avon business, it’s important that you focus on income producing activities.

The most important 4 steps to growing your business are:

1. 1. Prospecting for new customers & recruits.
   2. Getting a brochure (either paper or digital) to every customer every campaign.
   3. Following-up with every customer you gave a brochure to every campaign before you place your order.
   4. Take the order, submit it to Avon and deliver to your customer, or send them to your Avon Online Store to place their order

And then Rinse and Repeat.

Sure, you need to learn and do personal development.

Those are also very important to your business success, but these types of activities should be scheduled outside of the 4 main steps.

If you’re not actively meeting new prospects & recruits and getting a brochure to them and following up… you are not growing your business.

Focus on priorities that help you do those 4 steps better.

The Fix: Work the Daily 8 System to be sure you’re focusing on the most important activities.

Prioritize the activities that will help you grow your business.

3 – Social Media/Emails/Texts

It’s become a vital part of our lives. But the world won’t stop turning if you don’t look at your social media for 15 minutes.

Another big distraction is hearing that too familiar ‘ding’ that comes with a new email or text message.

It prevents you from finishing the task at hand because you keep looking at your phone every five minutes.

Picture this scenario: you’re in the middle of work when your phone beeps.

You reach for your phone to see your incoming message.

So, you go from message to email to Facebook to Instagram. Then, when you’re done, you notice that 20 minutes have gone by.

Research shows that each time you get distracted, even for a couple of minutes, your brain needs more than 20 minutes to refocus.

Imagine how much wasted time that amounts to at the end of the day!

The Fix: Avoid randomly checking social media, emails, or texts. Instead, set up a certain time during your day for doing just that. In the meantime, turn off any notifications or mute your phone.

4 – Multitasking

Multitasking: another thing that we do to trick ourselves into believing we’re being productive. Yet, the sad truth is, multitasking wastes a ton of time.

It’s counter-productive when your attention is divided among several tasks at once.

In other words, it’s just another form of distraction.

It’s a way of making ourselves feel as though we’re getting more done when we believe we aren’t doing enough.

Like listening to a podcast while writing emails.

Your brain is literally unable to concentrate on what you want to write and pay full attention to the words in your ear at the same time, so you’re just wasting time convincing yourself you’ve spent some time learning or growing your mind today when you really haven’t.

At least, not as much as you would if you carved out some dedicated time to listen to podcasts.

Some tasks lend themselves to these kinds of behaviors, like cleaning.

Most of us can clean on autopilot because it’s a discursive activity that requires little to no mental power.

But anything attached to work that uses your brain doesn’t function that way.  Multitasking just ends up wasting your time while making you feel as though you’ve gotten a lot done.

The Fix: It’s simple. Just put all your attention and focus on one task at a time. When you’re done, move on to the next task, and so on.

5 – Checking the News

In this day and age, it seems something is happening in the news or on social media every five minutes.

So, it’s easy to use the news as an excuse for procrastination. After all, we all want to be in the loop when it comes to politics, sports, and local news.

The Fix: Force yourself to stay away from checking news updates every half hour. You can use sheer self-discipline, or you can use a site blocker.

The Stay Focused app for Chrome is a great one for helping with this.

It allows you to both “hide” websites while you’re working so that you can’t get into them and schedule how much time you can use them.

For instance, you can “hide” Facebook while you work, then tell the app you only want to spend 15 minutes on it. After 15 minutes, it will block the site from you again.

Work for 45-50 minutes straight then take a break for 10-15 minutes.

During your break, you can spend that time doing those time wasters if you’d like, but keep it to just your break time then get back to work.

6 – Errands and Chores

The problem isn’t with the errands or chores themselves; it’s when you do them.

Running errands during rush hour is one of the biggest time wasters ever!

Doing chores is another. You might be sitting at your desk, working away when you notice a dusty shelf or a cluttered drawer. So, you do the responsible thing and start dusting and decluttering.

You tell yourself that it’ll only take five minutes. Then, when you’re done cleaning the entire room/office, the day is over! And you still haven’t finished what you’re initially working on.

The Fix: Plan your errands ahead when you know there’ll be less traffic. Also, try to do your shopping when you know the stores won’t be as crowded and they’re in their least peak hours.

As for chores, set up one or two days during the week when you do all the dusting, cleaning, and decluttering.

This way, even if you see catches your attention, you can push back in your mind and wait until ‘chore day’ rolls around.

7 – Watching TV

TV is a great way of relaxing for many of us and if you’re intentional about watching TV for that reason and you keep track of the time you spend watching it, then that’s fine.

But what about plonking down on the sofa in the evening. Do you still find you’re on the sofa a few hours later?

Did you drop off to sleep in front of the TV? Perhaps you just find yourself watching TV for the sake of it, because of boredom or just out of habit?

Consider whether this might be a waste of your time. Is there anything more productive you could do instead. (Don’t forget that relaxing is productive, so I’m definitely not suggesting you shouldn’t relax!).

If you’re trying to clean the house or do the dishes and want some background noise, don’t turn on the TV.

You’ll get distracted by either a storyline or a commercial derailing your efforts and wasting time.

The Fix:  If you’re just filling time with the TV, this might be a great time to watch videos for training and personal development.

In order to help you build your business, trainings and podcasts are great to listen to while doing household activities.

If you’re looking for background noise, go with the radio or listen to music.

A Final Note

We all get the same amount of time each day: 86,400 seconds, 1,440 minutes, or 24 hours.

It’s up to you to figure out how you’re going to spend that time.

Sadly, many of us spend our days doing things that don’t really add any value to our lives—or anyone else’s for that matter.

The good news is you can train yourself to focus more and have fewer distractions.

Sometimes it’s not what you do, but what you stop doing.

Protect your day from these time-wasters.

Make a conscious effort to add purpose and value to your life and follow through.

You’ll soon notice you’re getting more done during your day than ever before!

You might even find a little more time!

Now I’d Love to Hear from You

I mentioned 7 ways that you waste time every day.

Do you find yourself doing some of these things?

Which are the ones you struggle with the most?

Do you have other ideas I didn’t mention?

What helps you eliminate time wasters?

Please share your thoughts with us in the comments below.

I would love to hear your stories.

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EXPECT Success!

By Lynn Huber

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