Time Management For Heavy Computer Users

Time management has been a big buzzword for years. It used to mean keeping track of meetings and to do lists. Or, getting it out of our heads and captured in some device or modified notebook.

But now with all the distractions and with more people working at home and “on the computer”, the meaning of time management has changed a bit.

Most of us have moved to a situation where we seem to be in front of the computer all of the time. So what are we managing now?

Time management, to me, is really task management. We have the time.

• What are we doing with it?
• What are we getting done?

The question is… “Are we actually getting anything done with all this new technology?”

Most of us would like to think that because we are “working” on the computer most of the day, we are getting a serious amount of meaningful and productive work completed.

If you only knew how many times you get distracted while working with:

• Websites
• Emails
• MP3s
• Online Videos
• Documents
• Searching
• Reading
• Learning New Tools
• Marketing
• Sales

You would be very surprised to know just how much time you are actually wasting everyday.

To just say “stop wasting time” is one thing. To show graphically where you are wasting time is a completely different ballgame. The first step is to keep track of what you are doing.

So does that mean a notepad and a stopwatch?

How many of us would have the discipline to do that?

Anyway…

I found this little program that actually keeps track of what I am doing with my computer automatically. This little web based program tells me exactly what I am working on and what I am actually doing on my computer.

So at the end of the day, I can “see” exactly what I was doing and not doing in terms of production. It even allows me to make notes about what I am doing while in the mist of the activity.

RescueTime : Web-based Time Management Software for Executives and Entrepreneurs .

Bottom line. If you can’t track it, you can’t fix it.

Time management is the hardest thing to do because you usually have to do something to handle the tracking of the time. When I was working in manufacturing this “tracking of time” task was usually handled by industrial engineers. You could always tell the “IEs” because they carried stopwatches and clipboards.

So consider this your own little industrial engineer running around inside of your computer with a clipboard and stopwatch and then giving you a report at the end of the day.

Happy Time-Tracking,

David Bullock