How to Be More Productive And Eliminate Useless Activities That Murder Efficiency Part 2

By Carlon Haas | July 11, 2007

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Yesterday, you learned how checking e-mail can murder your work efficiency and production. But in our quest to be more productive, there is another activity that can derail even our best efforts at work. An activity that if left unchecked could leave you at the end of the day wondering just what the heck you were doing.

What could it be?

It’s our smiley-faced, emoting, winking buddy…the instant messenger.

Production Murderer #2: Chatting on Instant Messengers

Whoo hoo! Now…there’s the ticket. At one time, I had not one, not two, but at least 3 instant messengers going all at the same time. (Heck, I hear now some messengers can actually combine your accounts from different instant messengers, thus giving you access to a wealth of contacts you’ve never dreamed of).

And what did these messengers do for me? Lo and behold my friends, family, and people I didn’t’ even know had unlimited access to my time. And they needed to talk to me NOW.

About what? Truthfully, I can’t remember even 1/10th of the things I chatted with people about on instant messengers. But I sure spent a lot of time on them.

So much time that one day on a lark I decided to calculate the time I spent chatting on instant messengers that day, and it ran at about 4 hours. 4 hours! If you think you don’t talk that much on a messenger, then track your time on it.

You’ll find that you spend quite a long time on an instant messenger: going through the pleasantries, small talk, and then important discussions on how bored you are and never seem to have enough time to work.

Recently, I a friend of mine was complaining how it took her all day to do her work. But when I saw all her IMs going, I advised her to stop chatting on IMs, so she could get some work done. She explained, “But Carlon I use it to talk about work.” Then I asked her, are the things you talk about so important that they can’t wait till you are finished with your main task. She didn’t answer. We both know what the answer was.

It’s probably the same answer you would give if you were asked. As with e-mail, the best way to reclaim your time from the instant messengers is to turn them off. In fact, I would uninstall them. (I heard that Windows gives you a hard time if you delete MSN messenger, so be careful).

If you absolutely must use an instant messenger, like I use Skype to communicate with friends and colleagues abroad or back in the States, the best way is to leave it turned off until you need to use it. And when you use it, you use it like a phone to talk to someone and then “hang it up.”

The more you leave an instant messenger on, the more you are inviting someone to waste your time.

Tune in for the next installment as I reveal the activity that was the #1 murderer of my work efficiency (the answer just might shock you).

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