We all have the same 168 hours in our weeks, but I feel like I consistently come up short by around 20 or 30 hours. I’ve identified some of the time leaks in my work life and I’m working on plugging them, with varying levels of success.

Email – Of all my leaks, email is the most frustrating. I’ve started leaving the sound off on my computer so I won’t hear a ding every time Dr. Fungus and Blabber Buzz send an email, which is two or three thousand times a day. And I take great pleasure in blocking emails from the likes of Dr. Fungus and Blabber Buzz. But I do get some legitimate emails too, so I try to stick to checking email just a few times a day, usually when I sit back down after breakfast, after lunch and at the end of my workday. Most importantly—and this is the hardest one for me—I try to reply, forward, file or delete right then, rather than letting email stack up in my inbox.

Phone notifications – I recently had a guest in my home whose notifications were set to sound like a train going by every time she got any kind of message. If that were my phone, this column wouldn’t be done. I have my phone set to vibrate only when I get a text or a phone call. It still wastes a lot of time since half my calls are from the IRS and the Resort Rewards Center. But what can I do? Sometimes real people do need to reach me, though apparently not as often as the IRS and the Resort Rewards Center.

Social media – There is no getting around it; customers are on social media, so we must be there too. I once heard the analogy that social media platforms are like cocktail parties and that informs how we should behave on social media, for example, we would never go into a cocktail party and start shouting, “Buy my product!” We must also be disciplined enough to leave the cocktail party before we’ve wasted an entire day there. 

Snail mail and other documents – The electronic age has not really reduced paper as promised. It’s only allowed us to generate it faster—at least in my office. I’m sure you’ve heard the answer is OHIO; only handle it once and not just in Ohio. Pay it, file it, or toss it immediately, with tossing being the preferred choice.

And that’s my advice for plugging time leaks. I’m working on taking it myself. 
(Dorothy Rosby is a syndicated humor columnist, author and speaker. Contact her at drosby@rushmore.com)