For many people, keeping busy spells success. They run around all day hopping from one trivial task to another trivial task only to complain in the evening they are further behind than when they started. For some sales people it's often the perfect excuse as to why they have no time to prospect. They are simply "too busy".

Being busy means absolutely nothing to your success unless the task takes you closer to your goals. When people learn to emphasize results instead of activities, they then start to move forward. Think carefully about your goals and objectives. How do those trivial tasks add to your effectiveness, to your success? Remember, it's not how much you do that counts, but how much you get done!

The secret, stop spending so much time on the trivial, and give yourself more time to devote to the important top priority activities that will bring you closer to your goals. Take a long look at the routine tasks you do daily and ask, "What if they weren't done at all?" If the answer is nothing, stop doing them. The ones you must do, try to delegate. If you work alone, can you hire someone to do them? Can you do them less frequently? If not, can you send the work out, such as have proposals typed by a typing service or copying done by a copy shop?

Remember, spending time organizing prospect lists, filing, making copies, keeping detailed records, rearranging your desk and all the other trivial tasks only keep you from having time to be a success. Learn how to focus on the activities that will give you the greatest return. 

Here's some very common time wasters addressed in our "Time Management Made Simple" training program: