Destroyers of productivity...anticipatory interruptus

[Scott Ames]

Add to this thread if you will... What destroys your productivity?

I have a new one. I call it anticipatory interruptus. Here is an example: My wife called me at 5:30 PM and said she is "coming home" and wanted to go shopping with me. "Ok" I agreed, and went about wasting time reading this and that instead of working on something. At 7:00 I called and asked "where are you?" "Oh" she says "I've changed my mind, I'm coming home now to eat"....

Ok she is coming home to eat now. No time to get involved.. I'll just screw around with PhotoShop... at 8:30 she still hadn't come home. At 9:00 she finally shows. I got nothing done but could have had a good 3.5 hours of productivity.

Others?

[dou9las]

All Time Biggest Waster Of My Time:

Checking Stats.

At Statcounter, Analytics, Clickbank, CJ, ad infinitum, etc.

[designfuschion]

Scott,
I hear you. That sounds like a major annoyance.

"What destroys your productivity?"

Living at home! Haha. Can't wait to move out but the battle to get productive and achieve something is so hard. Mum had a breakdown last year and she is a shift worker(cleans in early morn). She has a midday sleep from around 10;30am to 2pm. I literally have between those hours to be most productive. I am supposed be studying full time and my IM goals are to set up enough revenue streams so i can get off gov benefits. (financial freedoms etc). From 2pm mum is constantly talking to me. Becuase I know i won't get anything done after 2pm I think "what on earth can i get done in 3hours?".
How on earth can i write 10 articles,do marketing,set websites up and do tafe stuff in that time.

I'd take laptop to room but becuase its so old i have to stay connected to net in lounge room.

I even said to her one day "so i'm supposed to listen to you even if i don't want to,and when i want to talk you don't listen?" she said thats right!
She was probably just joking. I reckon she thinks i just sit here all day doing nothing. and at this rate i'm definitely living up to that perception. OR becuase i'm there I have to listen.

*sigh*

other time wasters include email checking,eating,going outside. But the anticipated inturruptions from 2pm are the biggest.

I'm the kind of person that when i'm trying to do something,my attention is 100%. There is nothing worse than writing an article-about to write the perfect sentence..then someone (my mum)starts telling me something she heard on radio. Even listening to music isn't a deterrent for her to start talking to me.
I've even considering taping a sign on back of laptop that reads "do not disturb" Hahahah. That probably wouldn't work.

I have 14 hours each day that i can dedicate to either study or IM..Imagine the progress i could make if i could actually use all those hours!! instead of 3. I'm supposed to spending 8hrs day on my study too.

Anyway thanks for listening.

[CurtisN]

Minesweeper X_X

[intromaster]

the phone, people who ring my door bell, hopping from one website to another and calling it research!

[johnlagoudakis]

Facebook, Twitter, email (big one), checking how many optins I've had ... and stats!