The answer to this question is going to depend quite a bit on your job and company, but the fact that so many of us struggle with it – about half the people you’ll talk to think social media is a valuable business tool, and the other half feel it’s a complete waste of time.  This tells you that a few guidelines might be needed.

With that in mind, here is a good rule of thumb: Figure out what you’re really getting from your time spent on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

I don’t mean that in a vague, “How do you feel about it?” sort of way. What I’m talking about is working to attach some numbers to the time you spend on the Internet, and especially social media sites, and comparing those figures to how many new contacts were made as a result, how many new accounts have been opened, and how much closer are you to a promotion.

In other words, treat your social networking time the same way you would a seminar on time management or any other business activity. Would you take a whole work day, or even two or three every month (the average amount of time an American employee spends on the computer at work) without learning or getting something valuable? Would you be able to explain that activity to your boss?

If you find that you’re getting consistent results from social networking, then try to figure out how you can do it more effectively in less time. On the other hand, if you can’t find definite benefits to your social media activities, then the hard truth is that it’s probably not worth it for you to be on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter on company time. If that’s the case, do yourself a favor and stop logging on. Like any time-wasting activity, it might seem like you’re just making things a little harder for your company, but the reality is that you’re hurting your own career and potential more.

There aren’t any easy answers when it comes to the time you should spend on social networking because we all have different roles in different organizations. The only useful rule of thumb that I or anyone else can give you is, online or off, to make the most of the working hours you have.

Sometimes in life, it pays to skip the prologue and get right to the things that matter most. With that in mind, let me offer a handful of high-impact tips that could make an immediate and profound difference in your personal life and career. There are lots of things you can do to be more productive and get more out of your days, but these five are especially beneficial:

Give yourself one quiet hour (or longer) each morning to work on your most important projects. Yes, you’ve read this advice here before, but these days it’s more important than ever. By giving yourself 30 uninterrupted hours to work on your long term goals every month, you give yourself an advantage the most of your peers can’t match.

Keep an ongoing calendar and write down all “To Do’s.”  The more organized you are, the fewer tasks, projects, and details slip through your fingers – and the less time you have to spend making up for something that was forgotten. Take a simple time management organization system and stick to it; the habit will pay you back hundreds of times over.

Take a speed reading course. It’s amazing the gains you can make in a single afternoon, and it could change your life. In today’s economy, there is no such thing as a person who can afford to be uninformed. When you can learn to read faster, you can either spend less time doing it, or use the available reading time you have to learn more. Either way, you’re coming out ahead.

Become more efficient at filing. This applies to both paper and electronic filing.  Becoming more organized in your office helps you in two ways: first, by reducing your mental burden and clearing up your mind (since you don’t have to try to remember where everything is). And secondly, it takes away the wasted minutes and hours you need to find the missing items – time that could have been better spent on dozens of other things.

Get some quick exercise after work. Psychologists will tell you that some of our most important thinking takes place when we aren’t “thinking” at all. For that to happen, however, you need a way to switch your mind into a different gear and blow off some stress. There’s nothing like a quick 15 min. walk or jog after a hard day at the office to do the trick.

Probably every person reading this has heard the advice to take care of the most important task of the day – whatever it is you need to do to ensure your own long-term personal or career success – at the first part of the day. In fact, I’ve even mentioned it a couple of times on this blog.

If you haven’t tried it, you should. We’ve all had the sensation of having a day that “just gets away from us,” but what about weeks, months, or even years? The sad fact is that a lot of the things that we most want to do (both at work, and life) never actually get done, and it’s usually because we were too busy working on other more “urgent” things in the meantime. But at the same time, you can’t really risk not finishing your most urgent projects… can you?

Actually, you can probably get away with it.

Here’s why: If you work on the things that are really most important to you first thing in the day, the urgent things will still get finished. They will because they have to. In other words, because those little tasks – like filing an expense report or taking in your dry cleaning – are so crucial to your day-to-day life (but not your overall plan for success), you’ll either find the energy to do them when you need them, or you will learn to do them more quickly and efficiently than you have in the past. You might even find that you need the help of another person to finish them, which is fine, too. Either way, unless you are literally cramming something into every morning of your day, afternoon, and evening, I promise you’ll find a way to get all those little tasks done.

We all have dozens of small tasks that are necessary for us to stay employed and functioning as working adults, but that doesn’t mean they should get in the way of our bigger goals and dreams. Learn to work on your most important projects first thing in the day, and you’ll be surprised at how often the rest will take care of itself.  Check out our time management seminars to develop more techniques for productive scheduling each day.

I’m going to make a (not so) bold prediction: Your next flight is going to be delayed. And if not that one, then the one after, or the one after. My point isn’t that I’m psychic or have some kind of inside scoop at the FAA… it’s that sitting in airports has become a fact of modern business life.

Busy airports, unpredictable weather, and overcrowded skies mean that travel delays aren’t just a part of life – they are inevitable. But that doesn’t mean you have to take the whole thing sitting down (at the terminal). You can make the most of them if you’re ready with some time management techniques.  After all, how often is it that you get a few uninterrupted hours to work on an important project, or catch up on something that would never gain priority if you were in the office?

Here are a few quick trips for making the most out of a travel delay:

Bring a few different projects. Why a few? Believe it or not, it isn’t because you should plan on spending the whole day at the airport. Rather, it’s so that you can have a few different types of projects available (some small ones that take a few minutes, some longer ones that take hours, and at least one big one that could be knocked out in a long afternoon or evening), depending on whether your delay is brief or extended.

Pack a pair of noise cancelling headphones. This is good advice whether you’re expecting a delay or not, since they can really save your ears on an airplane. As anyone who has tried to finish work in a busy terminal can tell you, though, they can be just as valuable on the ground.

Turn your phone off. Even if you’re stuck at the airport, or a nearby hotel, you can still take advantage of the fact that you’re not in the office. After all, your coworkers and clients don’t know where you are, just that you’re away. Why not use the time to work uninterrupted for as long as you can?

Once you are back to your organized office, there will not be so much backlog and time spent catching up.

Most of us have, at one time or another, fallen into the trap of putting off things we really need to take care of. It’s amazing how addictive that little habit can become. But the good news is that accomplishing things – and especially removing some of our biggest obstacles and stressors – can become a habit, too. Here are a few ways to stop putting off the important, and start making real progress in your life and career:

Find the root cause of your procrastination. There are a lot of reasons we put off important tasks. Sometimes, it’s because we don’t actually know where to start. Other times, it could be that we don’t have a lot of faith that our work will lead to the desired outcome. And finally, there are some things we say we want, only to find that they don’t fit into the bigger plans we have for our lives right now, or they aren’t enough of a priority to devote time to them. Often, breaking the cycle of procrastination is simply a matter of asking ourselves the tough questions. Spend some time brainstorming on these, and you might find some new perspective – not to mention motivation.

Break huge projects into small tasks. Another reason we can fail to move forward is that something just seems too large or overwhelming to even attempt.  These can include some of our long-term goals. What can happen, however, is that taking a few small steps forward generates a little bit of momentum that can carry us ahead for weeks or even months. So if you have something on your list that absolutely needs to be taken care of, but it seems like a project you just don’t have the time and energy for, figure out what the first few small steps can be, and then take them. You might just trick yourself into making significant progress.  For more ideas, check out this article on project management.

Motivate yourself on a day by day basis. Enthusiasm is a less substantial thing that a lot of us would think. Just because you have it at the moment doesn’t mean it’s going to hang around forever, or at least be as strong as it was when you first imagined finishing something. For that reason, it’s important to give yourself small, daily and weekly targets instead of focusing on huge, long-term ones. Get in the habit of accomplishing what you need to do each work day, and the bigger results will slowly take care of themselves.

It’s a classic Catch 22:  To learn about time management, you have to take time away from whatever else you were doing. So how does anyone decide how much time they should be spending on time management?

I don’t know that there are any firm and set guidelines, but a good rule of thumb would probably be one or two hours a month, with a good training seminar thrown in once or twice a year. That’s enough to keep learning new things, but more importantly, it can stop you from losing the good habits you’ve set in the past.

There are exceptions, however. If you have one or more of the following warning signs, it’s time to get a grip on your time management and productivity before it starts costing you money or damage to your career:

You’re losing track of tasks. It might seem natural, if you’ve been very busy, to lose track of a few items on your “to-do” list here and there. If it’s more than very occasionally, though, or something important you’re missing out on, then you’ve got a potentially serious organization issue going on. Deal with it now, before people start to question your commitment or competency.

You’re falling behind on meeting deadlines. A lot of men and women attribute their tendency to turn work in late on the fact that they just have “too much on their plate.” That sometimes is the case, but more often than not the real cause is poor time management, lack of delegation, and other basic productivity problems. If you’re having trouble handling the same kind of workload that others seem to balance, it might be time to take a look at your work habits and see if they’re holding you back.

You’re staying later and later at work. This is the same problem, only with different symptoms. People who are working the right way don’t just do it to get more finished; they also have the flexibility to spend time away from the office, and without thinking about work constantly. If you find yourself constantly burning the midnight oil, working every weekend, or showing up at the office long before everyone else, figure out whether you’re being ambitious or just taking too long to get things finished. It might be time to take a few hours off to attend a good time management course  in order to get back that work-life balance.

There are a lot of things in the field of time management that are good for you, but just as important for your employer, which is why companies spend so much trying to keep their teams on target. Mostly, this is win-win; you work harder and more efficiently, the company makes more money, and your career takes off in the right direction.

Things don’t always necessarily work that way, though. No matter how hard you work, the company’s overall performance could suffer. Or, you could find yourself in a bad situation because of a management decision, or workplace politics. In fact, no matter how productive you are, you could find yourself looking for a new job at some point. And if that ever happens, there are a few other productivity tips you’ll be glad you’ve practiced all along.

In this post, we’ll look at a few things that you can do to help yourself in the job market, should you ever need to. Like most of the advice I offer on this blog, each of these will be good for your productivity at your current job, but they’re also good for your career no matter who you’re working for:

Read one new business book a month. Knowing and being able to discuss the important facts and business, and your industry, is one of the key qualities that separates those who can be promoted, and those who are stuck in their current position. Make a point to absorb a little knowledge now and then – it will keep you well-rounded and more employable.

Keep up with old contacts. Most of us have dozens or more of old classmates, colleagues, and friends from different jobs and schools we’ve been around. Just because we’re no longer with those institutions, that doesn’t mean we have to lose touch with the people. Placing a quick phone call once in a while won’t just give you a better sense of what’s happening in the world; it could keep your network of professional contacts alive and growing in the event you ever need it to help find your next position.

Attend one networking or industry event at least once a month. For the same reason, it’s important that you get out there and meet colleagues and decision-makers on a regular basis. Doing so gives you a better perspective on what the competition is up to… and where future opportunities might be coming from.

You’ve probably heard it said before – or read it on this blog – that effective time management and productivity are all about setting the right priorities. Keep the right short and long-term goals in mind, and you are bound to get where you’re trying to go eventually.

But as great as this advice is about having priorities, there’s a warning on the other side of it, too: if you don’t set some personal and professional priorities in your life, you can be sure someone else will be happy to do it for you.

Usually, that person (at least at work) will be a supervisor of some sort. That might not sound like a bad thing, but your boss’ priorities aren’t necessarily exactly the same as your own. You want to do your job, and do it well of course, but make sure you place some importance on some of your own long-term goals or you can be sure they will never come to fruition. Other than doing a great job now, would you like to be in five or 10 years? What dreams do you have that you would like to see come true?

Remember that the men and women you work for have their own sets of goals, too. They may hope you’re going to reach yours as well, but there’s a good chance they don’t even know what those are. And if they did, they might not necessarily match up to your supervisor’s aims over the next few years, anyway. For that reason, you have to make the time to attend the right classes, get the right training, network with the right sorts of people, and so on, on your own. There’s nothing wrong with doing any of these things, so long as you’re giving your full effort for the company, too.

Without priorities, anything that seems most important at the moment is what’s likely to grab your attention. But your own dreams aren’t going to wait forever, so make sure achieving them is a priority for you now.

The 3 Reasons Productivity Experts Love Time Logs… and Why You Should Try Using One for a Week

If you have ever been to even one serious time management seminar, you’ve already heard the advice to keep a time log (a record of how you’ve spent your day down to the minute) as a first step to getting control your calendar… and you’ve heard the dozens of groans around you from the men and women who have heard this tip before and ignored it.

The fact of the matter is, people don’t like keeping time logs. Not only are they tedious, but they would seem to get in the way of the one thing these busy professionals are really trying to accomplish – having fewer tasks on their plate, and more time to do them in. And so, a lot of time management professionals don’t even bother with them anymore, or at least don’t hold out big hopes that attendees will give them a try.

That’s too bad, however, since one thing that tends to get forgotten about time logs is that they work. Here are three reasons productivity experts love time logs, and why you should try using one for at least a week:

They make you engaged in your own productivity. Becoming more productive doesn’t just happen; it takes a little bit of work and more than a few hard decisions. None of that is possible until you are actively working to get control of your schedule, and time logs are great first step in that direction.

Time logs give you an accurate (and often unexpected) picture of where your time is going. Most busy people think they know how they’re spending their time, but it isn’t until they actually see the totals listed on paper that they truly understand how changing a few small habits can make such a big difference. Keep track of how you’re spending your time – down to the minute – for at least a week, and I can promise you’ll find one or two eye-opening surprises.

Just keeping the time log makes you better with your time. In a way, time logs themselves can bring an instant efficiency upgrade. Why? Because no one wants to write down that they spent 20 minutes drinking coffee or reading the paper. Just paying attention to what you’re doing can often break you of a bad habit, so start a time log and put your powers of observation to use.

Ever wonder what separates the very best performers in any field from their competitors? Lots of people would point to genetics, education, or maybe just a bit of luck, and these all certainly play a part. But usually, those parts aren’t as big as you might think…

That’s because, when you dig a little bit deeper, you find that top salespeople, executives, and entrepreneurs all have one thing in common: they set goals and are very intentional about their time when it comes to reaching them. By keeping calendars, lists, and other organizational tools up-to-date, they avoid that feeling of having the day or week “just slip away…”

There’s no reason you can’t do the same. The trick is simply to become more focused and not let yourself become distracted by problems, issues, or even opportunities that would keep you from reaching your long-term goals. Here are a few quick tips to get you started:

Set a big goal. Decide for yourself what an extreme achievement would mean to you in your field. Would you have to earn a promotion, open up a couple of large accounts, finish your degree, or something else altogether? Figure out what it is and make that your target.

Turn it into smaller goals. Work out what you would likely have to do on a day by day and week by week basis to stand a good chance of reaching your larger goal. Maybe you would need to spend 45 minutes a day on client proposals, or study for an hour each morning to earn a new certification. It doesn’t matter what the work comes out too, only that you turn it into something that’s possible five or six days a week.

Make those smaller goals your daily priority. Here’s the hard part: once you’ve figured out what you need to do to become a top performer, you can’t become distracted. Whether it means coming in to work an hour early, shutting your door and unplugging your phone, or just telling your assistant that you can’t be bothered unless the building’s on fire, you have to do whatever you can to ensure you hit your short-term goals each and every day.

For more details on managing projects and time management techniques, read our article on Project Management.

These aren’t complicated pieces of advice, of course, but if you can follow them, it’s only a matter of time before productivity becomes a habit – one that will make other people wonder how you got the genetics, education, and luck to become one of the best in your field.