People like Warren Buffett and Steve Jobs have spoken at length about the effects of poor time management. Happily, there are warning signs for poor time management habits.

Is it difficult for you to get through a day at the office? Do you struggle to finish your tasks on time? Does it seem like you keep falling behind and always have to catch up on your work?

If so, you’re experiencing the effects of poor time management. Worse yet, you may not understand the causes of poor time management until somebody points them out to you.

Here’s advice from some of the world’s most successful (and busy!) people on the planet:

Warren Buffett and Steve Jobs: You Keep Saying Yes

Warren Buffett, has amassed a multi-billion dollar fortune. He’s an avid reader, and perhaps the most successful investor the world has ever seen. He believes one of the leading causes of poor time management is always saying “yes”.

As he puts it: “The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.”

Saying no can be very hard for some people. After all, your willingness to help others is one of the keys to achieving success in the business world. But at the same time, accepting everything that comes your way will distract you from other projects you’re working on.

Learn how to say “no”, and use the word often. It’s difficult to do, as saying “no” inevitably disappoints the person making a request. However, you can’t manage your time well if you accept every task that comes your way.

Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs was also a believer in saying “no”. He equates it to improving your ability to focus when he says: “Focusing is about saying no.”

Arianna Huffington: You Don’t Have Time to Pause

Huffington Post creator Arianna Huffington says the best way to handle your stress is to take pauses in your working day.

“Take a colleague and go to a cafeteria or go to a table away from your desk in your office and have lunch,” she says. “Even if you take 20 minutes to do that, it’s more recharging than what so many of us do, which is eating lunch while working.”

You can’t work for eight or nine hours and not take a single break. The longer you go on, the more difficult it is to focus. After a while, you’ll be so tired that you’ll have trouble finishing your tasks on time. Not only will it affect your productivity, but it will also make it harder for you to manage your time well. To avoid this scenario, you need to take a pause every once in a while.

Bo Schembechler: You’re Indecisive

Bo Schembechler was one of the greatest collegiate American Football coaches of his era. During a glittering career at the University of Michigan, he won 13 Big Ten trophies. He also achieved a host of other accolades for his coaching abilities. In short, Schembechler was a leader, and he spoke about the subject of time management in depth in several books.

In his book Bo’s Lasting Lessons, he says “Not making a decision is the worst thing you can do.”

When it comes to time management that really is the case. If you’re indecisive, you hold up the process. Everybody else has to wait for your decision, plus, you focus your efforts on the decision, rather than the tasks at hand.

Mary Callahan Erdoes and Stephen Covey: An Overflowing Calendar

As you take on more responsibility, you start to feel rushed off your feet. The CEO of Asset Management at JPMorgan Chase & Co, Mary Callahan Erdoes, says that calendar management is the solution.

“Calendar management is the single most important thing, especially as you get busy and have more responsibilities,” she says.

If your calendar is filled to the max with overlapping tasks, it’s a sure-fire sign of poor management. According to Erdoes, you have to take time to organise it if you want to navigate through your day with more ease.

Author and motivational speaker Stephen Covey expands on the subject. He says: “The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.”

What Covey teaches us here is that we often fill our calendars with tasks that don’t deserve our attention. Again, this leads to a over-stuffed calendar, which is one of the effects of poor time management. Eliminate any tasks that don’t serve your business goals. Delegate those that need doing, and focus on the tasks that you must complete yourself.

Bill Smith: You Don’t Delegate

Bill Smith understands the importance of delegation. He’s the CEO of Shipt, one of the world’s largest web-based grocery delivery services. He speaks about how leaders must overcome the desire to do it all themselves.

“As much as I’d like to be able to do it all myself, I know there are some areas of my work life that are best to pass off, so I can keep focused on what is most important,” he says.

An inability to delegate is one of the leading causes of poor time management. It demonstrates a lack of trust in your team. You try to do everything for them, which leads to them resenting you, while failing to grow professionally. Furthermore, you hamper your ability to focus on the big issues that really matter. Smith recommends hiring an executive assistant to help you to deal with the minutia.

Steve Maraboli: You’re Impatient

As well as being a bestselling author and public speaker, Steve Maraboli is a behavioral scientist. He has delivered speeches in over 30 countries, often with a focus on business insights and the current social climate. The subject of impatience often finds its way into his speeches.

He says: “What good has impatience ever brought? It has only served as the mother of mistakes and the father of irritation.”

Impatience is one of the effects of poor time management. It often arises as a result of frustration. You have a tight deadline to meet, so your patience for other issues wears thin.

Your impatience drives you to make rash decisions. Because you don’t have enough time to weigh the pros and cons, you’ll make plenty of mistakes. Of course, then you’ll have to correct your mistakes, which will leave you with even less time to do other important things.

Brené Brown: You’re a Perfectionist

A four-time New York Times bestseller, Brené Brown serves at the University of Houston as a research professor. She is also a public speaker. Her The Power of Vulnerability Ted Talk is one of the most popular in the world, having amassed over 30 million views.

Brown often confronts the subject of perfectionism in her work. “Understanding the difference between healthy striving and perfectionism is critical to laying down the shield and picking up your life,” she says.

“Research shows that perfectionism hampers success. In fact, it’s often the path to depression, anxiety, addiction, and life paralysis.”

We all have objectives that we work hard to achieve. But while striving for perfection, we’ll often set ourselves up for a failure. We’ll take long to prepare, thus postponing our projects until we feel we’re ready to tackle them. Moreover, paying attention to every small detail slows us down and disrupts our usual rhythm.

Accept the fact that you’ll complete very few tasks perfectly. Work to the best of your ability, but move on once you finish the job. You’ll feel happier and more motivated.

Zig Ziglar and Paul Coelho: You Have Poorly-Defined Goals

An award-winning author, Paul Coelho attained his greatest success with his novel The Alchemist. He’s also one of the most followed writers on Facebook, with over 20 million followers.

Coelho believes that a failure to set defined goals is one of the effects of poor time management.

“Whenever you want to achieve something, keep your eyes open, concentrate and make sure you know exactly what it is you want,” he says.

“No one can hit their target with their eyes closed.”

If you can’t manage your time, it will hamper your ability to focus on what’s important. When you’re unable to determine what matters, you also can’t set good goals for yourself.

Motivational speaker and sales coach Zig Ziglar takes a different approach to the same issue.

He says: “Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four hour days.”

Zagler points out that we all have the same amount of time available to us. Those who don’t set defined goals struggle with managing their time more than those who know where they’re going.

Conclusion

These are just the warning signs of developing poor time management habits. If you notice any of them in your daily routine, you need to find solutions.

Failure to do so means that you don’t produce results. Your business will suffer, and you may collapse under the weight of your mismanaged tasks. Follow the advice of the inspirational leaders in this article as soon as you spot these causes of poor time management.

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