Beware the carnival of amusements and distractions. Sure, it might be a little bit of fun to check out the attractions, but you’re going to end up wasting too many precious resources if you’re not careful.

It’s nearly impossible to avoid all distractions these days. Marketers and entertainers and “news outfits” are constantly bombarding us with short, enticing headlines and videos to capture our attention.

If you’re attempting to accomplish anything important, you need to focus the bulk of your energy on that task. Veering off in another direction is the surest way to miss your mark. The time you should have spent on your major project ends up being expended on something far less important. That’s a micro-tragedy that should never happen.

Managing Your Time Is Even More Important Because of the Internet

The problem of dealing with being over stimulated was massively compounded with the introduction of the internet. This amazing tool makes it easy to waste an entire day looking at cat videos. The number of wasted hours used up online in the past few decades is immeasurable. If you work online or spend a lot of time online, you’ll want to start strictly monitoring your activity. In fact, adding time tracking software to your life is one of the best decisions you’ll ever make. A time tracking tool provides detailed reports that show you exactly where your time is going.

As you monitor yourself and start analyzing the reports you get, you’ll begin to notice striking patterns. Having a visual representation of how you spend your time makes you mindful of how you spend your time, just like using your virtual time clock and recording your time does! Before long you’ll instinctively know which activities are well-spent and which ones are bunk.