Interruptions. Exactly how much freedom, money and success is short circuited by interruptions that we allow on a daily basis. This is a point of real stress for me. Why? Because I like to socialize as much as anyone. One small (big) problem. Interruptions come when you least expect them, hence the name.

How many hours a day do you actually work? Have you every really counted them or tracked it? Just for fun, print out a calendar off Microsoft Office Outlook or some such program. Except make it for just one day, today.

Now, every 30 minutes, write in the space the letter W if you were actually working, or NW if you were doing something else, like chatting on the phone with a friend or spouse, doing something in the restroom like popping a zit, taking a break in the break room, standing by the coffee pot, organizing your desk, etc. Have you seen that movie Office Space? Cracks me up because its so realistic.

Now, at the end of your workday, add up the real amount of time you spent actually working. Hello! Not much.

For example, I just now decided to Google this subject just to prove I was right that we Americans may put in 8 hours at work, but actually only really work about 3 hours a day.

So, I pull up an interesting article in the New Yorker magazine, and lo and behold

Heres a trailer of Albert Brooks new movie, Looking for comedy in the Muslim world. Well, of course, I allow this interruption to take me away from what Im really doing, research. I just got an "F" for failure in my homework.

Heh, Albert Brooks is a funny guy, in a quirky kind of way. Kind of like the comedian Stephen Wright who also cracks me up. Ill laugh at anything. And who can resist a title like that. Ive just got to check it out. It will only take a minute.

Sounds logical enough, doesnt it? Only one small problem. When I clicked on the trailer, my computer froze up! MORE WASTED TIME!

And then Microsoft internet explorer has to ask about ten times in a popup if I want to report the error. Another popup saying the error has been reported, and yet a third popup thanking me for reporting the error. All these little time wasting decisions Im confronted with.

So thats my point. How much do we really work in a typical day full of interruptions? Theres only one way to find out and thats to track yourself and write down on your little experimental calendar what you just did for the last 15 minutes.

One of my New Years Resolutions had nothing to do with New Years. I started back in early December.

It just hit me one day that my entire life was based on interruptions which was basically the result of poor planning. I was extremely busy, but not productive.

I allowed other people to dictate my daily schedule and found myself running here and there and everywhere to meet with people at the drop of a hat (By the way, Ive got a huge hat collection).

And what were these business meetings? NOTHING! Id waste a good hour driving somewhere, sitting down with someone over a cup of coffee.

And of course my waistline didnt benefit too much when I just had to throw in dessert. I couldnt help it. It was a Greek restaurant, and the desserts are to die for. Definitely not a "win- win" situation.

Plus, the owner is a friend of mine and I wanted to support his economy, even if my time there was doing absolutely nothing for my economy.

So I got fed up with myself. I dont really know when I woke up and realized that I was literally wasting hours of work time each week, all in the name of work!

And heres another thing. A lot of this waste was because of the expectations other people put on me to be there for them, answer their questions.

I was like that old TV commercial for gas stations, the Shell Answer Man.

Lazy people were using me and abusing me as their Yahoo shortcut instead of looking up the answers to their technical questions themselves. Id pick up the phone every time it rang.

You can only imagine how freeing it was when I finally put my foot down on all this nonsense and took my life back. My solution? I learned this from a guy in Florida I met in October.

I dont take phone calls before 1 PM. That is my work time for stuff I need to get done. I use caller ID all the time to screen my calls and finally decided that not everybody needs to talk with me when they feel like it.

You know who Im talking about, people who dont mind wasting about 45 minutes of your time talking about their problems that they never make any effort to fix. I should be charging $125 an hour if they want me to be their shrink.

My problem is Ive been too nice a guy. Mr. Helpful. I like to be needed. And Ive ignored the abuse of my time and energy in the name of Mr. Good Samaritan.

But now

I dont read my e-mail in the morning or several times a day. That is a huge time waster. My e-mail gets looked at between 3 PM and 5PM maybe and I delete as many as possible, focusing on only the ones that need my attention or a require a response.

That right there is saving me about 2 hours a day, during normal work hours. Remember when we believed the myth that computers were going to save us time?

Im also getting a little better at writing my to-do list the night before. There is a pad and pen at my bedside table in case I think of something to add to the list at 3 am.

By the way, thats when some of your best creative ideas will come, and if you dont write them down poof, they vanish into thin air by 7 am. Ive even become skilled at writing in the dark.

So today, I throw out this challenge to you. Take a long hard look at what you spend time on every day. Make a decision to change to be more productive, creative, which will increase your wealth and your happiness.

By the way, the happiness is not due to increased riches, but a result of the satisfaction that warm fuzzy feel good feeling that you accomplished something today.

PS. I just might call up my Muslim buddy and go see that Albert Brooks movie.