Time Management - Marc Mancini
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130<br />
<strong>Time</strong> <strong>Management</strong><br />
Drop-in Visitors<br />
If you don’t have an administrative assistant or secretary to<br />
intercept visitors who turn up unexpectedly, here are a few<br />
techniques you can try to minimize the time they can steal from your day:<br />
• If you have a door, keep it closed whenever you need to avoid<br />
interruptions.<br />
• If you work in a cubicle, post a sign asking not to be interrupted.<br />
• Try taking your work elsewhere—an empty conference room, a<br />
nearby library, even a restaurant.<br />
• Indicate that you have a minor emergency and ask for a time to<br />
meet that would be more convenient.<br />
• If it’s a colleague in your company who needs to see you, suggest<br />
you confer in his or her office. It’s much easier to leave someone<br />
than to get that person to leave you.<br />
• Say,“Can we wrap this up in just a few minutes?” This should provide<br />
a clue to your visitor that you’re pressed for time.<br />
your office; it will usually make someone else feel uncomfortable<br />
about staying too long.<br />
• Outline your time limitations from the outset. (In essence,<br />
you’re delivering a “time contract.”)<br />
• Stand up when you’re ready to finish.<br />
• Keep your body somewhat angled to the other person.<br />
This body language will convey your need to get back to<br />
something else.<br />
• A surefire strategy: get up and ask the person to accompany<br />
you somewhere close by (e.g., the photocopier).<br />
Continue your discussion while doing your work there.<br />
When done, simply say you’re glad you two talked, then<br />
leave the person there. For extremely persistent types, tell<br />
them you’re going to the rest room ....<br />
Conclusion<br />
The phrase time leak certainly has a pejorative connotation.<br />
Each time waster, however, offers a corresponding opportunity.<br />
Those opportunities are accessible, though, only if you possess<br />
the right tools—and that’s the subject of Chapter 10.