What is stealing your time?
You have planned the next day and everything is in place to start fresh and fully concentrated in the morning. Yet, by the end of the next day, you find yourself copying unfinished work to the next day’s plan and so on and so forth. And you wonder “why”?
Since you have planned the next day, you should be able to complete your tasks. Maybe you should ask yourself what is wrong. It is said that awareness is 90% of the solution therefore the first step is to be aware of your time stealers. Frequently people complain that their time stealers are their colleagues, phone calls, the boss, some ineffective meetings, unclear work, “bad” delegation, unproductive communication and many more. Then, you take the ones you find most “damaging” and you just start dealing with them.
Interruptions by colleagues: it could be a colleague coming to ask for information, or just for casual conversation. Say No! How? When you plan your day, you know when you have a gap of free time. So when someone drops in to ask you something, you can tell them that you are unavailable at the moment but you will be able to see them sometime in the day. If the visit is for casual conversation, you can politely say that you are busy, or you could stand. Standing will force the other person remain standing , so chances are that he will not stay long. Another thing you could do, is state exactly the minutes you have available and stick to it. That is giving the message to the other person to be quick.
Telephone calls: Utilise technology! Almost all telephones have the caller id and the voice mail feature. If you are working on a task that requires your full attention you can “temporarily ignore” the call. After finishing the task, check both your voice mail and your missed calls and get back to the people who called you.
Interruptions by your manager: Here things are a bit more difficult as you can rarely refuse work coming from your superiors. Usually managers come to you for more work that most of the times it is urgent, state your tasks and ask your manager to prioritise for you! This can also be applied in cases when you are invited in a meeting where your presence is not absolutely necessary.
A good solution is to keep a diary with all your activities, even the interruptions or the smoking or toilet or coffee break you have during your working day. By doing this for a few typical working days, you will be able to find out who or what is eating your time and effectively deal with them. Time stealers will always be there, what you can do is minimise their effect on you!!
Marina Xenophontos Michaelou
Programme Director
You have planned the next day and everything is in place to start fresh and fully concentrated in the morning. Yet, by the end of the next day, you find yourself copying unfinished work to the next day’s plan and so on and so forth. And you wonder “why”?
Since you have planned the next day, you should be able to complete your tasks. Maybe you should ask yourself what is wrong. It is said that awareness is 90% of the solution therefore the first step is to be aware of your time stealers. Frequently people complain that their time stealers are their colleagues, phone calls, the boss, some ineffective meetings, unclear work, “bad” delegation, unproductive communication and many more. Then, you take the ones you find most “damaging” and you just start dealing with them.
Interruptions by colleagues: it could be a colleague coming to ask for information, or just for casual conversation. Say No! How? When you plan your day, you know when you have a gap of free time. So when someone drops in to ask you something, you can tell them that you are unavailable at the moment but you will be able to see them sometime in the day. If the visit is for casual conversation, you can politely say that you are busy, or you could stand. Standing will force the other person remain standing , so chances are that he will not stay long. Another thing you could do, is state exactly the minutes you have available and stick to it. That is giving the message to the other person to be quick.
Telephone calls: Utilise technology! Almost all telephones have the caller id and the voice mail feature. If you are working on a task that requires your full attention you can “temporarily ignore” the call. After finishing the task, check both your voice mail and your missed calls and get back to the people who called you.
Interruptions by your manager: Here things are a bit more difficult as you can rarely refuse work coming from your superiors. Usually managers come to you for more work that most of the times it is urgent, state your tasks and ask your manager to prioritise for you! This can also be applied in cases when you are invited in a meeting where your presence is not absolutely necessary.
A good solution is to keep a diary with all your activities, even the interruptions or the smoking or toilet or coffee break you have during your working day. By doing this for a few typical working days, you will be able to find out who or what is eating your time and effectively deal with them. Time stealers will always be there, what you can do is minimise their effect on you!!
Marina Xenophontos Michaelou
Programme Director