The Time Killers
There
are a lot of time killers in this world
and what you have to do is to identify them, look out for them and avoid
them. Only then can you put
your available time to the
maximum possible use.
The time killers
listed below are more or
less
general. They are things that most of us
encounter. Apart from
these, each one of us may have unique
time killers that are
particular to our style of living and
way of work. Be smart and
identify these killers. The killers that I am
referring to are quite ordinary
every day things that we see and use in
our lives but often do not
realize how much of our time they take
away.
Six Terrible Time Killers
- Telephone calls
- Chatter boxes
- Traffic jams
- Finding parking spaces
- Meetings
- Bad machinery
The list could of course
go on. But before we keep adding to the
list, I would like to elaborate on
certain of the items listed above.
How
to Handle Time Killers:
Telephone calls
-
The funny thing about telephone calls is
that these instruments are indeed great
time savers. In fact the amount of time
that people get
to save thanks to telephones is
stupendous. The problem arises
when telephones are not used properly.
Most people do not
understand and even if they do they
forget that telephones are not
to be used for lengthy
conversations.
As for cell phones there is a
lot to be said and
done. What should be done is turn off
your cell phone when you
are having a conversation or a
discussion with another
person. As soon as you get a call, you
may ask the people you were
talking to excuse yourself but you leave
them waiting while you
chuckle and giggle over your phone.
Often we tend to give ore
importance to the caller than to the
person we were having the
discussion with. Again the same rule
applies here. Be brief. A
cell phone is to be used to get an
important message across to a
person who you were not able to
reach otherwise.
Chatter boxes
- Haven’t we
all met
them? They simply love the sound of
their own voices and once
they open their mouths, there is no
stopping them. They waste not
only your time but their time as well.
Steer clear of such people.
Believe me, it is much easier to avoid
such people than to tell them
to shut up and if you get a
telephone call from such a person,
think of a reason to get off the
call before you even answer.
Traffic jams and parking
spaces - Any one who has lived in
the city for at least a day will know
what I am talking about. There
is no getting past a traffic jam at the
rush hour. And will someone
tell me why it's called the rush hour
when that is the time when the
traffic is the slowest. The only thing you can do is anticipate
the traffic jam and
leave your home
early. But that does not
really keep the time killer at bay.
It just helps you to avoid being
late. The only real way to avoid
both these time killers is to walk
to work. This isn't always possible
due to distance and weather. Try car
pooling, at least you will have
someone to talk to while you wait
and they may spot a parking place
that you missed. Lengthy
meetings - These can prove to be awful time
killers particularly if the meeting does
not have a clear agenda and if there are
people who love to talk among the
group. It has been found that most
middle and senior level mangers spend
nearly 70% of their work time talking.
Meeting should be kept short and to the
point. Of course you don't always have
control over this so bring a notepad and
pretend you are taking notes while you
are preparing your to-do lists or future
planning. Bad machinery - How
many of us have wanted to sit and
scream and bang the daylights out of a
pc that does not give us the required
data
or information. A computer that takes a
long time to start up, a copy machine
that
gives shamefully faint photocopies, even
a leaky faucet or a stubborn drawer or
door knob can waste a lot of time and
send us up the wall. If you have such
equipment or machinery, get it changed
at the earliest possible date. It is
worth
the amount of time and energy that you
waste on it every day. Apart from these each person may have
particular time
wasters, like for instance, a car that
refuses to start in the morning,
difficult hair that insists on looking
like Medusas head on a bad
snake day, an elevator that takes for
ever to reach your floor. Use
your common sense and try to find
alternate methods or even
better, if you cannot find an alternate
method, you could put the time to some use like read your morning
paper in the elevator.
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