Time Tips: Saving Time on Servicel Appointments

Time Tips: Appointments, Service

Waiting for service. And waiting. And waiting.

Have you ever called to have a drain unclogged, a plumbing leak fixed, or your heating system serviced? How about carpet cleaned, furniture delivered, or an estimate made for a landscaping project?

All of these things involve waiting for these folks to show up. You know the drill: "We'll be by some time between 7 and 10." About halfway into supper, your doorbell rings and there's the plumber.

This "less than precision arrival time" scenario doesn't happen not because these folks like to make you wait. It happens because they have to see many other customers, and they can't accurately predict an exact time.

I waited seven years to have my phone lines fixed (Southwestern Bull, er, I mean Bell), and finally gave up on it and switched to VOIP. Most waits are not that long, however. Most of the time, you wait around an entire morning or afternoon. While you're waiting, you hate to really dig into anything that requires concentration. So, what can you do?

One solution is to bunch appointments. It's not likely all the service providers will show up at the same time. And so what if they do? For example, the furnace repair tech and the landscaper aren't going to be in each other's way.

If you're going to call someone to fix your clogged drain, you're going to be waiting anyhow. As soon as you make that appointment, think of what other services you can schedule at that time (even if they are a bit early in terms of the calendar), and schedule them for that same day. Bonus: If you have related needs that the same firm can tend to, you end up eliminating multiple call-out fees.

For example, call the plumber to fix a leak. But also change out your toilet shutoff valves from the failure-prone stupid ones that home-builders install to the reliable flip-valves. Sooner or later, you will have a plumber change out these valves. You save a service call (plus all that wasted water) by having this done when you have that drain unclogged.

Another solution is to keep a list of low-concentration tasks you can undertake. You can also engage in these tasks during those times you call a business and are put on hold (note--Mindconnection customers are never put on hold). Or, while you are around and available for questions the service person may have, you can do activities where an interruption isn't a big deal.

Here are some sample activities:

Pull out furniture and dust behind it.
Clean out kitchen drawers (remove the contents, clean the surfaces, and then put things back neatly).
Go through any medications you have, and toss old stuff.
Go through old music albums (tapes, CDs, etc.) and put the stuff you no longer listen to in a box for charity.
Go through a closet and look for unused things to sell, give away, or throw away.
Go through your filing cabinet(s) and toss old papers--such as expired warranties, expired coupons, and very old utility statements.
Wipe dust and grime from door jambs.
Clean your bathroom mirror(s).
Organize your tax papers.
Dust your bookshelves--take books off, dust, put books back.
Clean around and behind your major appliances.

None of these is an essential activity. But each of these will bring a bit more order to your surroundings. I tend to "keep up" with all of these, because I do them during those downtime situations that normally just waste time. A cordless telephone with headset is indispensable.

More thoughts on time management

The phrase "time management" is an unfortunate language quirk. You can't really manage time. It just is. You can't gain time, create time, or even lose time. Time is what it is, regardless of what we do. And, paradoxically, many common "time management" techniques and practices are timewasters because they divert limited resources (such as time) to the wrong things.

It would be better to say "time allocation" or "activity management" "time usage" or some other phraseology to indicate that it's not time itself you're managing but how you use the time that exists. But we'll use the common terminology here to avoid confusion.

Some things time management is not:

Being more efficient. Suppose you become very efficient at making buggy whips. Does this fact mean you are managing your time well?
Getting more done in a given amount of time. Getting more done of what? And to what degree of quality? If you rake the leaves on a lawn from one side to the other all day long, does that mean you are a good time manager?
Being able to juggle multiple priorities. Instead of juggling priorities, assign priorities. First tend to the urgent things, then the most important things.
Mastering multi-tasking. This concept conflicts with what we know about the human brain. If you buy into this self-defeating, time-wasting, quality-killing ideology, you might also be interested in practicing solo flight by flapping your arms frantically.
Working faster. No, this mode is how you make mistakes that you subsequently have to spend more time fixing.

Some things good time management involves:

Deciding what to do. This is trickier than it sounds. Which is why there are time management experts.
Deciding what not to do. This is even trickier than deciding what to do. Which is why there are time managers and why discipline is a huge, huge factor in accomplishing this.
Deciding what to do when, and in what order. In essence, prioritization.
Determining the scope, goals, and metrics for each activity you undertake. In this area, we the find most room for improvement. Precision here allows you to avoid waste on the one hand, and falling short on the other.
Planning out the work, task, project, or activity such that you determine the necessary steps to quality completion. That is, what must you do to meet the intended goal and quality metrics?
Identifying unnecessary steps. Get this right, and you can cut your wasted hours significantly.
Figuring out what resources to use. Not all resources applicable to a task are equal. Picking the right tool for the job saves time, improves quality, and makes life less stressful.

We've highlighted only some of the factors involved in good time management. We actually teach extreme time management, which is a methodology that allows you to make effective use of your time almost second nature. You don't need a complicated system. Our system puts many of the variables on autopilot, so you have more time to do what you need to do. Our system goes way beyond most other systems in results, yet is far simpler.

Contact us for a presentation to your organization: comments @ mindconnection.com (remove the spaces after pasting into your e-mail client's "to" box.