Time Tips: Keeping Others from Wasting Your Time Tip #4

Just say no. This is hard for some of us. Often, saying no slams a door in your face. The people you say no to won't ask again. Or, will they?

It all depends on how you say no. Suppose your schedule is full, and someone asks you to take on an additional task. Suppose it's to be on the board of an organization. But, you don't have time. Your first answer should be, "This sounds very exciting. Before I say yes, I need to look at my other commitments. The last thing I want to do is come on board and not contribute. Can I get back to you tomorrow?"

Then, make an honest appraisal of where you are. Do you have the time to take on this additional commitment? If not, what can you change so you do? If you have other commitments, which ones can you drop--and when?

Your reply can then be an unqualified Yes. Or, it may go like this. "I am too committed to other things right now to take that position. But, I do have some time I could commit over the next six months, with the goal of taking the next similar position that opens up. Is there a supporting role I could play, just to stay in consideration for a larger role when I am able to commit?"

Just saying, "No, thank you. I'm too busy." sends the wrong message. But, showing you have a sense of commitment and want to be part of the organization sends a strong message that you are a person of character and substance. Interestingly, you can even take this approach with a tax audit! (You have to be more timely than six months, though....).

A great way many businesses are managing time is using software. There are many forms of time and attendance software which allows managers to track and monitor employees time usage.

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.

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.