The Top 5 Time Stealers - and how to banish them forever. - Get Articles by Jonathan Gee |  |
> Get Articles > Time Management > The Top 5 Time Stealers - and how to banish them forever. The Top 5 Time Stealers - and how to banish them forever. Download as PDFJonathan Gee jonathangeebtclick.com Easy Training Guides http://www.easytraininguides.com Personal Details Name: Jonathan Gee Company: Easy Training Guides URL: http://www.easytraininguides.com Email - mail to: jonathangeebtclick.com Article: The Top 5 Time Stealers - and how to banish them forever! Article size: 948 words. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Imagine the situation:- A colleague telephones you, it’s inconvenient, but you don’t tell him. Suddenly you realise you’ve missed a meeting, you forgot to put the date in your diary. Your boss appears, to give you an urgent job that must be finished by 4.00pm. You say ‘yes’ again! On your desk is a partly finished letter that you must complete because you put it off from last week. Does this sound familiar to you? It probably does because you have just read examples of ‘The Top 5 Time Stealers’. O.K., so you don’t work in an office – believe me, these Time Stealers rob you whatever situation you are in, and if you don’t take control you will suffer from unhealthy amounts of stress. Now we both know that a certain amount of stress in our lives is good for us, but too much can be damaging and it can show itself in many ways. Worry, frustration, tiredness, irritability, anger, headaches, neck ache, forgetfulness, lack of concentration, and indigestion are just some of the signs of unacceptable levels of stress. Higher and more prolonged stress can even cause illness! So how do YOU deal with these Time Stealers? You take action and you take action NOW to banish them from your life forever. Of course, being human, we can find any number of excuses to put off doing something that takes a bit of effort, even though we know we can benefit in the long term. To conquer Time Stealers, you identify them, and then plan to avoid them. Try to be one step ahead. In this way your Time Stealers can be minimised and dealt with. So what are these Top 5 Time Stealers? 1. Telephone Calls 2. Poor Communication 3. Poor Planning 4. Can’t Say No 5. Putting things off (Procrastination) Let’s confront each one in turn: 1. Telephone Calls We’ve all done it – phoned someone ‘just for a chat’, when we should be working! We’ve all done it – phoned someone right back because we forgot to tell them something important first time round! Try to avoid these ‘add-ons’ because, not only do they make you look inefficient, your extra call might be inconvenient for the person at the other end, and they might not have the courage to tell you. If it happens to you, have the courage to ask the caller to phone you at a more convenient time. 2. Poor Communication Despite all the tools of communication we have at our disposal, we still get it wrong! In our dealings with other people, it inevitably happens that, occasionally, we upset somebody because of something we say or do. It’s amazing isn’t it, that those we are close to can be upset by what we say, even the way we say it, though we may have known them for many years? A flippant remark, or a casual shrug of the shoulders can harm a relationship, whether at work or socially. So be careful what you say and do when you communicate, and if you get a call that’s inconvenient, have the courage to say so! 3. Poor Planning Planning your day is the most important task you can carry out if you want to stand any chance of ridding yourself of this Time Stealer! Sit down, uninterrupted, and write out what you want to achieve in your day. List the main jobs and tasks first, then go into detail, even down to listing which telephone calls you have to make, what you want to say, and the most convenient time to make them. Do the most difficult jobs first. 4. Can’t Say No! Whether it be your boss or your spouse, it can be very difficult to say ‘no’ on occasions. If you are to conquer this Time Stealer you must have the courage to say no when necessary. I am not suggesting that you say no regularly. This would be counter-productive, and get you the reputation as someone who is obstructive. However, as you become more efficient, you will get more work put upon you, so sometimes, it will be very important for you to say no, but make sure you say no politely. 5. Putting Things Off Also known as procrastination, this is probably the one area of my life in which I have a constant battle. It’s the easiest thing in the world to put off a job until tomorrow. The immediate pressure to complete the task might be relieved, but you end up feeling guilty for under-achieving. If you don’t ever feel guilty in this way, then you have a major problem! Keep to the list of tasks you wrote down for the day. In this way your day remains planned, and you remain focused. Finally, you need to make sure you keep practising. Only in this way will you move forward. Measure and monitor your performance to see how you are progressing. In this way you will win, you will succeed. You know how these Time Stealers are disrupting your life. You know how they are robbing you of valuable time, time that could be put to far better use. You owe it to yourself, to your friends and family, your work associates and clients, to do something about them. Take positive action now! About the Author Jonathan Gee has spent the last 20 years in management training, covering many aspects of personal and corporate development. He has just published an ebook entitled ’57 Supercharged Tips to Manage Your Time’ which discusses the concept of personal time management in great detail. It includes real life examples, proven exercises and worksheets that get results. To learn more, go to: www.easytraininguides.com © Jonathan Gee – All Rights Reserved. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ How useful did you find this article? This article can be downloaded freely from http://www.get-articles.com and used on your website or in your ezine so long as the author is credited and their resource box left intact. You should not change any links in the article, and where the article is used on a website it's links should be clickable. Please see our terms and conditions page for more information: http://www.get-articles.com/authors-publishers-terms.php |
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