Page 206 - The McKinsey Mind

08 (173-186) chapter 8 1/29/02 4:51 PM Page 181

ManagingYourself 181

Working backward from that number, arrange your schedule
accordingly. The start of your day is usually easiest to control: you
know how long it usually takes you to get into the office and can
set your alarm accordingly. The challenge comes at the end of the
day; resist the temptation to tack on one more meeting or work
that extra half hour. If you succumb, the meeting will drag on, and
the half hour will become an hour. Before you know it, you’re leav-
ing the office at 10:00 every night.
You will also have to get others to respect your time. The bet-
ter you are at your job or the higher up you go in your organi-
zation, the more everyone wants a piece of you. There’s an old
saying, “Stress is the feeling you get when your gut says, ‘No,’
and your mouth says, ‘Yes, I’d be glad to.’” You have to train
your mouth to say, “No.” Learn to prioritize potential time com-
mitments according to their ability to help you get things done.
(You have to allow, of course, for drains on your time caused by
political necessity. If your boss says you have to go to a meeting
and you can’t get him to change his mind, you’re stuck.) You can
also make your colleagues understand that you are a finite
resource. Sometimes a little humor can help in this regard, as
Leah Niederstadt discovered during her time at Reading Is Fun-
damental (RIF):

My position was such that I became the clearinghouse
for much of the information about our strategic plan. My
phone rang constantly, and people were always knocking
on my door for data that other people had. One day, a col-
league gave me a dainty little wooden sign decorated with
blue silk ribbons and bearing in delicately painted letters the
words GO AWAY! My colleagues laughed when I hung it
on my door, but the number of unnecessary interruptions
decreased.