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Time Management
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ily on you. Your breaks gravitate not toward socializing but into
daydreaming, secondary priorities, or introspection. Be wary of
such behavior; it can subvert work just as fiercely as too much
socializing.
Time Leak #2: Misplacing Things
Next to socializing, misplacing things—according to the poll—
was the greatest drain on productive time. One estimate: about
three hours per week are wasted trying to find “lost” things.
Of course, things don’t really get lost: they get misplaced.
There’s a well-known prescription: “A place for everything, and
everything in its place.” Indeed, several industries have turned
that dictum into profits, among them: office-, closet-, and
garage-organizer companies, Pendaflex, and Rubbermaid.
Two work areas—when disorganized—seem especially
prone to time leaks: your files and your desk. Filing is discussed
more fully in Chapter 10. Here the discussion turns to that criti-
cal work region: the desk.

It Was in the Last Place I Looked!
Finding that missing file folder is no different from locating
your misplaced keys. Where was the last place you remem-
ber having it?
Most people panic when faced with the prospect of finding a mis-
placed and urgently needed item.These three most likely scenarios
should give you a clue where to look:
• You absent-mindedly set it down somewhere it doesn’t ordinarily
belong. In this case, it’s most likely to be found on top of something
else—unless, of course, you later set something down on top of it,
which will make it most difficult to find.
• Someone else moved it, in which case you need to think who might
have had access to it.
• You misfiled it or placed it near—rather than exactly—where it’s
supposed to be, in which case you need to search in the immediate
vicinity of where it belongs.