Page 145 - Time Management

Mancini09.qxd 1/16/2003 4:53 PM Page 130
Time Management
130
Drop-in Visitors
If you don’t have an administrative assistant or secretary to
intercept visitors who turn up unexpectedly, here are a few
techniques you can try to minimize the time they can steal from your day:
• If you have a door, keep it closed whenever you need to avoid
interruptions.
• If you work in a cubicle, post a sign asking not to be interrupted.
• Try taking your work elsewhere—an empty conference room, a
nearby library, even a restaurant.
• Indicate that you have a minor emergency and ask for a time to
meet that would be more convenient.
• If it’s a colleague in your company who needs to see you, suggest
you confer in his or her office. It’s much easier to leave someone
than to get that person to leave you.
• Say,“Can we wrap this up in just a few minutes?” This should pro-
vide a clue to your visitor that you’re pressed for time.

your office; it will usually make someone else feel uncom-
fortable about staying too long.
• Outline your time limitations from the outset. (In essence,
you’re delivering a “time contract.”)
• Stand up when you’re ready to finish.
• Keep your body somewhat angled to the other person.
This body language will convey your need to get back to
something else.
• A surefire strategy: get up and ask the person to accom-
pany you somewhere close by (e.g., the photocopier).
Continue your discussion while doing your work there.
When done, simply say you’re glad you two talked, then
leave the person there. For extremely persistent types, tell
them you’re going to the rest room ....

Conclusion
The phrase time leak certainly has a pejorative connotation.
Each time waster, however, offers a corresponding opportunity.
Those opportunities are accessible, though, only if you possess
the right tools—and that’s the subject of Chapter 10.