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Time Management
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emerge from that committee might have an effect on you per-
sonally, should problems arise between you and your superiors.
It’s surprising how often people can be neat and orderly in
their business life but rumpled and disorganized in their person-
al life. Sometimes it can’t be helped—family members can alter
your behavior in ways that business colleagues cannot. Still, the
payoff system seems especially good at illustrating how the
principles of business conduct can furnish strategies to improve
your personal life and vice versa.
One last payoff thought: how much do you make, in dollars
and cents, per hour? From now on, when you find yourself truly
wasting time—or letting someone else squander your time—
think of that hourly figure and how the value of your time is slip-
ping away. Both you and your company benefit from the most
efficient use of your time. And you can measure that value in
actual monetary terms. In fact, your raise may depend upon it.

“Not-to-Do” Lists
Author Michael LeBoeuf offers a fascinating idea that may
serve to free the spirit as well as some much-needed time. His
idea: create a “not-to-do” list, which he believes should include the fol-
lowing kinds of items:
• All low-priority items, unless you’ve successfully completed all your
high-priority items.
• Anything you could reasonably delegate to someone else.
• Demands on your time from others that are either thoughtless or
inappropriate.
• Any errand that, if ignored, will have minimal consequences.
• Anything you might have done for someone else that the person
should be doing for himself or herself.
There’s a kind of exhilaration in setting down on paper a list of
things you’re not going to do.You can mentally tote up the minutes
you’re going to save by not doing them.The sense of freedom that this
little exercise engenders can work wonders on the subconscious and
can even lower your level of stress.