Page 62 - Time Management

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Procrastination: The Thief of Time
Delegating
Chapter 6 will consider delegation in more detail, but it’s a
good idea to start thinking about it now. In your personal life, for 47
instance, many opportunities exist for you to delegate tasks that you
tend to procrastinate on. For example, many services will pick up and
deliver products for you: pharmacies, dry cleaners, even grocery and
office supply stores.These services can save you time on a chore you
might find unpleasant. If you’ve been in charge of writing checks to pay
the family bills, you can arrange to have many of these bills paid auto-
matically by your bank. Or perhaps your spouse would be willing to
take on this task for you. If you tend to put it off, it might very well be
a candidate for delegation.

• Do it the first thing in the day. Often, if you can do an
unpleasant task before you’ve had much time to think
about it, it will seem easier. Or, if you do want to spend
some time thinking, why not think about how unburdened
you’ll feel for the rest of the day when the task is done?
• The night before, place the task where you can’t miss it.
Put that complaint letter you must respond to in the mid-
dle of your desk. When you walk into your office, it will be
hard to avoid.
• Find somebody else to do it. Remember this: what you
find unpleasant, someone else might actually enjoy.
• Make an advantage/disadvantage list. This is for heavy-
duty kinds of unpleasant tasks. List all the posi-
tive things that will
result from getting Eating the Elephant
the task done and Question:“How do you eat
then list all the dis- an elephant?” Answer:“One
bite at a time.”
advantages to doing
There’s great wisdom in this vener-
it. Just seeing it all
able saying. Overwhelming responsi-
on paper may relieve
bilities or projects that seem indi-
your anxiety. gestible—the very kind we often dan-
• Use the “measles” gerously procrastinate on—become
approach. Several easier to deal with when we nibble
time management away at them one bite at a time.