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Nightingale-Conant presents Todd Duncan

Escape the 3 Worst Time Traps

When you were young, there was always a prerequisite to having free time: completing your chores, finishing your homework, cleaning your room. Whatever it was, the gist of the message was that you couldn't do what you wanted to with your time until your work was done and things were in their place. It was a rule meant to teach you a sense of order. Work came first. Play, or whatever else you might want to do, always came second.

Many professionals still hold to the same rule.

The problem is that in the grownup world, work is never done. At the end of the day, there is always more you could do. This is especially true in the marketplace, where tasks revolve around others whose wants and needs don't diminish when the clock strikes five. We are often flooded with to-dos that flow into next week, and trying to stay productive feels like trying to stack pebbles in the middle of a raging river.

To compensate, we fall into any number of time traps: makeshift strategies that are intended to help us get work done, but in the end only put us in a deeper hole. Here are some guidelines for escaping the three worst time traps. But before I share these with you, I should make a clarification. The solution to being swamped is not better time management. This is a false notion. We can no more manage, tame, or reclaim our time than we can lasso the wind and tie it to a fence post. The solution is to pay attention to (ergo, manage) something you can control: the tasks that fill up your time. This activity is the overarching solution for climbing out of any time trap.

Time Trap #1:
The Organization Trap

The majority of our disarray is rarely the result of too much work or too little time. Disorganization in the workplace nearly always begins with a habit of spending too much time on meaningless, unproductive tasks. Stepping out of the organization trap (and actually getting organized) is primarily a matter of cleaning up the clutter that unnecessary tasks create. Here's how I recommend you start:

1. Never give your personal digits to customers. One phone number, one email address, and one mailing address is enough. Anything more forces you to retrieve and return too many messages from too many places.
2. Don't give your work digits to friends. Ninety-nine percent of your friendly workday correspondence is neither time-sensitive nor critical. In other words, it can wait until lunch or after work. If it's an emergency, they know where you work.
3. Turn off the instant message and email alert functions on your computer. They cause needless interruptions that are too tempting to resist, but they rarely merit immediate action. Set specific times to check your email and stick to them. (See below How to Disable Notifications in Microsoft Outlook.)
4. Don't answer the phone unless you are expecting a call. Unless you are a retailer who takes phone orders, the odds of getting a call requiring immediate attention are slight. On your voicemail greeting, let callers know the specific times you check and return messages.
5. Avoid checking your personal email during work hours. It's a needless time-waster and won't make you any richer. Catch up on the latest drama during lunch or after hours.

Time Trap #2:
The Yes Trap

Author David Allen estimates that a typical worker has about 170 interactions every day. If you break this down based on a 50-hour workweek, the numbers are telling: 170 interactions per day multiplied by 5 workdays equals 850 interactions per week. Divide these 850 weekly interactions by 50 hours a week and you find that you have about 17 interactions every hour. Or, in other words, you have about 3 minutes to focus on any one thing without interruption.

The problem is simple: Most people say yes too often. We are a laboring nation of yes-men and yes-women for whom nothing is too much to ask and every task is commenced "Right away, sir" with a "Consider it done, ma'am" attitude. The trap is prevalent in a sales capacity where serving customers means granting requests. This necessitates a can-do attitude, but only to a certain extent. We have to set limits on what we say yes to. For starters, this includes the following:

1. Pursue only those prospects that meet our prequalification standards. In general, a qualified prospect will share your values and professional standards and offer the potential for a mutually beneficial long-term relationship. Say no to pursuing the others.
2. Cut ties with high-maintenance, low-profit clients and opportunities. They steal time that could be better invested in low-maintenance, highprofit alternatives. Time is a commodity, and trading lots of it for little profits and big headaches doesn't make business sense.
3. Set strict boundaries for the time you will spend on necessary paperwork and communication. For each ongoing task, I recommend blocking off 30 minutes every other hour. During these time blocks, complete only these tasks; say no to everything else. This forces you to be efficient with tasks that can easily monopolize your day.

Time Trap #3:
The Technology Trap

Sir Francis Bacon led us to science, science led us to technology, and technology led us to the wonders of timesaving devices. But these days, the devices we laud as efficient often end up stealing the very thing they were designed to save. In an ever-expanding era of gigabytes, websites, and satellites, many of us have become a little gadget-happy. As a result, we may be losing more time with technology than we intended to gain. It's a trap many of us find ourselves in. Here are five tips for clawing out:

1. Shorten the leash. I'm not sure which is truer: Technology keeps us on top of tasks, or, technology keeps tasks on top of us. When the latter is more accurate, you need to shorten the leash and give yourself time free of technointerruptions. Set a precedent with coworkers and colleagues: Turn off your cell phone, laptop, and Blackberry on evenings and weekends. If someone needs to catch you, he or she will.
2. If you must have a new gadget, get rid of the old one. When you add up all the time you lose fiddling with wires and buttons, it makes sense to use as few tools as necessary. Use what increases your productivity and do away with the rest.
3. Ask directions. We waste hours teaching ourselves to use technology, when we could learn from an expert in one-tenth of the time. Technology does not equal time saved until we know how to use it proficiently. The quicker you can get to that place, the sooner it makes sense to use it.
4. Monitor your tools' effectiveness. Don't keep something that has many functions you don't use. If it's a waste of time, dump it for something more efficient. And don't rule out the option of doing things the old-fashioned way.
5. Go backwards to go forward. Sometimes technology isn't better; it's just prettier. I know there's a subtle peer pressure to own technology, but if you can accomplish something more efficiently without a tool, swallow your pride and keep your time. Besides, retro is in these days.

For more than 50 years one statistic has remained constant: The majority of professionals spend only 20 percent of their work time working productively. This has nothing to do with time. It has everything to do with the tasks that fill the other 80 percent of their time. When it comes to sidestepping the time traps that keep us in this state of inefficiency, the same maxim holds true for all. Pay more attention to the tasks that fill your time, and the value of your time will increase. This means more money in less time with less stress. Long guilt-free vacation anyone?

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