What kinds of cool things will interrupt you 56 times today?
Unfortunately, these aren’t random numbers. The 2.1 hours is based on a study conducted by NYC research firm BASEX where they found that 2.1 hours of our day are wasted due to interruptions! The second figure is based on an article written by Wendy Cole for Time Magazine where she reported that we are interrupted on average, 7 times per hour.
Now if these numbers are correct, you and I lose approximately 1 work week each month and about 3 months each year because of interruptions to our work. I wonder just how many of those interruptions are unnecessary.
When we add things that aren’t interruptions but just flat out time wasters, that number dramatically increases.
How much would it mean to you to get half of that back?
Even 25%?
Today, we are going to focus on how to liberate our day!
1) Awareness: The most basic time management tip in the book is the one most neglected. It’s the old, track your time for 2 weeks to see where you can improve deal. So easy we just don’t do it. Let’s change that right now. For the next two weeks, track your time using this handy dandy time tracker . I’m willing to bet that you are not wasting your day in 30, 60, 90 minute chunks. They’re too easy to catch when they happen. You are most probably wasting your day in 3, 5 & 10 minute increments! Once you discover how your day is getting away from you, you obviously have to take action!
2) Proactive Discussions: I’m sure many of your biggest time wasters involve teammates. If this is the case, I would highly recommend a proactive discussion (as in not when the interruption is happening) to set some parameters. Perhaps you can have designated times throughout the day when you are available for questions, discussion etc. Maybe your proactive discussion is simply a “sorry dude/dudette” in advance for cutting discussions short during money hours.
3) Make Unbreakable Appointments With Thyself: We would never break an appointment with a client or prospect. Right? We should have the same mentality for our “money” activities. And you know darn well that we are never serious about stuff we fail to put on our calendar so why not schedule your money activities. Here’s a cool website where you can set a countdown timer to help you stay disciplined. http://e.ggtimer.com/
4) No Interruptions During Money Activities: Part of this is accomplished during the proactive discussion mentioned in suggestion #2. It’s as simple as this. If you are planning on making calls between 2-4 today, tell everyone on your team NOT to interrupt you or they risk the wrath of a frustrated sales rep! Hang a big sign on your door or cubicle that reads “STOP! Is it a 911 or a 411! Money hours in progress!” Also, do not allow inbound calls when you are making outbound calls. Inbounds interrupt outbounds and they are nice safe distractions that keep you from rejection. Simply check your messages on the hour. Shut off your cell, your blackberry and for God’s sake, shut down Outlook on your computer. Otherwise you’ll be getting interrupted every time some genius on your team wants to reply all.
5) Catch Yourself When Defaulting To Stupid: “Stupid” in this context refers to staring at the coffee machine hoping the coffee will brew faster, waiting by the microwave, zoning out at the desk, hovering your boss’s office like a plane waiting for clearance etc. I would get used to asking yourself “Is this the best use of my time?” and then step away from the “Mine Sweeper” game on your computer amigo!
6) Don’t Get Caught Up In Scheduling Purgatory: I swear, more time can be wasted trying to get everyone’s schedule together for that conference call, meeting, etc. Here are two cool resources to help you delegate that over to technology. http://doodle.com/ lets you poll everyone involved in the upcoming meeting for their best time. Check back a few hours later and it gives you the slots where there was the most availability. Huge time saver to say the least! http://timedriver.timetrade.com/ lets clients and colleagues self-schedule with you based on your availability. There’s even a way cool “schedule now” button you can imbed into your emails.
7) Learn to Utilize ALL of Your Windshield Time: Aside from making calls and using my travel time to listen to self development cd’s I love to use that time to schedule calls with people that I know if I were meeting with them face to face it would chew up too much time. The reason why I like to schedule these calls during drive time is that there is a clear cut start and finish to the conversation without ticking them off. Worse case scenario, the call might accidently “drop” 
8) Learn This Phrase: (I have stolen this from Tim Ferris) “I really can’t- sorry. I’ve got too much on my plate right now” In other words . . . learn to say “No”. It’s by far the most underutilized time management tool in our arsenal.
9) Learn This Phrase Too: If you want to minimize unnecessary meeting and conference call requests “I’m happy to help any way I can, just so I can be best prepared to contribute, can you shoot me a quick email with the gist of what you need from me?” At that point, several things can happen. One, is that they solve their own challenge, Two, they send you the email and you are able to email a quick answer or better yet, pick up the phone and give them a quick answer or the mood might just pass now that they have to shoot you an email. Note: Needless to say we need to be cautious where and when we use this. I would be especially careful using this with clients. Perhaps an impromptu call saying “I received your request for a meeting and wanted to get the details from you” might be a better approach. The point (and you know this already) is that many meeting requests are unnecessary. Learn how to weed out the BS!
10) Offer Free Parking In Your Meetings: Huh? Yep. I just said that. The free parking you offer in any meeting (even the ones you aren’t hosting) is a technique called the “Parking Lot” The “Parking Lot “ is a wonderful way to stop unproductive tangents, digressions and other outer body experience inducers. If you are hosting the meeting have either a flip chart or a pad that will be the “Parking Lot” which is a nice way of saying a place to write down topics for future discussions. You can use it (carefully) even if you aren’t running the meeting. Let’s say you’re in the weekly sales meeting and someone is on page one of a War and Peace tangent. Give them a minute and say “I’m awfully sorry to interrupt. That’s a great topic, why don’t we “Parking Lot” it for a future topic” Proper execution is key.
11) “10 Before 10” Trish Bertuzzi From The Bridge Group (writes an awesome blog too http://blog.bridgegroupinc.com) suggests getting 10 calls in the bank before 10 am each day. The thing that I like most about this is the idea of getting something that generates revenue in the bank nice and early. That brings us to the final suggestion.
12) Ride Endorphin Waves To “Defy Time” There is nothing like the feeling of a good Endorphin Rush! It’s a natural high! Study after study has shown that simply checking things off a To Do list triggers the endorphins. Here’s what makes that a rather nifty proposition. When you feel good, you do more, when you do more, you feel good. Its like a freakin frenzy of feel good feelings! Don’t know about you, but I sell more when I’m feeling good. Get more done too!
So here’s the rub gang. We’re losing each time each day that we can never get back again.
What will you do to take back some of those 2.1 hours?