| It's no surprise one of the biggest time-wasters on | | | | Sometimes you can feel that you could use the |
| company time involves talking to colleagues. But it's | | | | interruptions as an excuse to leave a project undone. |
| not gossiping that takes up a lot of time: it's the | | | | If you get always interrupted, you can always say |
| never ending weekly staff status reports, updates | | | | that it was somebody else's fault you could not finish |
| on projects that have no conclusion and sales | | | | your task. The problem with this kind of attitude is |
| presentations that could be only a few minutes, but | | | | that you will still have to finish the project sooner or |
| take up to an hour or more. | | | | later: so you can do it on time, or you can do it |
| You can bring these unproductive meeting to a quick | | | | under pressure, after working hours. |
| close by a few well-placed remarks. Or you may | | | | Your can have the task of writing a 400-page report |
| want to bring the discussion back to track in order to | | | | in 10 months: this means 40 pages a month, or little |
| be able to have a productive ending. | | | | more than one page per day. It seems easy, so you |
| There are other interruptions that can ruin your | | | | think you can put it off for a few months. Then you |
| whole day: you will always have colleagues who step | | | | will need to produce 50 pages a month: that is not |
| into your office with the usual "Got a sec?" question. | | | | very hard either. But there will be one point when the |
| Then you will have phone calls, useless e-mails, | | | | doable starts to be impossible. |
| administrative tasks, or hall conversations that can be | | | | Deciding something is one of the easiest things to |
| heard from your office. | | | | put off. However, the smallest indecision can cost |
| A lot of people interrupt themselves by trying to do | | | | you a lot of time consumption. If you leave one |
| too many things at the same time: there are many | | | | e-mail unanswered, and you get more mails from the |
| studies with the conclusion that multitasking is not as | | | | sender, you may find yourself in the situation of |
| effective work style as people generally believe. If | | | | spending up to five times more with that single issue, |
| you have to stop and restart the project you are | | | | that you would have spent if you answered the |
| working on, you will need a startup time every time | | | | e-mail on the first day. |
| you turn back to the task. | | | | |