Stop letting people steal your time!

The most common activities that break our focus are interruptions and distractions by others. If we have a wimpy “no muscle” then we will be dominated by them. Dealing with them is easy. All you really need to know are the four response options and the three focus techniques for saying no.

The four response options to interruptions are easy to use. How do you decide which one to choose? Simply color your choices as we described in the first chapter. The four response options are:

1. Respond and do it now when it’s red, (required immediate action).

2. Reschedule for a later time when it’s green or yellow and can be postponed, (needs to be done today or tomorrow).

3. Refer it to someone else if it’s not in your domain.
4. Refuse to do it when it’s gray. This is when you use your “no muscle.”

The four techniques for refusing or saying no are:

1. The Immediate Response Method
This is when you refuse a request on the spot, immediately after it is made. There are four elements you can include in your refusal statement to soften the response. The elements express:

• A desire to be helpful
• A singular reason you can’t
• An expression of regret
• And a thank you for asking

Here’s an example of the refusal statement using those elements. “I’d love to help but right now I just have too much on my plate, I’m really sorry but thank you for asking.” This is a classy approach most people will feel good about.

Caution: When giving a singular reason for saying no such as your plate is full, don’t give details. The more specific reasons you give, the less persuasive you’ll sound. You are not obligated to give reasons.

2. The Delay Tactic
This is when you are unsure and you want to think through the request. People often say yes when they should say no because they are under the pressure of the moment. For example, use a simple statement such as, “I’d like to but I’m not sure I can. Give me some time to think about it and I’ll get back to you.” If, after thinking about it, you decide you can’t, then use a refusal statement with the elements described above.

3. The Helping Hand Approach
This technique is driven by a sincere desire to be helpful even though you must say no. For example, recommend to the person somebody else who might assist them, or you could suggest alternative solutions. You might also agree to commit some limited time to it. It’s good time management to always lend a helping hand when we can.

4. Just say NO
This takes courage. But when a person approaches you with “gray matter” just say NO. Remember, gray stands for activities that are a complete waste of time, such as office gossip. In our seminars we go through an exercise where participants stand up and yell in their loudest voice, “NO…NO, NO, NO. What part of no don’t you understand! Can’t you see that I am working here!”
Practice these techniques and your “no muscle” will get stronger and stronger.

Avoid problems, clarify the unclear

What does a person do if his or her role is unclear? Not much! What does a person do if instructions are unclear? Makes mistakes! What is the result of fuzzy communication? Misunderstanding!

Yes, failure to clarify the unclear is a serious TIME WASTER with negative consequences. Make certain when communicating to get feedback on what you said. The time required to clarify the unclear is minimal compared to the problems it solves. Don’t forget to make notes on what it is you said.

Choosing Activities

Choosing is the number one skill of activity management and it is critical to maximizing your performance and productivity.

An activity is anything that we do, it is a task that has been delegated by a boss, a customer request, eating, exercising, making a phone call, email, text message, Facebook, it’s even a thought or emotion that we feel inside.

• Activities drive productivity.
• Activities give us energy or steel energy.
• Activities can propel us forward towards our goals.
• Some activities have high payoff, low payoff and most have no payoff.

As activity managers we have to decipher the encryption code of activities as they’re presented to us as interruptions or distractions.  To do this we employ the ritual of asking this question. What color is it?  Doing this will help us:

• Maintain focus throughout the day
• Use logic not emotion in decision making
• Uncover the real urgencies
• And can help us reschedule unnecessary interruptions

The key is to identify the importance of the activity immediately when it’s presented.  To do this we are going use the metaphor of a traffic light and color our choices.  Using color is fast; it doesn’t require paper and a pen, just our brain.   This gives us flexibility no matter where we are.

So we are going to use the color RED to stand for things that are vital and urgent.  This means stop what you are doing and go take care of this right now.

GREEN means GO.  This is where we want to spend the majority of our day, on green events that have high payoff in our work and personal life.  Green activities do not require an immediate response; in other words they are not urgent.

YELLOW activities also don’t require immediate attention but have some degree of value.  YELLOW means to use caution.   Many yellow activities come to us wrapped in the context of artificial urgency, like when a co-worker drops in and claims they need your help right now.

GRAY activities are a complete waste of time.  We use the color gray to remind us to stay away from activities that have NO value.

The payoff for being skillful at choosing and refusing is HUGE. It’s one of the most important survival skills in modern organizations. Below is a partial list of activities based on feedback from our Facebook fans and what color I would personally give them.  Now these are given by way of example only, you decide how to color your choices.  Add to the list.  What activities are you doing today?

RED ACTIVITIES

Urgent request from a boss

Customer complaint

Internet is down

Out of milk

Filling gas tank

Paying bill due today

Prospecting call

Reschedule appointment

Expense report

Sick employee

Equipment breakdown

Accident

Sick child

GREEN ACTIVITIES

Daily planning

Gym

Running

Yoga, meditation

Grocery shopping

Time with family

Paying bills

Brushing teeth

Processing email

Laundry

Reading

Research for job

Project planning

Writing marketing plan

Creative for ad campaign

Cycling

Sales call

Writing proposal

Client meeting

Write blog post

Swimming

Calling a friend

Make dinner reservations

Buy airline ticket

House cleaning

Kids to school

Cooking

Kids to sports activity

Coffee with friends

Massage

Carpool (2x)

Piano lessons

Showering

Ironing

Homework

Shovel snow

Cleaning dishes

Taking out trash

Call mom

Feed pets

YELLOW ACTIVITIES

Forwarded Email

Upload photos

Facebook

Buy birthday gift

Monday night football

GRAY ACTIVITIES

Office Gossip

To much television

Surfing the Internet to long

Forwarded email from friends

Blank spaces of time

Doing nothing

You can begin today to color your activity choices. You’ll make great choices that way and it’s easy! You’ll always know when to stop, when to go, when to say no, and when to say no. For more information on the skill of choosing refer to our time management book Attack Your Day! Before It Attacks You. Download the first two chapters.

Self-Delegation Is A Time Tactic Overlooked

We know delegating to others improves efficiency, but so does delegating to ourselves.

How do we delegate to ourselves?  Batch a bunch of like tasks that you would delegate to another if you could, such as processing mail, filing, or other busy work.  Schedule a specific time period to get it done and grind it out at that reserved time.  Make a game of it!  See how fast you can do it.  It’s amazing how much can be accomplished when we delegate to ourselves.

Time Management Quote: It’s not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is, what are we busy about? – Henry David Thoreau