To use a sports analogy, if you run with a ball on your own from point A to point B, it will take you longer than simply kicking it or throwing it to another person already at point B. We try to do too much on our own. Whether we want all the glory, think we can do it better, or simply just want it done, there is value in getting others involved. This chapter isn’t about dumping, or even
delegating. It’s about teamwork. Depending on your position, you may still have to supervise, validate the work, or make sure it gets done, but you should find opportunities to avoid doing everything on your own.

Think about the expertise you have surrounding you. Do you have the right people working on the right tasks? Start to keep a list of contacts with their specific expertise so that you can quickly
reference it. If you are part of a team effort, schedule time with your peers or co-workers, particularly if you’re all depending on each other’s contributions. The benefit of a routine get-together is that it allows people to obtain consolidated information in one sitting as opposed to communications going back and forth with “reply all” emails that can take up valuable time.

It’s important to have a meaningful and added-value manner for people to get updates. If it’s not a meeting, at least create a consistent time each week for a progress summary with everyone’s contributions. The goal is to create a routine in which people know when and where updates and answers will be given, which reduces surprises and questions like, “Where do we stand on project A?” If you do set up a progress report email, be sensitive to the amount of time it’s taking everyone. You want meaningful content, but not time wasted for emails that go unread or administrative tasks that take away from actually completing the real work.

Once a routine meeting or progress report is established, clearly define roles and responsibilities. This will hold people, including you, accountable to meeting the deadlines and keeping people informed of status updates. Knowing who is doing what and when is a critical component of time management.

When dealing in team situations, it’s also important to divide and conquer. Not everyone needs to be at every meeting. Have someone who attended the meeting provide an update and any key deliverables to the collective group. Also, it’s important for you to schedule actual work time for yourself and/or sub-group to ensure time is not all spent in meetings relating to what is being asked of you. As for meetings taking up all of your day, you have the right and obligation, whether you are the organizer or not, to question when meetings have run their course and are no longer valuable. Don’t have meetings to set up meetings. Look to get rid of time-wasting tasks.

Understand the importance of working as a team. A group of people can get more done in less time than one person if the process and roles are managed well. It is obvious, but is not always done effectively.

Thomas B. Dowd III’s books available in softcover, eBook, and audiobook (From Fear to Success only):

• Down the Chute: A Toboggan Tale (children’s book)
• Now What? The Ultimate Graduation Gift for Professional Success
• Time Management Manifesto: Expert Strategies to Create an Effective Work/Life Balance
• Displacement Day: When My Job was Looking for a Job…A Reference Guide to Finding Work
• The Transformation of a Doubting Thomas: Growing from a Cynic to a Professional in the Corporate World
• From Fear to Success: A Practical Public-speaking Guide received the Gold Medal at the 2013 Axiom Business Book Awards in Business Reference
• The Unofficial Guide to Fatherhood

See “Products” for details on www.transformationtom.com.  Book and eBook purchase options are also available on Amazon- Please click the link to be re-directed: Amazon.com

Investing time to do something ahead of time saves time. Few people invest the time to read all their emails all the way through. For the most part, I am one of the few. I’m often asked how I manage my time effectively. One critical way is that I don’t skim email—there’s too much risk of missing critical information or creating more work by asking questions that are answered within the text. I read them start to finish, including the attachments. The easy argument for why not to do this is information overload, or that we don’t have time. I agree. However, taken in the context of the touch-it-once principle I cited in the last chapter, this becomes more manageable.

I’ve learned that by staying ahead of my emails, I garner incremental time to invest in other places. I also avoid wasted time digging for answers on my own, because I know where and who to go to for information. If you don’t know, invest time to learn. It saves time when you know the go-to contacts to fix certain problems. Additionally, you aren’t wasting time asking people to resend information or asking questions that are answered later in the email that you chose not to read thoroughly.

Effective immediately, be the person who reads one-hundred percent of your emails from top to bottom, and invests time to read the attachments. There are often pre-determined assumptions that an email isn’t relevant, or even portions of an email aren’t relevant. However, reading it will allow you to make your own determination. If you find a pattern, you can decide to stop getting them or have a conversation with the senders about their messaging so it saves both of you time. Remember, you are attaining a competitive edge by gaining knowledge, while saving time because you may be becoming the subject-matter expert.

Next, you should schedule an hour once a week to learn another piece of your own business, take an online class, or meet with someone in another line of business. Another option is for you to dedicate this time to reading interesting articles or less urgent inbox items that come in during the week. You can insert the article right into the appointment for that dedicated time. This is your chance to be curious, learn from peers, and get lingering questions answered—all while saving future time.

When you become the go-to person and have the answers, you actually save time. We say we don’t have time. What we’re really saying is we’re not willing to find the time, to invest the time, to actually save time.

Thomas B. Dowd III’s books available in softcover, eBook, and audiobook (From Fear to Success only):

• Down the Chute: A Toboggan Tale (children’s book)
• Now What? The Ultimate Graduation Gift for Professional Success
• Time Management Manifesto: Expert Strategies to Create an Effective Work/Life Balance
• Displacement Day: When My Job was Looking for a Job…A Reference Guide to Finding Work
• The Transformation of a Doubting Thomas: Growing from a Cynic to a Professional in the Corporate World
• From Fear to Success: A Practical Public-speaking Guide received the Gold Medal at the 2013 Axiom Business Book Awards in Business Reference
• The Unofficial Guide to Fatherhood

See “Products” for details on www.transformationtom.com.  Book and eBook purchase options are also available on Amazon- Please click the link to be re-directed: Amazon.com

I would like to expand on the comment made in the previous blog about managing your email inbox. I used to have a position as
business support manager for a large operation. I was privy to my manager’s inbox and was asked to periodically manage it for him. I
thought it was an easy enough task—until the first time I saw his inbox and realized there were over one-thousand emails. Many were read,
while many others were not. Some were important, others were not. Some were critical, with deadlines that had passed. I had some work to
do. The most critical point when dealing with email is to touch it once. As soon as you’ve chosen to allow yourself to read it or even preview it,
you must now do something with it. Leaving it in your inbox should not be an option. Learn to touch it once.

You can effectively manage your inbox with a few easy tips. I normally filter my inbox by time with the most recent on top. However, for this
exercise, start by filtering your inbox by “Subject” and keep only the most recent one if it’s a duplicate. Next, review for topics, subjects, or senders that come on a regular basis that you don’t ever read. If you can or want to, click on unsubscribe. If you feel there may be a need to reference it in the future but don’t read it often, establish a setting to send it directly to your trash, but know that you can get to it if you need to. Next, go through your current inbox and determine which emails have tasks or follow-up required. Make actual dates to work on them. Make appointments for following through by embedding or inserting the email into the calendar appointment. Email platforms with synchronized calendars will have tutorials or help if you need further details.

Read your emails once. Even if the email catches my eye as a preview, I have a rule of thumb to deal with it as soon as it’s seen. It already distracted me, so I should put it in its proper place. We only have a few choices in how to handle it: delete it, save it to another file for future reference, move it to an appointment to do something about it later, or address it now. Touch it once.

Thomas B. Dowd III’s books available in softcover, eBook, and audiobook (From Fear to Success only):

• Down the Chute: A Toboggan Tale (children’s book)
• Now What? The Ultimate Graduation Gift for Professional Success
• Time Management Manifesto: Expert Strategies to Create an Effective Work/Life Balance
• Displacement Day: When My Job was Looking for a Job…A Reference Guide to Finding Work
• The Transformation of a Doubting Thomas: Growing from a Cynic to a Professional in the Corporate World
• From Fear to Success: A Practical Public-speaking Guide received the Gold Medal at the 2013 Axiom Business Book Awards in Business Reference
• The Unofficial Guide to Fatherhood

See “Products” for details on www.transformationtom.com.  Book and eBook purchase options are also available on Amazon- Please click the link to be re-directed: Amazon.com

As I continued to come up the ranks as a new manager, I constantly heard focus group feedback about how lack of follow-through by leaders and managers was a key point of frustration for teams of employees. Whether it was to solve a problem, answer a question, or do some customer research, it didn’t matter—the same managers’ names came up time and time again. They were building a reputation—and not a good one.

Communication and follow-up are extremely important. Your ability to follow up with employees, clients, or peers is one of the clearest indications of the effectiveness of your organizational skills. When people are continually apprised of your progress, assumptions disappear and stress is greatly reduced. Even if deadlines must be extended or your progress isn’t as far along as you’d hoped, your ability to communicate that clearly to all parties builds trust in the fact that movement is taking place.

Your online calendar should be a haven for follow-up appointments. As soon as you ask someone for something or they ask you for something by a certain date, your next inclination should be to immediately add it to your calendar. Then, the pressure is off of you to remember. Once you do this a few times, it will become second nature. Specific examples include calls to return or email responses. For email requests, many online calendars allow you to embed the actual email request into the calendar appointment itself. Now you’re beginning to manage your inbox volume.

An important point to consider is to schedule these follow-up deadlines and appointments before they are due. If you owe your manager a presentation by five o’clock p.m. on Thursday, the
appointment should not be seen for the first time at five o’clock on Thursday. You can use pop-up reminders or audible cues (alarms) if you are using an online calendar tool to your advantage. If you’re still using a written calendar, you can use color coding or symbols to address urgency or action needed.

Your calendar is an important proactive tool to manage your follow-up items—not just the due dates, but the actual time to work on them and provide periodic updates to the person making the request. Be the leader who gets things done. Build the confidence of your peers, colleagues, direct reports, clients, and business partners, and never have their confidence in your ability to effectively follow up questioned.

Thomas B. Dowd III’s books available in softcover, eBook, and audiobook (From Fear to Success only):

• Down the Chute: A Toboggan Tale (children’s book)
• Now What? The Ultimate Graduation Gift for Professional Success
• Time Management Manifesto: Expert Strategies to Create an Effective Work/Life Balance
• Displacement Day: When My Job was Looking for a Job…A Reference Guide to Finding Work
• The Transformation of a Doubting Thomas: Growing from a Cynic to a Professional in the Corporate World
• From Fear to Success: A Practical Public-speaking Guide received the Gold Medal at the 2013 Axiom Business Book Awards in Business Reference
• The Unofficial Guide to Fatherhood

See “Products” for details on www.transformationtom.com.  Book and eBook purchase options are also available on Amazon- Please click the link to be re-directed: Amazon.com

When I managed people in a call center, I used to like walking the floor at least once in the morning and once before I left for the day in order to talk with the employees. I often wondered where the time went in the day, and why there were times when I wasn’t getting everything done I wanted to. I knew the
people doing the hard work deserved my time, but I didn’t know how I could continue to balance it. My peers were getting feedback that their employees never saw them, so I knew I was doing the right thing, but I didn’t want my other work to suffer.

Then, I thought back to my own advice about blocking off time on the calendar. It was a lesson I’d been trying to teach others, and yet had completely missed the fact that it was the solution to my own problem! Although I could typically walk the floor in fifteen minutes, it wasn’t on my calendar. I instantly scheduled thirty minutes to start the day and thirty minutes to finish the day, for walking the floor. I built in double the time to allow for extended conversations, problem solving, or getting caught in the hall with someone who wanted to share a lengthy story. As I started to figure out actual timing, I adjusted it down and input a middle-of-the-day walk, too. I was actually more efficient because I knew a calendar reminder would pop up—and over time, I knew it was coming and became better able to focus on my current tasks and meet all of my goals.

Do you account for everything you do in a day? Take the time to list out ancillary pieces that you may not have typically added to your calendar and add them. Some examples may include:

• Walking around/time not at your desk (e.g., water cooler or
even a restroom break)
• Running into people in the hall/casual conversations with peers

Although you may not schedule these events, they do take your time. These previously unscheduled items can now be add-ons to the previously noted administrative block of time we discussed earlier. Have you accounted for this time? Using the blanket blocking of the time will allow you to know that time is still being taken up. All of the efforts to account for time are about knowing what is taking up your time each day. That knowledge is a powerful thing, because it will ease the pressure you feel on yourself; if it’s not done, it’s not the end of the world. However, as you become more productive, you’ll start to see more wins and sustained efficiency. In addition, on many calendar applications—Microsoft Outlook, Instant Messenger, and Skype, for example—those blocks of time you’ve set aside will show your peers that you are “busy,” thus keeping requests for your time in check.

Thomas B. Dowd III’s books available in softcover, eBook, and audiobook (From Fear to Success only):

• Down the Chute: A Toboggan Tale (children’s book)
• Now What? The Ultimate Graduation Gift for Professional Success
• Time Management Manifesto: Expert Strategies to Create an Effective Work/Life Balance
• Displacement Day: When My Job was Looking for a Job…A Reference Guide to Finding Work
• The Transformation of a Doubting Thomas: Growing from a Cynic to a Professional in the Corporate World
• From Fear to Success: A Practical Public-speaking Guide received the Gold Medal at the 2013 Axiom Business Book Awards in Business Reference
• The Unofficial Guide to Fatherhood

See “Products” for details on www.transformationtom.com.  Book and eBook purchase options are also available on Amazon- Please click the link to be re-directed: Amazon.com

Are you the eager employee who volunteers for everything that comes your way in an attempt to advance within your organization? What is your confidence level when your boss or your boss’s boss gives you an assignment when your plate is full? I remember working for an individual who was driving me hard. I made every effort to keep my tasks organized, so I maintained a spreadsheet. I had a column that noted all of my deadlines. Some were manager-assigned,
while many were self-initiated, aggressive dates to work toward. I wanted to do everything possible to push myself and prove my worth. One day, I was providing an update to my manager, so I showed him the spreadsheet. Although thirty-seven of the forty items were on pace to be achieved on time, he focused on the three that were past due. The three that were past due were my own deadlines missed. Unfortunately, he held them over my head for quite some time.

I learned a valuable lesson that day: We must be realistic with our timeframes, regardless of how badly we want to meet them. We should continue to drive our work and not sandbag our deliverables, but we must balance it with everything we’re doing. In our efforts to be “gogetters,” we may actually be casting a negative shadow if we don’t accomplish everything we said we would by the given timeframes.

Think back to the times when you were a go-getter and found some commitments not being fulfilled. Effective immediately, I want you to begin to under-promise and over-deliver. You shouldn’t tell the boss that it will be done by five o’clock p.m. because you hope it will be done. You should tell the boss when you know it will be done. If five p.m. isn’t the right timing, you should be honest and tell the boss when the realistic right time is, or invest time to reprioritize other tasks. If you haven’t established a strong enough relationship to do this, you may want to begin to build the trust and respect required to have those prioritization discussions. By under-promising and overdelivering, you’ll start to find appropriate times to hand work in early, beat deadlines, and often times start taking on more responsibilities. It’s ironic how easy it is to stop being a go-getter and actually go out and get more done when you are real with your deadlines.

Thomas B. Dowd III’s books available in softcover, eBook, and audiobook (From Fear to Success only):

• Down the Chute: A Toboggan Tale (children’s book)
• Now What? The Ultimate Graduation Gift for Professional Success
• Time Management Manifesto: Expert Strategies to Create an Effective Work/Life Balance
• Displacement Day: When My Job was Looking for a Job…A Reference Guide to Finding Work
• The Transformation of a Doubting Thomas: Growing from a Cynic to a Professional in the Corporate World
• From Fear to Success: A Practical Public-speaking Guide received the Gold Medal at the 2013 Axiom Business Book Awards in Business Reference
• The Unofficial Guide to Fatherhood

See “Products” for details on www.transformationtom.com.  Book and eBook purchase options are also available on Amazon- Please click the link to be re-directed: Amazon.com

I used to lie in bed and roll around with constant thoughts in my head: What do I have to do tomorrow? On no! Look at the clock. Tomorrow is now today. I would get ideas in my head, and keep kicking those ideas around to enable myself to remember them in the morning, thus sleeping poorly and often not even remembering it anyway. One of the greatest time management tips I can offer is a simple pad of paper at your nightstand. I’m now in the habit of waking up when I have an idea—most times I’m groggy, but it’s now ingrained in me to immediately write it down. I then drift off for the best night sleep ever, knowing that my ideas or follow-up items are waiting for me when I wake up for the new day.

Grab a pad of paper and a pen, put it next to your nightstand, and simply wait for the ideas to flow. When random thoughts wake you, write them down immediately. This has numerous benefits. First, you won’t forget. Second, you’ll sleep better. Finally—and the greatest benefit of all—you will have stronger ideas since you have reached the inner non-stressed part of your brain.

Thomas B. Dowd III’s books available in softcover, eBook, and audiobook (From Fear to Success only):

• Down the Chute: A Toboggan Tale (children’s book)
• Now What? The Ultimate Graduation Gift for Professional Success
• Time Management Manifesto: Expert Strategies to Create an Effective Work/Life Balance
• Displacement Day: When My Job was Looking for a Job…A Reference Guide to Finding Work
• The Transformation of a Doubting Thomas: Growing from a Cynic to a Professional in the Corporate World
• From Fear to Success: A Practical Public-speaking Guide received the Gold Medal at the 2013 Axiom Business Book Awards in Business Reference
• The Unofficial Guide to Fatherhood

See “Products” for details on www.transformationtom.com.  Book and eBook purchase options are also available on Amazon- Please click the link to be re-directed: Amazon.com

I come into work each day and the first thing I do is read a passage from the most impactful book I ever read: “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff”, by Dr. Richard Carlson. Why? In addition to doing it as an inspiration boost each day, I do it because my calendar tells me to do it. It’s been on my calendar for over ten years, and it pops up every morning at seven a.m. Naturally after all these years, I barely see it, because it’s so ingrained to do it—but it gets done. I’m not curing the world of its ills with this task, but it shows that building the right habits will lead to stronger time management. More importantly, it’s a great lesson: You don’t have to think about what has to be done next if your calendar can do it for you. My calendar is filled with what many would consider silly reminders—but I also have far less stress because I know what’s coming. Without even thinking, I get gently reminded to
transition work and tasks.

Create your own recurring appointments. Invest time today to study your schedule and start to add basic appointments immediately. You can start with the ones that should be on everyone’s calendar, regardless of position or role in an organization; the tasks that have nothing to do with your actual job responsibilities. First, add a five-minute
appointment at the end of each work day to review and organize tomorrow. Actually schedule this event at the end of the day on the calendar. I promise you that you will sleep better knowing exactly what’s on your plate for the next day. Five invested minutes will save you hours later!

Next, add an appointment to organize the following week each Friday—project out a week at a time and actually schedule this event on your calendar. Do the same thing at the end of each month
based on regular monthly tasks, such as budgeting, for example. It’s important to also be smart about when you do this. When I say end of the month, I’m not talking about the thirtieth. I’m actually thinking sometime around the twenty-sixth, so day one isn’t sprung on you. This allows you to better spread out the tasks over the course of a month versus cramming everything into marathon sessions. Many of us like to procrastinate until the actual need to do something. Therefore, if you have multiple tasks that are due at the end of the month, you may not worry about them until the end of the month. Suddenly, a flood of pressure is on you to beat the impending deadline. Be someone who does not procrastinate until the end of the month—spread your tasks
out during the month. The amount of time to complete these tasks throughout the month is the same time it will take to finish at the end of a month. The only difference is the amount of pressure you feel—and, most likely, the quality of work performed!

By creating recurring appointments, you’re shifting much of the self-created pressures away from you to the calendar, and investing time to save time. You’re now using your calendar as a tool to benefit you.

Thomas B. Dowd III’s books available in softcover, eBook, and audiobook (From Fear to Success only):

• Down the Chute: A Toboggan Tale (children’s book)
• Now What? The Ultimate Graduation Gift for Professional Success
• Time Management Manifesto: Expert Strategies to Create an Effective Work/Life Balance
• Displacement Day: When My Job was Looking for a Job…A Reference Guide to Finding Work
• The Transformation of a Doubting Thomas: Growing from a Cynic to a Professional in the Corporate World
• From Fear to Success: A Practical Public-speaking Guide received the Gold Medal at the 2013 Axiom Business Book Awards in Business Reference
• The Unofficial Guide to Fatherhood

See “Products” for details on www.transformationtom.com.  Book and eBook purchase options are also available on Amazon- Please click the link to be re-directed: Amazon.com

I was once in the middle of transitioning roles, so I met with the person whose job I would be taking over. I asked for a task list so I could get started. He handed me two. The first was a short list; the other was a much longer list, which included all the items from the first as well as several others. I asked him about the difference. He said the short list was the least amount of work he could do in a day and walk out of the office satisfied knowing that all critical items had been met. Since that day, I’ve managed around the concept of the “least amount of work I can do in a day.”

You see, many of us think in terms of the longer list, creating high levels of stress when we don’t accomplish everything. We, in turn, push our work from day to day like we used to push our vegetables on our plates as kids. We push it around but does it ever get consumed—or in this case, done?

Create your must-do short list, including what must be done during the day, the week, and the month. What is the least amount of work that can be done with you walking out satisfied that the job was done? The list can be ever evolving and reviewed regularly to ensure it remains updated. As you continue to massage the short checklist, you should
block off the time to do each item by using your calendar as a tool to reserve time for this must-do list. Even if you don’t have a designated time for these tasks, block off the amount of time anyway, as a way of acknowledging that they must be done at some point in the day.

For example, you know you need to do an hour of project work over several days. You may schedule it for two hours from ten a.m. to noon, but you can build in the flexibility to move this block of time through the day if something else comes up. Yes, I doubled the time, because if you don’t do it today, the work still needs to be done and you’ve just pushed twice as much work to tomorrow. I recommend that you double all the time you expect things to take. The concept of doubling time is important. If you want to think you need thirty minutes to meet with someone, set the actual appointment for sixty minutes. As stated in the last chapter, expect the unexpected.

Instead of pushing tasks day to day—which actually takes time—start to use the extra time that you build into your calendar to pull in tasks from future days, weeks, and even months out. You must understand that consistently pushing to another day is a red flag. When you can account for the least amount of work that you can do in a day and consider yourself successful, you will walk away satisfied and benefit greatly from the power of the pull versus the push.

Thomas B. Dowd III’s books available in softcover, eBook, and audiobook (From Fear to Success only):

• Down the Chute: A Toboggan Tale (children’s book)
• Now What? The Ultimate Graduation Gift for Professional Success
• Time Management Manifesto: Expert Strategies to Create an Effective Work/Life Balance
• Displacement Day: When My Job was Looking for a Job…A Reference Guide to Finding Work
• The Transformation of a Doubting Thomas: Growing from a Cynic to a Professional in the Corporate World
• From Fear to Success: A Practical Public-speaking Guide received the Gold Medal at the 2013 Axiom Business Book Awards in Business Reference
• The Unofficial Guide to Fatherhood

See “Products” for details on www.transformationtom.com.  Book and eBook purchase options are also available on Amazon- Please click the link to be re-directed: Amazon.com

Have you ever been deep in thought or just hit your stride on a project only to have it snatched away with a phone call, an incoming email that you caught from the corner of your eye, or worse, a loud ding from a device you’re working with? Research has proven that it will take you up to seven times longer to come up with the thought you just had than it took for the original idea.

You must build in time for the unexpected—or as the business world affectionately calls them, fire drills. In an article entitled “Don’t Let Technology Take Over,” Dave Beck references a Basex study of over one-thousand office workers showing that interruptions consume more than two hours, or twenty-eight percent of a typical workday. To quote the article, “More than half of those surveyed said they open email immediately or soon after it arrives, no matter how busy they are. The two hours of lost productivity included not only unimportant interruptions and distractions…but also the recovery time needed to get back on task. The study found that based on an average salary of $21 per hour for ‘knowledge workers’ whose jobs involve information, workplace
interruptions cost the U.S. economy $588 billion a year.”

Have you accounted for these two hours in your calendar? Have you trained yourself to jump in to actually deal with these interruptions? Think about how you schedule your day. If you schedule all eight hours in a work day, you are guaranteed to not meet everything that’s on your calendar. Look at your schedule for the coming week and start to block off time to account for fire drills—the things you didn’t plan on dealing with today, but have no choice. Maybe the few minutes here and there don’t need to make your calendar to deal with those small tasks, but you may need to account for it in other administrative or work action time. For example, if it takes you thirty minutes to typically do paperwork daily, schedule an hour for administrative purposes. Next, it’s time to schedule specific time for real-work action like responding to emails and returning messages. Personally, I prefer the quiet morning time for email and later in the morning for phone calls, when possible. Next, identify other x-factors such as busier days of the week or seasonality, and make the adjustments. As another example, when I was a manager in a call center, we knew the call volume was heaviest on Mondays, so we built time for managers to be on the floor with the people on the phones that day, and made a point not to schedule Monday staff meetings.

You may be asking yourself, “Why does scheduling stuff I know I need to do each day need to make my calendar?” You probably already know that if you don’t schedule it, it may not get done. Having the actual reminder will prompt you to get to it. These scheduled periods of time become a barrier of protection to show you what’s supposed to be done today. The phrase supposed to is italicized because we know that planning a day doesn’t always mean that’s how the day will play out. By scheduling administrative work and overestimating the expected time, you are leaving a fire drill cushion.

You can’t control all the interruptions that may come your way, but you can control your reaction to them. You don’t want to be a slave to your calendar, but you do want to be committed to it when you can. Let’s go back to the paperwork example. If you actually completed it in the expected time of thirty minutes and had no interruptions, you bought yourself some extra time to pull future work in from other days. If you did have some fire drills to deal with, you accounted for much of this with the reserved blocks of time.

Thomas B. Dowd III’s books available in softcover, eBook, and audiobook (From Fear to Success only):

• Down the Chute: A Toboggan Tale (children’s book)
• Now What? The Ultimate Graduation Gift for Professional Success
• Time Management Manifesto: Expert Strategies to Create an Effective Work/Life Balance
• Displacement Day: When My Job was Looking for a Job…A Reference Guide to Finding Work
• The Transformation of a Doubting Thomas: Growing from a Cynic to a Professional in the Corporate World
• From Fear to Success: A Practical Public-speaking Guide received the Gold Medal at the 2013 Axiom Business Book Awards in Business Reference
• The Unofficial Guide to Fatherhood

See “Products” for details on www.transformationtom.com.  Book and eBook purchase options are also available on Amazon- Please click the link to be re-directed: Amazon.com