T I m e m a n a g e m e n t

Stand Up Immediately
To minimize the time cost of unexpected interruptions,
when someone comes into your office, stand up and
approach the other person saying something like, “I was just
on my way out. What can I do for you?”
Then, you walk with the person out of your office and
back into the hallway, talking and listening. When the person
has finished talking, you then let him go back to his work,
and you return to your office and your work.
Another technique is to take outside visitors to a separate
meeting room rather than bringing them into your office.
Then, you politely set a time limit at the beginning of the
discussion by saying something such as, “I have an impor-
tant call coming in from our agent in London at exactly 3:15.
I can’t get out of that appointment. I’m sure we can cover
everything we need to cover by that time.”
In his book The Effective Executive, Peter Drucker makes
the point that not only do people waste your time, but you
waste the time of other people. He suggests that you have
the courage to go and ask other people, “What do I do that
wastes your time?” When you invite people to be perfectly
honest with you in answering this question, you will be quite
amazed at the ideas you’ll hear to help increase their effi-
ciency and effectiveness, and your own as well.
C O N T R O L I N T E R R U P T I O N S
77
American Management Association / www.amanet.org

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Batch Your Tasks
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B AT C H I N G Y O U R
tasks simply means doing similar things
at the same time. There’s a “learning curve” in everything
you do. When you complete a series of similar or identical
tasks all in a row, the learning curve allows you to reduce the
time required to complete each task by as much as 80 per-
cent by the time you complete the fifth identical task. 
For example, in writing letters and correspondence or
answering e-mail, you bundle them all together and do
them at the same time. 
You batch your telephone calls and return them all in a
row. If you have to interview a number of people, interview
them consecutively, one after another. Do all your similar
tasks at the same time rather than doing a little bit now and
a little bit later.
American Management Association / www.amanet.org

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