The Time Trap has shown countless readers how to squeeze the optimal efficiency--and satisfaction--out of their work day.
This much-needed guide provides the quick solutions you need be more effective with your time and avoid and escape the so-called “time savers” that don’t really work. Backed by decades of research with businesspeople around the world, authors Pat Nickerson and Alec Mackenzie explain how to:
- set realistic goals and make commitments they can keep;
- juggle multiple demands;
- estimate time needed on new tasks;
- pinpoint and combat the most tenacious time wasters;
- protect priorities;
- and upgrade personal productivity for professional success.
Plus, the fourth edition has been extensively revised to include technology-based solutions to the challenges and opportunities we all face in the virtual world.
Filled with smart tactics, revealing interviews, and handy time management tools, The Time Trap is your go-to resource for leveraging twenty-first century opportunities and overcoming challenges to maximizing your work time.
Table of Contents:
CONTENTS
Preface
Acknowledgments
PART ONE
Time Management for the Twenty-First Century
1 Why Time Still Baffles the Best of Us
2 Time Traps We’ve Been Taught
3 How to Connect Goals, Objectives, and Priorities
4 How to Set Priorities and Hold Them
5 How to Tame the Time Log
PART TWO
The New Time Traps and Escapes
6 Management by Crisis
7 Inadequate Planning
8 Inability to Say No
9 Poor Communication
10 Poorly Run Meetings
11 The World Gone Virtual
12 E-Mail Mania
13 The Untamed Telephone
14 Information Overload and the Paper Chase
15 Confused Responsibility and Authority
16 Poor Delegation and Training
17 Procrastination and Leaving Tasks Unfinished
18 Socializing and Drop-In Visitors
19 Attempting Too Much
PART THREE
Parting Advice
20 Life Lessons in Time Management
21 Where Do We Go from Here?
PART FOUR
Quick Solutions Summaries for the New Time Traps
Trap 1: Management By Crisis
Trap 2: Inadequate Planning
Trap 3: Inability to Say No
Trap 4: Communication
Trap 5: Poorly Run Meetings
Trap 6: The World Gone Virtual
Trap 7: E-Mail Mania
Trap 8: The Untamed Telephone
Trap 9: Incomplete Information and the Paper Chase
Trap 10: Confused Responsibility and Authority
Trap 11: Poor Delegation and Training
Trap 12: Procrastination and Leaving Tasks Unfinished
Trap 13: Socializing and Drop-In Visitors
Trap 14: Attempting Too Much
Index
About the Author :
Alec Mackenzie was an internationally known speaker, consultant, and expert on time management. Pat Nickerson (San Diego, CA), founder and president of EBI, Inc., is the author of Managing Multiple Bosses. A corporate trainer, she has trained more than 180,000 managers and professionals in time management.
