5 Time Management Errors Executives Should Avoid

5 TIME MANAGEMENT ERRORS EXECUTIVES SHOULD AVOID

By: Dr. Donald E. Wetmore

Executives experience the “Time Management Crunch” as often, if not more often, than others in the workplace. In my eighteen years of conducting Time Management Seminars and individual executive coaching, I created this list of the “5 Time Management Errors Executives Should Avoid”, a handy quick reference of what “not” to do. As I have shared this list with executives throughout the world, many have told me that they already knew them but for the most part, were not practicing some or all of what they knew. “Knowing and not doing is no better than not knowing.”

If you would like to decrease your chances of career success, practice the following:

1. DON’T DELEGATE. “This is too important. Better let me do it.” “By the time I show them how to do it, I could just as quickly get it done myself.” Some have this misconception about their indispensability. The graveyards are filled with indispensable people. If you are truly the only one who can do it, then how do you advance beyond where you are now? And taking the time to show someone how to do something may well be more costly than what it would take for you to do it. But, if done correctly, it will pay repetitive dividends.

2. DON’T SPEND YOUR TIME ON INDEPENDENT READING. The rules just a few years ago were, “learn a profession, and acquire the skills to do it, then use that throughout your career. Today, the rule is, “if you (and I) continue to do what we do, the way we have always done it, then, within the next five years, we will be obsolete. The world is changing rapidly. There is no more standing on the knowledge of the past. We have to take time currently and on a regular basis to stay ahead of the flood of ideas and information. There is no more standing still.

3. TAKE THE SHORT TERM VIEW. Do what makes you look good now, for this week or this quarter’s results. Ignore the impact of your current actions and decisions on the long-term potential. Every action and every decision we take is like a stone thrown in the pond. The impact creates two results, the immediate splash and the ripple effects that reach all the shores. Be always conscious of the long-term effect caused by the actions and decisions that you are making or are failing to make.

4. GET OUT OF BALANCE. Our lives are made up of Seven Vital Areas. They include health, family, financial, intellectual, social, professional, and spiritual areas. Like a seven-legged table, if one leg is too long, it causes the entire table to wobble. As we advance in our careers, it is easy to get out of balance, then divorce, health problems, and an empty lack of internal satisfaction rob us of the achievements we have made.

5. DON’T BE CONSIDERATE OF OTHERS. More than a “touchy-feely” good deed, better than 50% of one’s success in life is dependent upon the good cooperation of other people. If you don’t have the good cooperation of other people, you can reach a level of success, for sure. But you will never know what you did not have. You will never know of the networking opportunities, the social opportunities, and the business opportunities that were never shared with you, not because you should not have received them, but because those who might have shared them with you did not have a level of positive feeling toward you to go out of their way and give them to you.

Want more? I have prepared the “5 BEST TIME MANAGEMENT HABITS EXECUTIVES SHOULD PRACTICE”. It’s yours for the asking. email your request for: “habits” to: ctsem@msn.com.

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Dr. Donald E. Wetmore
Professional Speaker
Productivity Institute
Time Management Seminars
127 Jefferson St.
Stratford, CT 06615
(203) 386-8062 (800) 969-3773
Email: ctsem@msn.com
Visit Our Time Management Supersite: http://www.balancetime.com


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Copyright 1999 You may re-print the above information in its entirety in your publication, newsletter, or on your webpage. For permission, please email your request for “reprint” to: ctsem@msn.com