Beware of the "Time Bullies"
When you have deadlines ahead of you and projects to move forward, your time is a precious commodity. Protect it. Time is a finite resource, you only have so much of it. Yet there are time bullies out there ready to steal and impinge on your time.
How do you combat those time bullies? Use the most powerful word in the English language is the word, NO.
To protect yourself from the time bullies that seek to steal your time, focus and energy, you need to say no more often.
Saying “No” reflects the power of your agency. It allows you to act and not feel as if you are merely being acted upon.
Saying “No” to the time bullies protects your schedule so that you have time to focus on your own work. It is being proactive and not reactive. Saying “No” allows you to be true to our strategic priorities and not simply surrender to those things that yell the loudest for your attention.
The Biggest TIME BULLY
Email.
Email is the biggest time bully. Email seeks to hijack your schedule. The email that stacks up in your inbox is waiting to rob you of your time. If you are always responding to emails as soon as they hit your inbox, you allowing and giving permission to the senders to write on your todo list. They are now controlling your time and the agenda.
How do you beat back the email time bully and say NO?
Turn off email notifications, bells, and pop-ups. You don’t have to be reminded every second when a new email comes into your inbox.
Don’t keep your email client open throughout the entire day. It is too tempting to always be checking email for that quick dopamine hit.
Open your email client and respond to emails only during certain times of the day.
Let people know through an auto-response that you are responding to emails at certain times of the day - people expect from by how we train them, and if we are always responding instantly to email, they will expect an instant response. You and I need to change that expectation.
Don’t check email first thing in the morning. It is too easy for email to hijack your entire day. Check it after an hour or two and you’ve had the chance to work and focus on that big project.
Don’t store emails in your inbox. Your inbox is a place for action and then get rid of it. What will you do with that email? Respond? Delete? Delay? Delegate? You don’t want to be re-reading it and staring at it every time you go into your inbox. Act on it and get rid of it.
Don’t let the time bullies, especially email, steal your most precious commodity.