Summary

Can't say no? Reluctant to delegate? Information overload?More and more people today are finding their time clogged up with endless activities and responsibilities, and their work lives spinning out of control. No matter how hard they try to get things done...there's never enough time!Now practical, realistic solutions to the problem are spelled out clearly and concisely in this new edition of the classic book on time management.The Time Trap shows readers how to squeeze the optimal efficiency--and satisfaction--out of their workday. Based on decades of research with businesspeople around the world, The Time Trap is filled with smart tactics, hard-hitting interviews, and handy time management tools. With a half million copies sold in previous editions, it's the most popular time management toolkit available.

Author Biography

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 (978-08144-7025-1). A corporate trainer, she

has trained more than 180,000 managers and professionals in time management.

Preface
Acknowledgments
Time Management for the Twenty-First Century
Why Time Still Baffles the Best of Us
Time Traps We've Been Taught
How to Connect Goals, Objectives, and Priorities
How to Set Priorities and Hold Them
How to Tame the Time Log
The New Time Traps and Escapes
Management by Crisis
Inadequate Planning
Inability to Say No
Poor Communication
Poorly Run Meetings
The World Gone Virtual
E-Mail Mania
The Untamed Telephone
Information Overload and the Paper Chase
Confused Responsibility and Authority
Poor Delegation and Training
Procrastination and Leaving Tasks Unfinished
Socializing and Drop-In Visitors
Attempting Too Much
Parting Advice
Life Lessons in Time Management
Where Do We Go from Here?
Quick Solutions Summaries for the New Time Traps
Trap 1
Inadequate Planning
Inability to Say No
Communication
Poorly Run Meetings
The World Gone Virtual
E-Mail Mania
The Untamed Telephone
Incomplete Information and the Paper Chase
Confused Responsibility and Authority
Poor Delegation and Training
Procrastination and Leaving Tasks Unfinished
Socializing and Drop-In Visitors
Attempting Too Much
Index
Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.

Supplemental Materials

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Excerpts

PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION ACKNOWLEDGING ALEC MACKENZIE When AMACOM Senior Editor Jacquie Flynn invited me to write this new edition of The Time Trap, I felt honored to help keep Alec Mackenzie’s groundbreaking ideas current. A longtime hero to me, Alec was instrumental in the early success of EBI, Inc., our family-held training company— though he didn’t know it until years later. Why The Time Trap Inspired Us In our first decade in business, based in London, our company came up against stiff competition from the hundreds of organizations flooding the hungry training market there. Our edge? We were marketing the best of American engineering know-how at a time when the British government had mandated training for engineers. But very soon, political upheaval in Britain caused wildcat strikes that shut down electric power for weeks on end. The next year, the gas industry went out—then the railways. Finally, the Post Office shut down for more than three months, cutting off both direct mail and telephone service— isolating every business in those days before smartphones and laptops. These catastrophes shook everyone . . . our customers, our competitors, ourselves. Working like demons whenever we could get power for lights and office machinery, we used newspaper ads instead of direct mail advertising. Like every business, we labored to stay afloat. In our own case, forced by circumstance, we opened EBI partnerships in other European countries— not part of our original plan at all. Those excellent partners taught us that a crisis can sometimes hide a blessing. During those challenging times, we read Alec Mackenzie’s first edition of The Time Trap. It gave us new energy, new ideas, new tools and, above all, encouragement to persevere. Recovery took us five years; success took eight. Thanking Alec Mackenzie “Live” Well into recovery, with our business going steady at last, my husband and I traveled to Schenectady, New York, to attend a Mackenzie seminar on Team Time Management. Walking across the campus with Alec that day, we thanked him warmly for the helpful influence he had long been in our lives. He was modest and unassuming in accepting our thanks. In person, as in his books and seminars, he stayed totally focused on helping all of us escape from our time traps. To influence so many, so well, he drew on his deep ethical sense for answers that were as pertinent then as they will always be. MANY VOICES In this edition, when you read suggestions from “us,” or when “we” tell war stories and offer solutions, the messages will be coming from both Alec Mackenzie and me. For this new edition, you’ll also glean ideas from dozens of managers and specialists from every walk of business who have escaped their time traps. Of course, you are invited to interact, too, by sending questions and your own ideas for future editions to us at timetamer@sbcglobal.net. HOW TO USE THIS EDITION This is a not a book of light reading hints. Many people tell us they have tried for years to apply “helpful hints” gathered from here and there, only to find themselves ensnared again—out of time, out of resources, drowning in a flood of demands. With that in mind, the opening chapters help you focus first on those human habits that sabotage everyone’s best efforts. If you can examine your day-to-day work habits with some humor and compassion, you’ll construct a more dependable escape from whatever practices are keeping you ensnared. Why We Stay Trapped In Part I we unravel the tangled pressures that drive us—the many demands imposed by our culture, our workplace, and ourselves. If you read these five chapters thoughtfully, you’ll derive a uniquely personal view and build a more reliable exit strategy. 1. Why Time Still Baffles the Best of Us 2. Time Traps We’ve Been Taught 3. How to Connect Goals, Objectives, Priorities 4. How to Set Priorities and Hold