The Eleven Time Thieves
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Dr. Donald E. Wetmore ( “Time Thieves: The 11 Biggest Time-wasters Revealed”) lists out
the eleven ‘inconsiderate troupe’ of eleven thieves that gang up to steal some of the precious
time away from productive use of managers.
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1. Poor Planning: Failure to see the value of planning and getting impatient to get
something done are the causes of poor planning. Absence of a plan of action is likely to
trigger off a false start, resulting in unproductive time utilization on the critical path of the
task being undertaken. Consequently, the managers might not find enough time for
completing the task.
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2. Crisis Management: Most often, crisis management is an offspring of lack of
prioritization of tasks. As a result of the inability to distinguish between the urgent, the
important and the unnecessary tasks, unimportant tasks are likely to get done first at the
cost of important tasks. Consequently, the managers are not likely to find enough time to
get around to the important things.
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3. Procrastination: It is easy to put off tasks if they are not due right away. The trouble is,
tasks pile up and can force managers to run into a time crunch later. Procrastination is
generally triggered off by the fear of failure / success, perfectionism, wanting to do it all or
incorrect priorities. It is a virtue to want to do a good job. But some people become so
anxious about getting a job done perfectly that they never complete it. Managers should
examine whether their efforts to get the job done perfectly are really improving things or
preventing them from getting the job done.
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4. Interruptions: Interruptions and distractions arise due to lack of planning, poor
concentration and lack of control over environment. They are unnecessary thieves of a
manager’s time and come in many forms – drop-in visitors, telephones, e-mails
unscheduled meetings, poor communications and confused chain of authority etc. Managers
should be less willing to automatically give away their time just because they demand it.
They should learn to avoid distractions if they are to get work done. They should work in
areas where they are less likely to be disturbed and tell people when they are busy and
cannot be disturbed.
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5. Not Delegating: Wanting-to-do-all by oneself is yet another thief that could let the
managers lose control. They feel that employees can never do anything as well as they
can. They fear that something will go wrong if someone else takes over a job. They lack
time for long-range planning because they are bogged down in day-to-day operations.
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6. Unnecessary Meetings: If a meeting is held without a specific agenda and nothing
productive comes out of it, clearly that meeting was unnecessary. Obviously, such meetings
are thieves as the time is wasted and things just do not get started.
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7. The “shuffling blues”: Managers often waste much time because of disorganization.
Keeping things that they need in a specific place, eliminating clutter, making sure that they
have all the materials or information that they need before starting on the task and following
a day-planner or schedule will help keep the ‘shuffling blues’ away at the work place.
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8. Poor Physical Setup: Not having the things that the managers need frequently within
easy reach and having a lot of the things that they seldom require close-by results in wastage
of a lot of time, wearing out the carpet, retrieving what they frequently need. And of course,
as they pass others they will often pull them aside to steal some of their time.
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9.Poor Networking: Quality relationships with employees and others can be a substantial
time-saver as they open doors for the managers with all kinds of opportunities. Failing to
develop a good network base will cause them to waste time creating what they might have
had through their network.
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10.Bad Attitude: Nothing sinks a day more effectively than having a poor attitude. It
causes the managers to dwell on the problems and not the solutions and makes it possible
to throw the day away. When they are burdening others with their problems and complaints
they are forfeiting their valuable time.
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11. Negative People: Being surrounded by negative people could mean the managers
are spending a lot of their time listening to them but getting nothing much or purposeful
from them. Obviously, avoiding such people will help the managers to minimize wasted
hours and get some of their productive time back.
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