Most leadership development training includes courses on time management. And if you’re like most people, you eagerly browse through your To-Do list during your first morning coffee with the excitement of the impending sense of accomplishment; the rewarding time to check off completed tasks. Unfortunately, hindrances arise that prevent you from taking that final step. There are three key factors that can encumber your productivity and ultimately prevent you from achieving your goals:

1. Interruptions
2. Procrastination
3. Lack of team member or management cooperation

This article will provide you with some methods of overcoming some of these obstacles to make you more productive at the office and maybe even at home.

Dealing with Interruptions

Interruptions by others can be productivity killers! Part of human nature is to help others in need and interruptions signal the response in us to drop what we’re doing and help. The bad news is that we’ll never be able to completely prevent interruptions in our day. The good news is that by practicing some of the following helpful suggestions, you’ll be able to minimize the impact interruptions have on your efficiency.

• Avoid the temptation to “manage by crisis”. An actual crisis is a disruption in a normal routine that is both unexpected and requires immediate attention. Alec Mackenzie, author of Time Trap, offers some helpful advice in crisis management.
  1. Determine whether or not the situation is a true crisis or if the problem can wait.
  2. Develop your contingency plan. By nature, a crisis is unpredictable, but by taking certain steps, the effects of a crisis can be minimized. Try to head of the crisis at the pass by training yourself to foresee its possibility – ask yourself “what could go wrong?” and plan accordingly.
  3. Build extra time cushions into your day that give you time to respond to events that arise unexpectedly.
• Schedule meetings in advance and prepare for them. Make sure to properly prioritize your tasks along with those of others.
• Schedule your interruptions by offering “office hours” for a time of day when other team members are free to discuss issues with you.
• Better manage your phone calls. Mackenzie offers a few tips:
  1. Screen your calls. Then return calls when it better fits into your schedule.
  2. If you have an assistant, set rules for calls that come through. For example, “urgent calls”, like family emergencies, important clients, bosses, and company VIPs should be put through right away. Non-urgent calls go to voicemail or are handled by your assistant.
  3. If you don’t have the luxury of an assistant, utilize voicemail or make arrangements with other co-workers to cover the phones in shifts.
  4. Keep your phone conversations to a specific time limit. If further discussion is required, try to schedule a separate meeting either by phone or in person.
• Clearly and concisely delegate authority. Workplace productivity expert and author Dale Collie notes that “Many interruptions are the result of staff members’ uncertainty of their authority to make decisions.” Clearly defining authority parameters for your staff will reduce their need to constantly seek your approval. Instead, they’ll only come to when they truly need your advice.

Avoiding Procrastination

We procrastinate for a number of reasons, tasks seem too difficult, too menial, or too unpleasant are a few. Jim Canterucci, author of Personal Brilliance, points out a few simple steps to help overcome procrastination:

1. Take a few moments to jot down a few notes about the tasks, projects or action steps you’ve been reluctant to complete.
2. Think carefully and make a list of all the reasons why you’ve been putting the particular task or project off.
3. For each reason, list at least one benefit for doing the work.
4. Think about the overall big picture relating to the action step or project. Keep working to identify more benefits until you get a different, more balanced perspective on the task.
5. Just do it! Start the work to build some momentum and make some headway in the project.
6. Promise yourself to either complete the task or delegate it within three days.

Obtaining Management Cooperation

Often, a major roadblock toward completing a task or a project comes from resistance on the part of other team members or management. AMA offers a new seminar, Advanced Leadership Communications Strategies, that recommends a few best practices for dealing with resistant co-workers:

• Persuade your co-worker or manager to see your point of view through due diligence. Demonstrate the why and how of your project and the benefits to the team or organization.
• Avoid the temptation to first “react” to the negative feedback by not becoming defensive or fighting back. Instead, learn to “respond” by listening to the resister’s arguments; learning from their point of view, and providing clear and calm rebuttals.
• Try to respect and appreciate the resistant point of view by understanding and learning from them. Determine the root cause of the opposition by asking open-ended questions. By demonstrating a caring attitude toward their point of view, it will be easier to reach a compromise.
• Don’t take a negative attitude toward the resisters or their points. Learn and grow “with” your co-workers. Interact with them and respect their opinions. You may even find that their points are valid enough to alter your thinking.
• When working on projects that require information from others, be sure that not getting the information you need results in a missed deadline. Work around the missing information and pass it on to those responsible. Document missing information or data within project documents and then work with team members to acquire the missing information. Sometimes you’ll see that there are others in the organization that have the information you need – utilize them.

Checking off the last item in your daily To-Do list gives you a great feeling of accomplishment at the end of the day. While there will always be other potential hindrances in getting things done, utilizing the techniques presented above will certainly help get you more productive and out the door on time!