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Getting Colleagues to Respect Your Time

One of the most ambitious people I’ve ever met was a single parent with three children. After she cleared the dinner table and helped her children with their homework, she did her own homework—studying for a law degree. Time was her most precious commodity back then. It was severely limited and a lot of things competed for it. She watched her time so zealously that she seldom socialized. In time, the time management paid off. She became a lawyer and then a judge.

You may view time as a finite commodity. But some of your colleagues may not. Dawdling is okay with them, because as they see it, they’ll always have lots of time to catch up. These colleagues are the time bandits you’ll have to guard against. Otherwise, they will rob you.

They will hold meetings that start late and run over. They’re people who share stories that rival the length of ancient sagas. If you’re not vigilant, colleagues with their constant instant messages will chip away at a block of time you set aside for research.

You’ll have to assume the role of an assertive timekeeper. Show up on time for the meeting and excuse yourself when the agenda veers off course or runs late. Inform the long-winded storytellers that you can hear the rest of their story later. Tell the winged messenger to save her missives until after deadline.

With that approach, you will focus your time on what really matters in the office: work.