All one has to do is to learn to say “no” if an activity contributes nothing.
The first step toward executive effectiveness is to record actual time-use. There are executives who keep such a time log themselves. Others have their secretaries do it for them. The important thing is that it gets done, and that the record is made in “real” time. A good many effective executives keep such a log continuously and look at it regularly every month. After each such sample, they rethink and rework their schedule. First one tries to identify and eliminate the things that need not be done at all, the things that are purely a waste of time without any results whatever. To find these time wasters, one asks of all activities in the time records: “What would happen if this were not done at all?” And if the answer is, “Nothing would happen,” then obviously the conclusion is to stop doing it.
ACTION POINT: Create a time log of your activities. Eliminate those activities that are time wasters.
The Effective Executive
* Source: The Daily Drucker by Peter F. Drucker