Here is a list of 10 time-wasters. See what is messing up your schedule:

1. Disorganized and unplanned work
Planning is the key to success in anything you do. Note down the tasks that need to be done each day and schedule your time accordingly. Always set some time aside for urgent and unexpected errands.

2. Disturbances and distractions
The key to excellence in any activity is focus. Unexpected visitors, telephone calls or anything that disturbs your concentration can disrupt the flow of creativity or disturb the pace of work in hand. Identify repeated distractions and get them out of the way.

3. Danger of the 3S’- smoking, surfing and socializing
Do you need to take constant smoke breaks? Do you find yourself surfing (Facebook, MSN, Twitter…) and chatting while in the midst of an assignment? Spending your work time on socializing is not the best idea. On the contrary, it will never let the excellence and brilliance in you come through. Take a look at your habits and eliminate all that is not conducive to your growth.

4. Delaying actions – Procrastinating
Are you someone who just keeps putting things off? Procrastination never helps. It is a drain on your energy and eats up precious time. You probably end up spending more time worrying about things to be done and not actually doing them. Time never makes problems disappear. In fact, some issues might just keep growing while you delay taking action on them.

5. Delegating in an improper manner or non delegation
Do you find yourself doing most of the tasks that you have assigned to others? Or are you someone who firmly believes that “I can do it best.” Well! Wake up. Effective management and leadership are all about delegating appropriately.

6. Don’t know how to say ‘NO’
Do you find that it is immensely difficult to say “NO” even if your life depended on it? The art of saying “no” does not automatically imply aggression or lack of support. You need to understand one basic fact. Although yes consciousness is a good idea and reflects a positive and eager mind, there are circumstances where you need to say “NO.” Do not take on more work than you can handle well – it will ultimately reflect badly on you.

7. Dearth of important skills
Proper planning and decision making skills are necessary for anyone wanting to make the best use of time. Strengthen your skills and see the difference.

8. Don’t give yourself time
A very important aspect in today’s fast paced world is to find some “ME” time. Remember, to be successful, it is important to re-energize yourself. And we all know what happens to people whose lives are all work and no play. Don’t wait till you reach a crisis point. Respect yourself and give some time to the most important person in your life – YOU.

9. Doing meetings that take up all your time
Check out how many meetings you end up holding with no specific agenda and reason. Consider the fact that the time spent in meetings can be utilized in a much better manner. Fix up meetings only when extremely necessary.

10. Doing a lot of crisis management
What this simply indicates is that you are not well geared to effectively tackling the work at hand. If you analyze and choose the best approach for each task from the very beginning and focus and prioritize well, you would not need to face a crisis situation at all. Simply because they would no longer recur!

The fact is that there are only twenty-four hours in a day. The only way to win over time is by using it effectively and identifying and avoiding time wasters.

Specifically, he was recently chastised by his immediate supervisor for his very brief PPT content, which I taught in class. His supervisor said that a PPT is meant to be sent to the audience to READ and so, must contain ALL the information necessary.

At his last count, the PPT had more than 200 slides (pages) and growing. (I wonder how long the presentation will last since a good guide is 10 slides for every 20 minutes)

In other words, his supervisor is asking him to write a book (or at least a report) using Powerpoint and also use it as a presentation tool at the same time. : )

Hmm… it doesn’t seem his supervisor has heard of WORD… But it can’t be. This supervisor of Perry’s is only 1 year his senior and graduated from Beijing Normal University only last year. There is no way he is such a techno dinosaur.

I think the problem lies in the wrong perception of what a presentation is and how to deliver an excellent presentation. Of course, this incorrect perception is not confined to Perry’s supervisor alone. It is widespread in mainland China (as can be seen in many presentations spotting lengthy, paragraphs of PPT content) and many parts of the world where a presentation is thought to be just about delivering the content.

This can’t be more wrong.

A presentation is never about the content. In fact, good communication is never about the message. Nobody will care about your message content if the message means nothing to them, doesn’t engage nor interest them, and doesn’t give them value in any way. In other words, such communication is a waste of your audience’s time.

Good communication is ALWAYS about the response that you get from your intended audience.

In other words, what do you want the outcome of your communication to be (even before you start communicating)? What do you want your audience to know, think, feel, do? How do you want them to respond to your message?

Only after deciding very clearly what the outcome and objective(s) are of your communication (whether presentation or otherwise), then you should decide on the message and how to package and deliver it in a way that will achieve your intended outcomes.

Although Perry knows well how the content of a PPT should be structured in order for it to be effective, his supervisor doesn’t. Yet, his supervisor, being the “boss”, is blinded by his misconception and, perhaps, authority.

In other words, Perry’s supervisor is clueless and doesn’t know he is clueless. He doesn’t know what he doesn’t know.

So, what can Perry do? Is this not a communication problem?

If we keep to the principle of “the quality of your communication is the response that you get,” what should Perry do to improve the quality of communication with his young, inexperienced supervisor?

The calls are usually anonymous, meaning the caller numbers are withheld. I usually would not answer any call that has its source number withheld but sometimes, I do expect overseas calls and so, will answer those no-number calls inevitably.

On the other hand, if the caller number is displayed, I am more inclined to answer the call although I am getting more cautious of this practice since many telemarketing firms are starting not to withhold their numbers.

Just today, I received a called and this lady said (translated from Cantonese), “Hi Sir, I am Ms. Wong representing On Shun Investments. May I know if you do any investing?”

Obviously, by Ms. Wong’s “Hi Sir,” she didn’t know who she was calling. She was simply going down the list of phone numbers given to her by her supervisor.

Since Ms. Wong is a stranger to me, my immediate thought was “I’m not interested to answer your questions.” *Click*

I used to be much nicer and would spend several minutes listening to what Ms. Wong has to say and then, gently rejecting her.

After several years of doing this, I found it much easier for me to end the conversation faster so that both of us can go on with our lives.

I mean, obviously, Ms. Wong wasn’t really interested in whether I do any investing. She’s just interested to sell me whatever she’s supposed to sell.

Nevertheless, I think people in telemarketing have remarkable stamina, courage and determination. Everyday, they get phones slammed on them and they get rejections more than 90% of the time (and this is an underestimate). Yet, they continue with their list because statistics show that every 100 phone calls they make, at least X number will say, “Yes” to them.

They are simply playing a number game.

Of course, those who cannot take the rejection will be out of the game very soon. These are the people who cannot see that the rejections are not personal. I mean, the people who reject them barely know them!

Whatever the case, I do hope Ms. Wong will ask better questions next time to gain attention and for the people she calls to be interested in what she has to say.

The old saying holds true: People do not care how much you know until they know how much you care.

What are some ways you can make cold calls and get the call receiver to listen to what you have to say?

Well, at least up till 17 year old when I had to choose my A-level subjects, my determination to become a doctor was still very strong.

The source of this determination was my aunt.

I spent a large part of my childhood with my grandparents as my parents were busy with their work. When I was still a little boy, my aunt was a teenager and she spent a lot of time helping my grandmother to look after me and to “entertain” me. So, she quickly became my constant companion and idol.

I remember my grandmother always saying that it is best to have a doctor in the family so that the family’s medical needs are taken care of. I think she meant “…taken care of for free” since there are clinics and hospitals around.

My aunt was an excellent student and consistently did well in school. And she had the opportunity to go to medical school and eventually became a doctor. Thinking back, I am not sure if she became a doctor by her own freewill.

In any case, during her studies in the university, I always had the opportunity to play with her school stuff – set of surgery knives, skeleton, stethoscope, spatula, doctor’s white garb, books, etc. Although, these were just toys to me, I was regularly exposed to the medical profession. And before I knew it, I was writing essays in school about wanting to be a doctor.

My reason? I wanted to saving lives and to help others live better lives.

This decision had steered me to choose to study the subjects in secondary school necessary to prepare for medical school. With that kind of determination, there was no reason to not perform well in the secondary school exams. I got into one of the top junior colleges for my advanced level subjects and it was time to choose subjects again.

At that time, my aunt had graduated from university and officially become a doctor.  I remember vividly the day I told her about the subjects I intended to choose and she asked what I wanted to do in the future.

“I want to be a doctor, just like you”, I answered confidently.

“Don’t be a doctor. You’ll work like a dog!” came her response.

At that moment, my whole world shattered. To have someone I admired and respected so much say what she did to me at that time was devastating.

All of a sudden, I felt lost.

In the end, I chose the path of computing and emerged from the process with a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering. I didn’t exactly wanted to carve a career in the IT industry. Computing was simply something I was interested to toy with as a hobby having used and programmed an Apple II since 12.

Thinking back, what intrigued me most about computers is that it is a fantastic problem-solving tool. And I LOVE troubleshooting issues and solving problems.

Now, what is the work I am doing now? What am I absolutely committed to?

Teaching, training, coaching and guiding.

It is now very clear to me why I became a teacher.  The reason has been consistent all my life in the things that I find pleasure in doing!

It is because I want to save lives and to help others live better lives. Instead of being a medical doctor, I am somewhat a “doctor of the mind” today. I am also in business and I see business as a problem-solving tool. Where there is a problem (i.e. need), there is a market.

So, that’s my own example of how to find your life purpose. Start by thinking about what you wanted to become when you were young(er). Consider why you wanted to become that or do that. Once you arrive at your root motivator (most times this will be one of your personal core values), you would have found your calling and life mission.

You can tell that he is a sharp observer of communication – reiterating the fact that communication is not just about the words and the content but everything about being congruent with the entire body. Being congruent means that what you are saying with your words, your voice, and your body are the same.

Obviously, according to Mr Shi, Hong Kong CE Donald Tsang didn’t do a better job at the recent “live” reform debate because his body language (which makes up more than 55% of his communication) did not communicate the same message as his words and voice.

Shi further analyzed that Tsang, with the background of a bureaucrat under the British system, most likely didn’t believe strongly in what he is doing [about the electoral reform package] but still has a job to do. How can he possibly convince the people if his own belief about the issue at hand is not on solid ground?

We have the innate ability to immediately sense such inconsistency in the people we communicate with. If we are unsure of our message, then it will be tough trying to “sell” the message to our audience. It seems like Donald Tsang needs to work on his presentation skills if he is to do better at selling and promoting his government’s reform package.

The same thing applies to your communication during your job interview. Are you using your whole body to communicate with the interviewer? Or are you hoping that your qualifications and words will convince them?

Data and information doesn’t sell. Emotion does. Just look at all the advertisements and media around you.

This is why it is vital to specifically pair features of products and services with benefits  that they provide. We much too often make decisions based on emotion and then justify the decisions using logic. Humans, after all, are not exactly very rational.

To do well in persuasion: Fall in love with what you do. And then, sell that love.

Remember this: People may not believe what you say, but they will believe what you do!

Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,

Enwrought with golden and silver light,

The blue and the dim and the dark cloths

Of night and light and the half-light,

I would spread the cloths under your feet:

But I, being poor, have only my dreams;

I have spread my dreams under your feet;

Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.