Stop People from Wasting

Your Time

A Harvard Business Review Webinar featuring

Dorie Clark

February 5, 2015

Sponsored by

© 2015 Harvard Business School Publishing. Created for Harvard Business Review by BullsEye Resources www.bullseyeresources.com
 February 5, 2015

Stop People from Wasting Your Time

OVERVIEW
Everyone’s time is under siege today. Emails, meetings, phone calls—there are endless contributors
demands fighting for our attention. In order to stay productive and on track, we need to stay Dorie Clark
focused and stop other people from wasting our time. Setting out a clear set of disciplined rules Adjunct Professor, Duke University’s
around communication is key to gaining that control of our time and lives. Fuqua School of Business

Angelia Herrin (Moderator)

CONTEXT Editor, Special Projects and
Research, Harvard Business Review
Dorie Clark, author of Reinventing You: Define Your Brand, Imagine Your Future and the
forthcoming Stand Out: How to Develop Your Breakthrough Idea and Develop a Following
Around It, shared insights about communication that can help you get more done and prevent
people from siphoning your time with unimportant demands.

KEY LEARNINGS
People who waste your time rob you of a scarce and valuable resource.
Time is a limited resource, and it has never seemed more scarce. Technology is a tool that cre-
ates enormous opportunity for you and for your organization—but it comes with challenges.
Consider:
• Social media provides the means to reinvent yourself, but reinvention requires
staying on track to reach goals. More and more people are leveraging social media to
maximize career opportunities by actively managing their image and shaping their “per-
sonal brand.” This involves establishing a vision of yourself and identifying six-month, one-
year, and five-year goals designed to realize it. But whether your aim is to reinvent yourself
in a new career or advance in your current one, setting goals and staying on track to achiev-
ing them are critical. In today’s competitive workplace, everyone needs to be as productive
and as expeditious as possible.
• Social media opens the floodgates to people who would siphon your time and
thwart your progress toward goals. Never has staying productive been more challeng-
ing than in the age of social media. Nearly everyone is reachable by multiple communica-
tion channels and is expected to respond promptly to competing demands on their atten-
tion. Some people feel entitled to reach out to anyone they would like with little cause. The
more prominent you become, the worse the bombardment gets. Some successful people
receive in the neighborhood of 1,000 emails a day, many from strangers asking to pick their
brains. Even much lighter inbox loads than that, however, can fast become mountainous if
not attended to daily, and failing to respond promptly can jeopardize your image and have
unintended consequences on your career.

© 2015 Harvard Business School Publishing. Created for Harvard Business Review by BullsEye Resources www.bullseyeresources.com 2
www.hbr.org
Stop People from Wasting Your Time February 5, 2015

To stay productively on track while also realizing a sustainable work/life balance, something “If we’re responding to
has to be done to stop people from bombarding you with unimportant distractions.
external stimuli, we’re
A clear set of disciplined rules can help you fend off time thieves.
not following through
Controlling your time and vastly limiting the onslaught of distractions directed your way is pos-
on our own goals.”
sible. It requires having a clear set of disciplined rules, and living by these rules. At a glance, – Dorie Clark
these ideas might seem like measures that only a boss can act upon without “sounding like a
jerk.” But with the right framing, anyone can convey these messages to anyone else, in politi-
cally safe ways. If couched as a request you’re making for the well-being of the other person or
the organization, people can hardly refuse to comply.

1. Tell People How You Want to Communicate

What mode of communication works best for you? If you prefer email versus unplanned phone
calls, or if texting is the best way to get your attention when necessary, let people know that. If
you frame this message as a courtesy to them, so they get a faster response back from you, and
not as a rule you’ve set for your own convenience, you shouldn’t encounter pushback.
The ideal time to define your preferred communication mode is when joining a new group. But
to send this message to people who already know you, frame it as a pilot program with a “news
hook”—e.g., “I have a New Year’s resolution to respond to emails in 24 hours, so that’s the best
way to reach me from now on,” or “I heard about this idea to increase my productivity on an
HBR webinar—will you help me try it?”
If you’re hoping to manage how often a boss disturbs you, the tactic needs to be different.
Request the boss’s help for a problem you’re experiencing: Distractions are limiting the head-
way you could be making, and keeping you less productive than you otherwise could be. You’re
uncertain how often you should be responding to emails and other external distractions. You
would like to find a solution collaboratively.
Whatever that solution turns out to be, the boss should take away from the discussion the mes-
sage that you will be more productive if interrupted less frequently.

2. For Meetings, Require an Agenda

Research suggests that 85% of meetings are useless; even brainstorming meetings can be coun-
terproductive, as better solutions are often generated when people think on their own. People
and organizations would be far more productive if meetings were only held when necessary;
that is, only when meeting is the most expeditious route to the intended end. Instead, in many
companies meeting is more like an enjoyable hobby than purposefully targeted work.
To reduce the frequency of meetings that you are expected to attend, follow up an invite with
a request to see the agenda in advance. Leaders might even make distribution of a meeting

© 2015 Harvard Business School Publishing. Created for Harvard Business Review by BullsEye Resources www.bullseyeresources.com 3
www.hbr.org
Stop People from Wasting Your Time February 5, 2015

agenda in advance of meetings an organization-wide norm. Writing out an agenda forces meet- “Require an agenda—
ing holders to think about the purpose of the meeting, its expected value, and the most efficient
way to organize it. This protocol alone will prevent many a useless meeting.
that alone will
Weekly updates typically make a poor excuse for meeting. The information shared is often
eliminate a lot of
more efficiently disseminated via email. An effective argument for ending the practice of stan- problems.”
dard weekly meetings is to quantify what these meetings cost the organization in labor expense. – Dorie Clark
Agenda items should be narrow and specific; not “Southeast expansion strategy” but “Decide
whether to open an office in Tampa.” That way, people don’t waste time pontificating about
various irrelevant alternatives (e.g., “I prefer expanding in the West”), and the specific deci-
sion that needs to be made gets made. Moreover, simply putting an agenda in front of everyone
keeps participants conscious of the meeting’s pace and the need to keep observations short and
to the point. Another way to keep meetings short and targeted is to require people to stand.
No one can argue with these suggestions if framed as ways to stay most productive, and per-
haps as a time-limited pilot. Most people would be amenable to trying something new for a
while to see how it goes.

3. Police the Meeting Guest List

A good meeting requires the right people in the room. When you’re invited to a meeting, ask
yourself whether you really need to be there. If you don’t see a good reason, ask why you were
invited. If the reason given doesn’t seem important enough, ask whether instead of attending
you could provide feedback from the meeting notes.
There is a risk that you could be seen as thinking you’re “too good for the meeting,” depend-
ing on the corporate culture. But if you convey that you’d love to come but also want to stay
as productive as possible, few people would mind if you skipped it. If your corporate culture
prioritizes work/life balance, you could also use that as a reason: a desire to remain as produc-
tive as possible during the workday so that you’re not catching up all evening.
Police the guest list as well, particularly if you are in a position to influence who attends. Does
everyone really need to be there? If someone doesn’t need to be there but has a legitimate
reason for wanting to be, such as a newbie who feels that attending would accelerate his or her
learning curve, that’s fine. These aren’t rules to be strictly enforced but should be bent to the
situation.

4. Force Others To Prepare for Meetings

Prominent people get frequent requests for meetings. One popular social media consultant
doesn’t like to turn these down flatly (people may become clients, after all). But she does
require people requesting her time to fill out a form explaining why. The reason she gives is
that the form helps her prepare so that the other person’s time is not wasted. But more to the
point, it forces the other person to prepare, ordering thoughts much as an agenda does. And
the requirement weeds out all but the most serious petitioners.

© 2015 Harvard Business School Publishing. Created for Harvard Business Review by BullsEye Resources www.bullseyeresources.com 4
www.hbr.org
Stop People from Wasting Your Time February 5, 2015

If you are a leader who wants an open-door policy but not the frequent interruptions invited by
this, use the “office hours” model of college professors. Establish specific time slots when you
are willing to meet with people, the implication being that you are available only during those
times. Dorie Clark uses an online calendar to which she directs people requesting her time;
they can go online and write themselves into her schedule.

OTHER IMPORTANT POINTS

ƒƒ Your brand in others’ eyes. A first step in promoting YOUR personal brand is to see
yourself as others do. A helpful exercise: Ask six colleagues to describe you in three words.
The patterns among their responses can be eye-opening.
ƒƒ Stop stealing your own time. People often don’t realize how much of their own time
they waste, often on social media. It is important to have a social media presence, but with
message pre-programming software, it needn’t take more than two hours a week.
ƒƒ Time management—a selling point? Since time management skills aren’t quantifiable
or comparable among people, they are tough to use as a selling point to potential employ-
ers. But resumes will reflect how well you have leveraged your time to date.

© 2015 Harvard Business School Publishing. Created for Harvard Business Review by BullsEye Resources www.bullseyeresources.com 5
www.hbr.org
Stop People from Wasting Your Time February 5, 2015

BIOGRAPHIES
Dorie Clark Angelia Herrin (Moderator)
Strategy Consultant; Editor, Special Projects
Adjunct Professor of and Research, Harvard
Business Administration,
Business Review
Duke University’s Fuqua
School of Business

Dorie Clark is the author of Reinventing Angelia Herrin is the editor for special
You: Define Your Brand, Imagine Your projects and research at HBR. Her jour-
Future (Harvard Business Review Press, nalism experience spans 25 years, primar-
2013) and the forthcoming Stand Out: ily with Knight-Ridder newspapers and
How to Find Your Breakthrough Idea USA TODAY, where she was the Washing-
and Build a Following Around It (Portfo- ton editor. She won the Knight Fellowship
lio/Penguin, 2015). A former presidential in Professional Journalism at Stanford
campaign spokeswoman, she is a frequent University in 1990. She has taught jour-
contributor to the Harvard Business nalism at the University of Maryland and
Review, Forbes, and Entrepreneur, and Harvard University.
the World Economic Forum blog. Recog- Prior to coming to HBR, Angelia was the
nized as a “branding expert” by the Asso- vice president for content at womenCon-
ciated Press, Fortune, and Inc. magazine, nect.com, a website focused on women
Clark is a marketing strategy consultant business owners and executives.
and speaker for clients including Google,
Microsoft, Yale University, Fidelity, and
the World Bank.
She is an Adjunct Professor of Business
Administration at Duke University’s
Fuqua School of Business and a Visit-
ing Professor for IE Business School in
Madrid. She has guest lectured at Harvard
Business School, the Harvard Kennedy
School, Stanford University’s Graduate
School of Business, the Wharton School,
the MIT Sloan School of Management,
and more. She is a frequent guest on
MSNBC and appears in worldwide media
including NPR, the Wall Street Journal,
and the BBC. Learn more at dorieclark.
com or follow her on Twitter @dorieclark.

The information contained in this summary reflects BullsEye Resources, Inc.’s subjective condensed summarization of the applicable conference session. There may be
material errors, omissions, or inaccuracies in the reporting of the substance of the session. In no way does BullsEye Resources or Harvard Business Review assume any
responsibility for any information provided or any decisions made based upon the information provided in this document.

© 2015 Harvard Business School Publishing. Created for Harvard Business Review by BullsEye Resources www.bullseyeresources.com 6
www.hbr.org
Sponsor’s Perspective
Our most valuable resource—our time.
Dorie Clark reminded us all that for everyone in the work world,
our most valuable resource is our time. And she reiterated that
everyone’s time is threatened and is under siege. We have count-
less demands on our attention and our time. Being able to focus
and respond to everyone and everything vying for our attention
is daunting. Trying to juggle everything feels like an unwinnable
game, and these feelings are only exacerbated in today’s always-
on social media landscape. Often, people feel that their time is
being wasted and their productivity is hurt.
Clark also advised to position these actions not as being self-
interested, but as being based on one’s commitment to the com-
pany and one’s interest to improve organizational productivity.
LogMeIn is completely focused on helping individuals and orga-
nizations respect everyone’s time and use it in the most effective,
productive way possible. Keys involve using technology to enable
and facilitate collaboration, while doing so in an efficient, produc-
tive way. By working more efficiently, we can all stop wasting
others’ time and can leverage time—our most valuable asset—as
effectively as possible.

Gaining control of our time involves taking proactive,

disciplined actions.
At LogMeIn, we constantly hear of the many challenges that
people and organizations have to deal with to gain greater control
of their time and to increase productivity. We agree with Dorie
Clark’s advice about being proactive in managing one’s own
workflow and work processes. Specifically, Clark advised to:
• State your preferred method of communication. Some
people prefer the phone; other prefer email. By proactively,
politely, and firmly letting others know, individuals can have
more control and can prevent others from wasting their time.
• Require an agenda for meetings. This is another proac-
tive step that ensures that meetings are only held when
needed and that they achieve a useful, desired outcome.
• Police guest lists. This is one more step that makes meet-
ings more effective and a better use of time for all involved.
• Force others to prepare. This is yet another proactive,
preventive step to ensure that time isn’t wasted and is used
most effectively.

About join.me by LogMeIn

Built for today’s fast-paced, highly mobile workplace, join.me is the instant
online meeting app that makes collaborating easier than ever. Powerful
yet simple to use, join.me is great for ad-hoc meetings, formal presenta-
tions, and anytime you need to share ideas and get work done. To start
your own free trial, visit www.join.me.