The Time Bandit Solution

Time Thieves

Some bandits don’t take money or jewelry; they steal your time. These “time bandits” interrupt your work progress and pilfer chunks of your day. Time bandits include your clients, colleagues, supervisors, friends and family members. But, if you’re like most people, you are your own worst time thief. Though you don’t mean to, you probably also steal time from your colleagues. Don’t feel too bad: Everyone else is a time bandit, too.

Time banditry and work interruptions are serious problems. In the turbocharged business world, where many employees must somehow handle their own work plus the jobs of former employees who’ve been downsized or laid off, time has become a precious commodity. Burdened with heavy workloads, many of today’s employees feel like Sisyphus, vainly trying to roll his giant boulder up the hill throughout eternity. They voice a common complaint and lament: “We have too much to do and not enough time to do it!”

Wasted Energy, Effort and Time

Interruptions cause workers to lose 40% to 60% of their “daily, weekly, monthly and yearly time.” According to analyst Jonathan B. Spira, interruptions cost US businesses $588 billion annually...