TIME LOSS, PART SEVEN: ETA TIME PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS (PART 2)

TIME LOSS, Part 7.

PART 7:  ETA TIME PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS (PART 2/2).  

This is the seventh post (in a series of eigh) about why we get fooled (or fool ourselves) into believing people’s false expectations and promises regarding how long it will take to do anything. 

HERE’S A LIST AND LINKS TO THE PREVIOUS SIX POSTS IN THE SERIES.   

How we fool ourselves by believing false time “estimates.”

The evil ETA system costs us time and money!

8 ways Colleges lie about instructional time.

Housekeeping kills time and fosters false expectations!

Work kills time and encourages phony time estimates.

Time problems and how to solve them. (PART 1)

 Why are we constantly frustrated when people tell us that:

• It  will take only “4 hours to get here from there,” or
• It’ll take only “2 hours to ‘do this job”
• It will be “only a few minutes” wait.
• I’ll be with you in a sec!”
• Your time is important to us? (Gag!)

What does this actually mean?  Because we know they’re wrong (or lying!)

It means you cannot believe a college calendar that says you have 45 hours of instruction. You really have 20 or 22. 

It means.

• it will take you 5 1/2 hours to drive from here to there, not 4.
• it will take you 4 hours to do the job, not 2.
• the wait will be 40 minutes, not “a few.”
• they will not be “with you in a sec..” It’ll be more like 20 minutes. Maybe.
• “Do you have a minute” means a half hour (if you’re lucky).
• when people say “I’ll be right over,” they won’t.
• when the hotel says your room will be ready at three o’clock, it means six.
• the PR lady who said “Your time is important to us” is BS’ing you or else they’d    hire more telephone operators.

Your time is important to them, but not exactly. Sort of.

Certainly, it’s not more important than their time.

That’s what it means.

Tempus fugit. We don’t have enough of it.  Demand full commitment from your service providers.  

SOLUTIONS TO OUR TIME LOSS PROBLEMS.

1. COLLEGE CLASS TIME MISREPRESENTATIONS

2. MEDICAL APPOINTMENT WAITS

• Doctors overbook, patients are often late, and cases take more time than expected.
• Remember that this stuff happens! You know it does. It’s happened to you 60 times! 
• Change your expectations.
• Don’t book your next appointment thinking all will go well at the doctor’s (or bill payment office)
• Sometimes it might  pay to pray for a doctor. Jesus saves.

 

3. AIRLINE BOOKINGS AND FLIGHT PROBLEMS

 

• Anticipate arrival and departure delays.
• Be aware of weather forecast problems
• Expect problems with staff shortage, equipment problems, etc

4. WAIT TIME LOSS IN RESTAURANTS

Everybody loses with this one!

The restaurant has over-booked.  Patrons get annoyed (I’m being polite), leave grumpy and never return.

Restaurant owners lose money (because they lose the time/opportunity to serve meals and the money that goes with it.) 

SOLUTIONS:

Restaurants must adhere to good policies. If your bistro is full at regular meal hours, offer less expensive meals before and after the rush.

Patrons can do one or more of the following:

• Change restaurants. 
• Learn when the place is not busy and go then. 
• Go early and hope someone leaves early. 
• Bring a book.
• Have a drink at the bar.
• Put up with the wait because you are so trendy and smart. 

Or,  well, you get the picture.

That’s it. 

People steal time from us because they don’t know or don’t care how long a thing will take to do and they tell us lies or guess and make promises because they WANT it to be true. 

They want to do things properly, give you good information about their services and how long they will take. But they also want to please you and they know you want to hear that everything will be great. 

         We believe them for the same reasons.

• We want to believe them because we don’t want to waste time. But if you are older than 8, you know that what they tell you is a (false) promise, a guess, or a wish. It isn’t the truth, it ain’t reality! 

(Would you believe a promise from this guy?)

• If we know how this comes about, if we know that it this mythology operates in our lives, then we have a fighting chance of changing it or at least adapting to it.
• If we do we’ll save frustration, stress and money.

As you have seen here, you can make headway in one day! The real benefit is that once you know this stuff you can save time daily for the rest of your life.

If you would like to be better at time management (which really means self-management) visit THE DALEY POST and take advantage of our coming free articles on time, time management, procrastination, productivity and self-knowledge.

I have helped more than 500 people improve their lives in as little as three months.

I will be offering a full course on these matters, on  Self-Knowledge, really, on-line soon.

If you would like to be on the advance list for information about the course, please send me a note at skcollege@rogers.com.

In any case, you’ll still get an abundance of free information.  

Thanks for taking the time to read this.  

Frank Daley

Next:

Special Edition! No 8. Waiting for Cable Cost Billions!

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