The fourth of the seven major time wasters is putting out fires or dealing with unexpected crises. Now things will come up that have not been planned, that’s normal. There’s a call that you must take, someone has been injured, somebody turns up sick, a meeting gets called that was not scheduled and you have to attend it. But if there’s anything you can do to anticipate some of this, do it. Crisis anticipation; looking down the road and thinking “what can come up in the future” has a major impact on time management.
The German admiral Otto von Bismarck was nearly impossible to catch. His enemy’s would send out multiple war ships to find him and he would escape. He always had what was called a “Plan B”; it was the “Bismarck Plan”. Have you heard of Plan B? The “B” came from the Bismarck Plan—the second plan—the contingency plan.
When things come up have a contingency plan for how to deal with what is already going on. Recurrent crises mean you probably have ineffective planning. So if crises come up over and over and over you need to think about how you can plan differently? How can you make it so that it is not quite so crazy?
If you know something’s coming up, plan for it ahead of time. Have a contingency when it does arise. Stop, think before you take action. Don’t just jump into it. Calm yourself down. Think about what you’re going to do, how you’re going to do it and make a plan for what occurs.
If possible, if something does need to be done unless you must do it yourself, delegate the action to someone else. Or get a partner who can step up and assist you. You don’t necessarily need to jump into the middle of the fray every time something comes up.
If a crisis is important enough to deal with, you know your imperative and important list that you’re now using? Write the crisis down on your list. If it’s important enough to stop whatever it is you’re working on in your imperative and important list, it is important enough to write it down. Then when you’re done, just like the rest, you can check it off. It’s one more thing you’ve completed.
Make sure you develop a policy for dealing with these unexpected interrupters when they’re occur If crises come up again and again, then set up a process so that it eliminates a knee-jerk reaction.
Think about it ahead of time. If certain things are going to occur, or if something arises, what are we going to do to manage it more effectively? Have a plan ahead of time for crises because they will occur. They will interrupt your time. You need to think about it ahead of time. Putting out fires, dealing with unexpected crises will waste your time.