WHERE DID THE TIME GO? A GOOD QUESTION
What I would like to do during the working hours yesterday? Well, there was a list for it.
1.Arrange shipment of cargo for three customers by sea
2.Take booking with international express service and have the airfreight for 4 customers arranged
3.Take booking of packing materials for the 12 orders placed since weeks ago
4. Apply for payments of 3 shipments based on FOB terms
5.Send certificate of origin to two customers
6.Update load plans for a customer
7.Update schedule for the outstanding goods delayed
8.File the documents related to 7 shipments made last week
I have been making to do list every day, and I couldn't believe I got none of them finished except 1 and 5. It is even painful for me to reflect where time has been gone. But I have to do so, or I will keep busy around with nothing gained, numb with exhaustion, trapped by things done in vain. If I have no idea where I spend my time, there will be no way to stop it from being wasted.
It was 8:20 in the morning, I get used to starting working 10 mins ahead. But I fail to get things done ahead of time since something else beyond my expectation always has its way to get me full occupied.
Here they are.
At 8:45, I was told by the guy fixing the wooden frame that he could no longer keep up with his promise made yesterday. And I couldn't make delivery without the wooden frame ready for cargo.
At 9:00, we are called together for a production meeting which turns out to get none of the emergency solved.
At 11:20, I had to go to check the cargo delivered by another supplier sharing the same container with us to the USA, since the warehouse keeper had asked for a leave.
At 13:30, another meaningless meeting, showing how difficult we struggle in the dilemma of shortage in funds and delay in shipments without any practical solution, robbed me of the potential hours I could have spent on arranging shipments.
At 14:50, I had to search for the packing box and carton suitable for the product whose packing materials failed to reach us in time.
At 16:38, a customer with shipment delayed for more than 3 weeks phoned me to check the ETD fixed for the following shipment. And I was in suffocating silence without any feedback available.
Thanks to what happened mentioned above, I don't even have the relative intact time to finish a certain task, I could not even settled something without being distracted by something else. I am either being interrupted by things irrelevant or struggling between the choice over dealing with the new situation and sticking to the original tasks.
Meetings without solution waste half of the time. Things beyond my range of responsibility keep bothering me, and I will be more efficient if the production and purchasing department are doing their part. Not getting things settled the way customer wants makes them keep coming to me for result, which enlarges my burden. What could I do to avoid time being wasted by something unpredictable?
Always know what to do even if something's getting in the way.
Be able to start from where you quit and spend little time to pick up what you have dropped.
No negative feeling upon what happened.
Bring something with you to do during a boring and meaningless meeting.
Find the one responsible to deal with the thing with you.
If doing A could smoothen the process of doing B, do A first.
Note where the time has been spent and see if you could do anything to optimize the way you accomplish something.
Ask yourself where you have spent the time if you want them to be spent in some efficient way.