Steven P. Delarge Talks Successful Time Management
Steven P. Delarge
Steven P. Delarge has learned time management through personal experience and over years of successful business leadership. During this time, Steven P. Delarge discovered how to successfully free up time in his business calendar to do the things he loves most. Today, Delarge talks to Community Blog Online about ways executives can manage time to get more done in a day.
Community Blog Online: Steven P. Delarge, thank you for joining us today. We’re looking forward to finding out what you have found most effective in making extra time each day.
Steven P. Delarge: First and foremost, I tackle the idea of to-do lists. Most people go to to-do lists as a first course of action. That can work, but I tend to suggest “don’t-do” lists, which help a business person focus on those things he or she is doing each day that are time wasters.
Community Blog Online: That is a very interesting idea.
Steven P. Delarge: Another trick I employ in my daily work is to get those items I don’t want to do out of the way first. We waste so much energy worrying and procrastinating over those items. By getting them out of the way before we move on, we free ourselves up to focus on other things.
Community Blog Online: I’ve noticed many executives take on too much. Do you have any advice for those people?
Steven P. Delarge: One word: delegate. If you aren’t utilizing your team, not only will they get frustrated and bored, you’ll be overwhelmed. If you’re taking on too much, you aren’t being efficient, either. It benefits the business as a whole to rely on your employees.
Community Blog Online: What if an executive has delegated but still finds there’s too much to do?
Steven P. Delarge: My advice to those executives is to learn to say ‘no.’ We feel like we’re letting people down when we decline requests, but we aren’t doing anyone any favors by agreeing to do things we don’t have time to do, then falling through on them.
Community Blog Online: What about time wasters in our personal lives?
Steven P. Delarge: That’s a good question. There are two major time wasters in today’s society, and one is TV. Studies show the average American watches 2.7 hours of TV a day. Cut that down to just one hour and spend the other 1.7 hours getting things done.
Community Blog Online: What’s the other primary time waster?
Steven P. Delarge: The Internet. Facebook, social media sites. E-mail would fall under that, too. I recommend limiting both to a certain number of minutes, a certain number of times per day. It’s all about self-control and discipline.
Steven P. Delarge has more than twenty-five years of experience in energy and chemicals. As leader of successful financial teams, Delarge learned the daily demands of being an executive. Steven P. Delarge had to form his own financial team when his company division was set apart as a standalone business. He learned to juggle multiple priorities while seeking the wisdom of others. Steven P. Delarge lives in the Albany, New York area.