Dear concerned car owner,

Do you like to take your car in for repairs? Do you ever feel like you were cheated or taken advantage of by shop or their mechanics? Do you know it could be what you are saying to repair shop that could be costing you more? Most auto repair shops are run by honest hard-working people but in some circumstances you may bring out dark side at some shops.

For instance, never tell shop how much you are willing to spend without first getting an explanation of what you are going to have done. When you give shop a “spending limit” they may have a tendency to do as little as possible but will manage to spend up to your limit. For example, a woman came into my shop and told me she had $500 to spend. She did not start off her conversation with "hello", or "can you fix my car", all she said was how much money she wanted to give me.

Now granted, it is nice to have people come into shop and actually like to pay their bills, but this lady gave me a spending limit before she told me what she wanted to have fixed. She thought she had transmission trouble and assumed that it would cost her a fortune to repair. While on a test drive with her I concluded that problem was not transmission-related, but that car probably needed a tune up or something along those lines.

Ask yourself:

1. Does what I am doing add value to my life (and times of pure fun and relaxation are essential too)? 2. What will happen if I don't do it? 3. Can I delegate it? 4. Can I spend less time on it?

TIME WASTERS

1. Telephone Interruptions 2. Drop-in Visitors 3. Meetings 4. Crisis Management 5. Lack of Objectives, Priorities a Daily plan 6. Cluttered Desk, Personal Disorganisation. 7. Ineffective Delegation 8. Attempting too Much at Once 9. Lack of Clear Communication 10. Inadequate, Inaccurate Delayed Information 11. Indecision and Procrastination 12. Confused Responsibility and Authority. 13. Inability to Say "No". 14. Leaving Tasks Unfinished 15. Lack of Self-Discipline

MORE COMMON TIME WASTERS (IN RANK)

1. Planning (lack of).

2. Priorities (lack of)

3. Telephone interruptions

4. Disorganisation/cluttered desk

5. Procrastination

6. Visitors

7. Lack of Self Discipline

8. Ineffective delegation

9. Attempting too much

10. Inability to say 'No'

The 80/20 Principle

20% of activity gives 80% of results and 80% of activity gives 20% of results (known as Pareto Principle).

* Focus on important few activities, not trivial many. * Don't procrastinate * The key is self discipline. * "First we make habits, then habits make us."

TIME TIPS FOR THE BUSY

Get news only once a day - in only one form - read paper or watch television or listen to radio, but vary form so you don't get news through one bias. Don't worry about or spend time on things irrelevant to you, eg.. reading every bit of newspaper.