Telephone Interruptions

No matter what we are doing or what project we are working on, we usually allow the almighty telephone to butt in. Telephone company literature even exhorts us to answer before the third ring. This practice drastically reduces our concentration. How do we control this intruder? Have someone else screen your calls during your quiet hour. If you do not have a secretary or assistant, ask the switchboard operator to take messages for you or make an arrangement with a peer to take messages for you during your quiet hour if you take their messages during their quiet hour. A polite “I'm sorry, (s)he is busy right now. May I have him/her return your call after 11?” Screening the calls properly should not annoy anyone. If it is an emctreocy, by your definition of an emergency, of course the call should be allowed to interrupt you.

What You Can Do

I urge you to recognise the importance of the interruptions to your time management and the power if interruptions to eat away your time. By minimizing the effects of interruptions, you could save up to 2 hours a day. Just think of all htose things you will be able to find time for in an extra 2 hours a day!

2. Answer the Questions to the text

1. What’s the main reason your time gets wasted?

2. What are the two principle of governing time?

3. Why is it necessary to group like activities?

4. Who are drop-in visitors?

5. How can you discourage them from interrupting you at your workplace?

6. What’s the problem with telephone interruptions?

7. How should we tackle this time-eater?

3. Find the English equivalents in the text:

• випустити з голови

• виконувати завдання

• розпорошувати завдання в часі

• «заводитися» і розслаблятися

• якомога повніше використовувати свої розумові здібності

• свідома самодисципліна

• справлятися з завданнями

• позбутися відвідувачів

• всемогутній телефон

• різко скоротити концентрацію

4. How do you understand the proverb “A stitch in time saves nine”? Do you agree with that? What’s your main time-eater (if any)? How do you govern your time efficiently or maybe it’s a problem for you? (Write about 150-200 words).

Контрольна робота № 7

I ВАРІАНТ

1. Read and translate the following text.

Los Angeles Times

In 1966, the Times instituted several significant changes that continue as an integral part of its success today. It converted its rather heavy eight-column pages to a modern, six-column format, with column rules eliminated. On page two, the paper began a full-page news summary, providing readers with a concise and comprehensive roundup of the major news developments in all the principal news areas. About the same time, it also began carrying special background or interpretive articles which have ranked among journalist's best.

The foreign correspondent for the Times enjoys greater freedom than many of his American counterparts. Like the overseas reporters for the best European quality dailies, he is not bound by deadlines, nor is he under pressure to file every day. He digs in depth and takes his time providing interpretation of events. He is interested in the “why” as much as the “what^” of the story.

Perhaps more than any other United States paper, the Times seeks experts for its foreign bureaus and men who will be permitted to stay in one area long enough to understand the situation behind events fully. First, the Times’ requisites for staff are very high, and even higher for foreign correspondents. To even gain consideration for a Times post, an applicant must have a proven record of at least five years of experience with other newspapers, magazines or other media. At the same time as one observer has commented, being a correspondent for the Times “is the closest one can come to a career service in overseas journalism since the days when London Times correspondents enjoyed such status”.