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                                    NO B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs 31CHAPTER 3 / HOW TO DRIVE A STAKE THROUGH THE HEARTS OF THE TIME VAMPIRES OUT TO SUCK YOU DRYlot more on Bezos, read Brad Stone%u2019s outstanding book The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon.) 2. Have an exit strategy: someone coming in to get you at a certain time, a pre-arranged call on your cell phone, whatever. You can then excuse yourself only long enough to make a call and return if you need to%u2014but you probably won%u2019t. Or get a drop-dead end time pre-set for the meeting%u2014the tighter the better. Meetings expand to consume whatever time is available to them. That must be restricted, or you must have a way to escape.Playing Trivial Pursuit?Another Time Vampire to watch out for is Mr. Trivia. He either can%u2019t or doesn%u2019t want to differentiate between the important and unimportant, minor and major.This vampire%u2019s talent is getting others off track, getting you to set aside your carefully organized list of priorities in favor of his%u2014and, more often than not, his agenda will be of minimal importance. Mr. Trivia will interrupt to tell you just about anything, ranging from the building being on fire to the office supply store having delivered blue pens instead of black pens. Usually, it%u2019ll be the latter. The best way to deal with this one is to drop a big silver cross around his neck and kick him off the parapet of your castle. But failing the opportunity of doing that, you need another stake%u2014this one is to interrupt the interrupter:I have an exceptionally busy day, so I am only dealing with 9s and 10s on a 1 to 10 scale. Everything else MUST wait until tomorrow.Are you convinced that what you want to talk to me about is a 9 or 10?
                                
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