Time Management

It's only fitting that a video by Mark McCormack, author of What They Don't Teach You at Harvard Business School, comes packaged with a couple of commercials. He's a packaging expert. In this venture, McCormack's partner has even gotten its name into the title - Federal Express Presents: What They Still Don't Teach You at Harvard Business School (NAC Home Video, 60 minutes, $29.95), based on the sequel to McCormack's first best-selling book. McCormack is the man who signed up Arnold Palmer 25 years ago and - through sponsorships, product endorsements and licensing - helped turn Palmer and fellow golfers such as Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player into marketing entities.

People are frequently amazed at the amount of work I do. "Dave," they say, "here you are, cranking out in a single week the number of columns that many other columnists take a full day to write, and yet you still find the time to drink beer! What is your secret?" The answer is: Time Management. If you expect to succeed in any field of endeavor, you must understand that time is a very precious commodity, like the barbecue sauce they give you at McDonald's when you purchase Chicken McNuggets; it is not something available in plentiful supply in plastic squirt bottles, but rather something doled out sparingly in hard-to-open containers so tiny that since 1983, McDonald's has sold 23.6 million McNuggets, but handed out only five total ounces of barbecue sauce, three ounces of which wound up as indelible stains on my son's shorts.

The Small Business Association of Delaware Valley is offering four seminars next month. The first one, "Time Management for Small Business Owners," will be held Tuesday. The seminar, to be offered from 7 p.m. until 9 p.m., will include discussion on productivity, revenues, priority setting and time management. The cost is $15 per person. On May 8, "Computer Systems and Solutions" will be offered from 7 p.m. until 9 p.m. Topics to be covered include using computers to their fullest capacities, working with spreadsheets for budgeting and forecasting, managing a mailing list and developing fliers.

When the groundhog sees its shadow, there are usually six more weeks of winter. When Allan Domb sees a shadow, it means that someone is paying up to $2,500 to watch the Center City Realtor work. "I'll usually have about seven or eight people a year who fly in from around the country to shadow me," said Domb, who typically sells in excess of $60 million in high-rise condominiums and is considered the leading industry expert on condo sales. "They arrive at 8 a.m. and leave at 7 p.m.," said Domb, who spends much of his 12-hour days on the telephone.

Sears did it. J.C. Penney did it. Now, Day-Timers Inc., the Lehigh Valley-based maker of time-management diary formats and other accessories, has staked a claim to the dual roles of retail and mail order. Last weekend, the company's second retail outlet, known simply as Day- Timer, opened in the Cherry Hill Mall, proof that the experiment begun a year ago at the King of Prussia Plaza was a success. Two more centers are set to open in North Jersey this fall, said Mark Ladouceur, vice president of sales and business development.

Business owners and potential business owners got a chance to brush up on everything from selling techniques to legal issues yesterday at the 1992 Small Business Fair. The event, sponsored by the Small Business Council, was held at the Adam's Mark Hotel on City Avenue. Featured were such seminars as "Power Speaking for Positive Results" and "Time Management for Peak Performance. " Authors, lawyers, investment experts, corporate purchasing agents, and business owners and managers were on hand to meet with participants.

There's still as much time in a day or a week as there was 20 years ago, even 100, but overwhelmed Americans have the sense that there's a lot less of it. "An hour today is different from an hour 20 years ago," says Swarthmore College sociologist Kenneth Gergen. "It isn't reflected in units of time but how rushed people feel. " People will tell you that; they'll say they have less than 20 hours of free time a week, according to Americans' Time of Use Project at the University of Maryland.

Let's just say one thing from the start: No moldy apple cores, small animals of suspicious origin, or press releases dated 1968 were found on Christine Hibbard's desk last week when it was attacked by a master time manager. Hibbard, a book buyer for the University of Pennsylvania bookstore, permitted time management guru Jeffrey J. Mayer to use her desk for a demonstration of his ruthless organization technique. She won the professional cleanup at a booksellers' convention. Mayer clasped his hands in glee as he surveyed the challenge: an average- size desk with papers, catalogs and calendars piled high on its top, shelves bulging with books and folders, drawers stuffed with notebooks and stationery.

You come home from work, tired and hungry, looking forward to a good dinner and a relaxing evening. And then the dreaded homework monster rears its ugly head. Your daughter announces that a 10-page paper on the mating habits of New Zealand guinea pigs is due the next day. Your son whines that he has 100 math problems to do but he can't remember the difference between a dividend and a divisor. Pandemonium erupts. Instead of a good dinner, you microwave yesterday's leftovers.

The talk wasn't about covering the spread and making people somewhat wealthy, if not happy, yesterday after the Eagles lost to the New England Patriots, 24-21, in Super Bowl XXXIX in Jacksonville, Fla. The topic of conversation was quarterback Donovan McNabb, especially on the talk-radio shows. Some questioned his throwing ability and leadership, especially during the ineffective last-minute drive that ended in an interception, his third of the game. But one of his teammates came to his defense yesterday.

Charlie Manuel (2005-11) 645 Gene Mauch (1960-68) 645 Harry Wright (1884-93) 636 Danny Ozark (1973-79) 594 Jim Fregosi (1991-96) 431 SOURCE: Phillies

THE DAILY NEWS EAGLES Fan Panel weighs in on the Eagles' loss to the Bears. Our linebackers really came up weak. Our front four got excellent pressure without the help of a blitz. The linebackers did not pick up the slack. Bradley missed tackles on Forte's 61-yard and 28-yard runs. We can't rely on Samuel bailing us out with a pick every game. And don't get me started on the time management. Again. So now we know that the Washington game was the "Week of the Blue Snow. " Now we know that Michael Vick is probably a better quarterback than at any time in his past.

Everything is outsourced these days. Data entry. Tech support. HR. Call a company in the continental United States, get an operator in Asia. It's the way business is done now. How long until the Eagles figure it out and hire a low-wage foreign national to help the head coach with game management and other areas in which he's failed to fulfill his long-standing promise to "do a better job"? There has to be some brilliant, quick-study slum-dog type who would do it for minimum wage.

Hmm. I wonder what people want to talk about this week? It's time for another look inside the e-mail bag: I'm with you. Let's get rid of Andy Reid, the best coach in Eagles history. Oh, how you and I long for the days of Marion Campbell and Richie Kotite. So what is our plan? Who is a better, proven alternative that is available? If we get rid of Reid, what's the plan to replace him? - Marty Marty, - Gonzo Amen. Obstinate is the right word to describe Andy Reid.

World track champion Christine Ohuruogu said she was to blame for missing three doping tests that led to her 1-year suspension, but plans to appeal the decision to keep her out of the Olympics. Ohuruogu, 23, won the 400-meter world title on Aug. 29, just weeks after completing her ban. She said she missed the testers when her training schedules were changed. "Look, it's my fault," Ohuruogu said in yesterday's editions of The Observer, of London. "The rules are there and the rules were broken.

Among Swarthmore runner Vernon Chaplin, Ursinus gymnast Jessica Furman and Temple softball player Adrienne Repsher, there is a 3.92 grade point average and seven school athletic records. Chaplin is The Inquirer's 2006-07 academic all-star male performer of the year. Furman and Repsher are cowinners as the female performer of the year. Chaplin holds Ursinus records in the indoor mile, indoor 800 meters and distance medley relay. The economics major has a 3.94 grade point average.

Not long ago, I noticed a document about how to manage time tacked to a bulletin board in my office. When I took it down to photocopy it, intending to read it later, I saw that it was five pages long. Shouldn't tips for people who are trying to save time be summarized? Just for fun, I did a Web search using the words "time management tips" and discovered that more has been written about time management than anyone could read in a lifetime. I got 48,300,000 results in a mere 0.12 seconds.

Keeping up with schoolwork while playing sports at the international level isn't easy. Practice, domestic tournaments, and travel to international competition can mean substantial time away from such work. So imagine what it's like going to school in the United States while trying to play for another country's national team. That's what Haverford High junior Rhian Jones is doing. Jones, a member of the Welsh under-16 field hockey team for nearly two years, has her sights on Britain's national under-20 team, which could provide players for the 2008 Olympic team.

Even Barbara Bergeron, an office organizer who has helped many a messy soul, was stunned by the change in human resource manager Trina Lewis' office at Union Packaging Corp. in Yeadon. "This is so much better," said Bergeron, of SOS Organizing Services in Chester Springs. "You have made excellent progress. " Lewis beamed like a first grader who just got a gold star. "I'm no longer embarrassed to bring people in here," she said. Lewis had accomplished a lot since she won The Inquirer's Confess Your Mess contest last month.

Last week, staffers at Mt. Airy USA implemented a financial filing system designed by Karen Fow, a local office organizer who donated her time to the community-development nonprofit. "Now I'm trying to write a grant so we can pay her to do more," said Farah Jimenez, executive director. Fow, of Creating Symmetry in Chestnut Hill, is part of a growing battalion of clutter-busters who are earning their living helping businesspeople deal with the onslaught of information, e-mail and paper.