Avoid Time Wasters and Interruptions

There will be times when you may find it difficult to implement your best plans or intentions. You may frequently find that time-wasters and interruptions are the culprits. Therefore, safeguarding blocks of work time is essential. You need to protect your time by saying “no” to various interruptions, activities, requests, or persons. Interruptions are a two-fold problem: the interruption itself, and the expectation of further interruptions. Both reduce your effectiveness considerably. Even ten-minute blocks of time can be used constructively if you have preplanned tasks that need that amount of time.

Some interruptions can be avoided by keeping in mind the following:

· Arrange your work area so that your back is to the traffic flow.

· Close your door; open it selectively.

· Find and use a special space such as a library carrel or an office where friends will be unable to find you.

· Return telephone calls when it is more convenient for you, perhaps when you take a study break, or simply unplug your phone.

In all of your organizing activities, the key to success is practicality. Consider such “mundane” factors as library hours, bus schedules and routes, and turnaround time for the computer.

Also recognize that there are specific limits as to how much actual “organization” is helpful. Beyond a certain point, adding techniques may simply create additional time problems rather than solving previous ones.

Translate the following sentences paying attention to the verb given ( in the beginning of a sentence it is translated враховуючи, беручи до уваги, у випадку) and modal verbs must, can, may, ought, might, to be (Pay attention to patterns modal verb + Past Participle ) in italics:

1. These target figures are not wildly extravagant, given the rate of development which Russia has already achieved. (“The Times”)

2. Given the present industrial climate, the arrangement which grants the personnel no voice in determining the modes of payment or in the management of the enterprise seems to have proven insufficient to bring about the improvement of labour-management relations necessary for greater productivity. (“Economic Issues”)

3. Given good weather the campaign should greatly help the supply of fodder. (“The Times”)

4. His early years are but little known to biographers. Yet, he must have started studying music at a much earlier age than is generally presupposed. (Biography)

5. You must have read about many acts of violence directed against the negro communists of South Africa. Yet there may and, indeed, there must have been others which have never reached the columns of the press.

6. The Algerians could never have committed the atrocities the bourgeois press alleges they have done. (“DW”)

7. The Costa-Rica Government may have incurred heavier debts than those officially started. (“The Economist”)

8. War preparations in Germany must have started earlier than was announced in the newspapers.

9. Development in India is to proceed at a faster rate than hitherto, the Indian Times announced yesterday

10. We are just to start immediately! Please none of your “Just another minute please”. The steamer is leaving and we can’t afford to miss it. (S. Brown)

11. The relaxation of international tension may yet prove to be a more potent factor than many continue to think.

12. What we ought to do with all our might is to put struggle and struggle again against the infiltration of American comics in Great Britain. (“DW”)

Дата добавления: 2015-07-10