How many times have you thought these words or heard yourself utter them? Stop and think about what you are really saying. You likely mean you are certain that whatever other people are asking of you is not as important as what you are doing at that moment in time. Now also think about how you say it. Are you using a strong tone of voice that could mean you don’t care about the people to whom you are saying it? If you demonstrate concern in the way you say it, then you might also say "I will make time in the future when my schedule is a little more open." There is always a better way to phrase the statement "I Don't Have Time." Saying or thinking that you do not have time for taking a mental health day or to carve out family time shouldn't happen if you want to have a less stressful and better quality of life. Even though you may feel it's okay to not carve out this important down time, you also need to think about how it effects the people around you.

 

We have talked about how to use the words "I Don't Have Time." Now let's s talk about knowing when to use the words. One time to use the words could be if someone is trying to sell you something you don’t need. These people sometimes need to hear "I Don't Have Time" to get them to leave you alone. Another idea could be when people won’t leave you alone and they are just taking up your time with small talk or want you to do their work. We can use these words in many ways but the trick is to use them in a way that people get the point but are not offended by the them. Granted this may not always be possible but we can at least try.

 

We run into these kinds of people all the time when networking. The salesmen, time suckers and people that really have nothing of value for us. You will run into the same people after a while when you are networking on a routine basis. You should be able to find out who they are and listen to their story first. What you are doing is sizing them up and getting to know what their focus is. So in the future they may not jump on you right away or will at least spend less time conversing with you. It all depends on your purpose when talking with them and understanding that we all know someone that could use their services and they know someone who might use our services. So by shortening the time they take speaking proves to be courteous and they are more likely to remember you in a good way because you did take some "time" to listen.

 

Part two of “I Don’t Have Time” will address keeping networkers like this at bay, but also help you build your fan base.