How often do you get ambushed in your office? For example, your co-worker pops his/her head in and asks “Hey, can you please help me with this thing?”. You, out of habit or kindness, reply “Of course I can”. Whether or not you think about it in this way, you have just given your word to help out your co-worker.

Now I know that telling people “no” can be difficult and can seem harsh. I am not suggesting that in your new way of time management, you reject everyone every time they need help–that will destroy any sort of team atmosphere and build serious hostility in the workplace. Instead, defer.

Deferring is a great technique that is relatively simple to execute. In the above conversation when your co-worker pops his/her head in and says “Hey, can you please help me with this thing”, you can reply with a deferring comment such as “Let me finish this project and then I can see if I can help you out”. Or, “I am really swamped today, could we talk about it tomorrow?”.

Deferring ambushes will help your time management in three ways. First, it will allow you to complete your veggies or tasks without having to divide your brain in the dreaded multi-tasking. Secondly, it will allow team to not resent you. Lastly, it effectively communicates your needs and attempts to pair them with your co-worker’s need in the most efficient way possible.

This post is not going to debate the merits of friendly intra-office banter/camaraderie. I can’t think of a single reason to say that having friends in the office or at least maintaining friendly attitudes is bad. However, in terms of time-management and efficiency, they must be put in their place. Literally.

When I first showed up to work in the mornings, I always thought of the first 60-90 minutes as “show and tell”. What happened over the weekend, funny emails, stories from home life etc. First thing in the morning was the appropriate time to discuss all of these things. Wrong! Those first couple of hours are the best time of time to do your “veggies”– those all important tasks that are good for your employment health, but maybe not the most fun.

Don’t get me wrong, building a cohesive, friendly atmosphere with co-workers is very important. But use your time wisely! By employing a “batching” strategy of time management and accomplishing your veggies first thing in the morning, you can maintain relationships and accomplish more.

A huge cause of mistakes in the work place are caused by multi-tasking too many projects in too little time. Replying to emails while checking voicemails and listening to your co-worker’s story about his dog is bound to slow down each task and lead it to be done less effectively.

Our brains are fantastic processors, but they have their limits. Yes, it is possible to do multiple things at once, but it increases the time it takes for our brain to process our thoughts about each task and it is more likely to “cross wires” between tasks and make a mistake.

Wouldn’t it make more sense for us to slow down, take 5 minutes to do a task, do it well and then move on to the next task? While you might feel more productive doing two things at once, stop mistaking activity for productivity.