CASE STUDY: A TYPICAL DAY AT THE OFFICE Mark arrived at the office at 7:30 am. He came in early because he wanted to clear his desk of things that had been piling up. Mark began his day by going through yesterday's mail. As he read the first piece, he realized he could hardly deal with it until a colleague arrived. He set it aside and went to the next. This item had potential application to a project he was working on, so he walked down the hall and made a copy for his personal use. Mark noticed that almost half of his mail was junk mail. As Mark continued reading his mail, he came across a journal article of particular interest and became engrossed in it. He was startled to find as he looked up that his colleagues were arriving to work and it was nearly 9:00 o'clock. Mark pushed the remaining mail to a corner of his desk and reached for a project file due tomorrow with at least two days' work yet to be completed. As he opened the file, Joe and Sue stopped by and invited him to join them for coffee. Mark decided he could spare ten minutes. Joe and Sue were both anxious to share the details of a concert they attended last night. Before Mark realized it, thirty minutes had passed and he hurried back to his office. As Mark entered his office, the phone rang. It was Doug, his manager. There was a meeting scheduled at 10:00. Could Mark sit in for him? There was something to be discussed that the department should know about. Mark looked at his watch. There wasn't enough time to get started on the project so he pushed the file aside and vowed to start it immediately after lunch. The afternoon wasn't any better. A few visitors, a few phone calls, a dozen e-mails and the day was over. Nothing had been accomplished on the project that was due tomorrow. As he stuffed papers into his briefcase, he wondered how Joe and Sue were able to attend concerts in the evenings. Examine Mark's use of time: 1. Did he make good use of prime time? When was his prime time? 2. Was he working on his highest priority task? - What was it? 3. Did he seem able to say "No"? - Give an example. 4. Did he practice task completion? - Give an example. 5. Does he seem to understand his problem? - How can you tell