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Hospitality Leadership Through Learning
Faculty & Research

No Time Left For You: Time-Management Strategies for Restaurateurs

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Vol 39 No 5
By: Edward A. Merritt and Florence Berger

Executive Summary: "No time for a gentle rain, no time for my watch and chain, no time for revolving doors, no time for the killing for there's no time left for you." Bachman and Cumming's anthem to lost love of the '70s has taken on a new meaning in the 1990s. Time seems to be in short supply for everyone. Some of the respondents to a recent survey by Day Runner, Inc., for example, say they are "insanely" busy.' Perhaps as never before, managers need to develop effective time-management skills to stay afloat successfully amid the surging torrents of information, people, and tasks bombarding them. Nowhere are time problems more crushing than in the restaurant business. In this article we discuss the results of a survey of restaurant managers regarding their timemanagement habits, and we offer a framework for better personal time management. First we discuss some of the details of the study-including its purpose, methodology, and findings, as well as implications and lessons learned. Second, we discuss how restaurateurs manage their time and why they are managing their time poorly, and we explain a diagnostic tool for helping managers account for where their time is going. Finally, we examine solutions for more effective time management. Topics include breaking bad habits, delegating, eliminating interruptions, and dealing with paperwork. If managers need an incentive to read further, note that a majority of study participants stated that application of time-management skills increases their organizations' bottom lines by at least 15 percent.

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