There are always people at work who are going nowhere and want company. They have endless time to interrupt, chat, complain, regale with stories, and do everything else but complete their key priorities for the day. These people are time vampires. They suck your blood and make you weak.
Do what you have to do to focus on your priorities. Close your door, give them the cold shoulder, find somewhere else to work, or just say, “you know, I’m really busy and don’t have time to talk.” Don’t let time vampires suck your blood.
The shadow by my finger cast, divides the future from the past;
Before it stands the unborn hour, in darkness and beyond thy power;
Behind its unreturning line, the vanished hour no longer thine;
One hour alone is in thy hand, the now on which the shadow stands
-inscription on a sundial in Wellesley, Mass.
