Has anyone grabbed you with that line? Does it ever "just take a minute"? Rarely. What typically "just takes a minute", generally consumes several minutes and more.

Next time, when someone asks for your time and assures you,” This will just take a minute", tell them, "You're lying. You may not realize you're lying, but you are. I'll give you five minutes. You may begin now."

No, you don't. That's a lie, too. You need it by a certain date and time because you are going to do something with what I provide for you. And if you're not going to do anything with what I provide for you, why am I doing it for you in the first place?

Don't lie to me. Tell me when I have to get it to you. Be specific. You and I probably have two difference dates in mind when we think in terms of "as soon as possible".

I doubt it. In this 24/7/365 world, everyone is under a sense of artificial pressure to get it done "now" or worse,” yesterday".

Things are generally not that urgent. Don't get caught up in someone else's urgent trivialities.

Call the liar to task. "I'm not sure I can get that done now. What if I got it to you one week from today?" Use an outside deadline to give yourself ample time to prevent getting into crisis management.

Oh, and if they reject that alternative, try three more better dates for you. Why? Because they may keep lying to you.

When it's not about the money, it's about the money.

Not true. There's always something better. The best is yet to come.

It's a fib. Ever notice how it almost always takes twice as long to get something done as what you thought it would? That's because few of us have a very accurate internal clock to estimate the time required to complete most tasks.

Most people who are "late" have a consistency about their behavior. My friend Dwayne is 20 minutes late all the time. If we need to meet for lunch tomorrow, it will take him 24 hours and twenty minutes to get there.

You don't get “nothing for nothing”. Everything has a cost. It may not cost you your money but more often it will be your time and more of it than what you are getting in return for “free”.

But if it's a repetitive task, it's a lie. If that one hour investment will save you 10 minutes every day, then in about a week you have your investment back and now you have a dividend of 10 extra minutes a day. What if you do that six different times? You get an extra hour in your day and 365 hours over the next year.

Not true. Going through whatever you have to go through is almost never as difficult as you imagined it to be.