How organized are you about your time? The actual use of your time.
We all know this – everyone of us has the same amount of time every single day. No one is able to say – “Well no, not exactly, you don’t understand, where I live…..” We all have the same amount of time every single day. The differentiator is how each of us utilizes the time that we have.
An example is a snow day. What exactly is a snow day?
It is a day when you are not able to leave the house because there is a foot or more of snow blocking every single road, highway, sidewalk and almost every business, school, office building are all closed for the day. You might think –“Well a perfect day to make cold calls.” Sure – except you already know almost every number you dial no one will be there as long as they are in your region they are snowed in at home as well!
What will you do with your snow day?
If you listen to the weather report and the odds are good there will be a snow day the next day you might be able to switch any meetings or networking you were going to do into phone calls or Skype calls. You might have a list of items which you know each item on this list requires a bit of undistracted time to complete. This is why each item is on this list as you never seem to get to it. There are always meetings, phone calls, emails and never enough undistracted time. Well, here you are – a snow day!
Do you practice any of these habits?
The temptation is to sleep in, binge watch a series or two on Showtime, Netflix or HBO, or possibly spend time catching up with others on Facebook or other social media platform. The next thing you know the entire day is gone!
Everyone needs a bit of downtime – yes – we all do. Does this mean it is okay to use an entire day which was not scheduled as a ‘vacation day’ or ‘personal downtime day’ for that purpose?
A snow day is a gift! If you have prepared in advance just in case there was a snow a day and had your list of items or even just the day before you rescheduled a handful of meetings into phone calls or Skype calls you would create productivity out of this gift.
It is a shift in thinking. It is a habit which needs to be created. It becomes a new way to utilize your time.
Some of you are thinking, “Sure Mitch, well where I live, it never snows, so nice try but this doesn’t apply at all to me!”
Here is the point – think about you and your time and how you spend it. Another example would be time spent waiting. How often do you go to the office of your Dentist, Physician, the DMV, any place where there might be a line. Now in a public place you really should not be conducting business over the phone. In fact, for a number of the places which are mentioned here the use of cell phones is not even permitted. Do you bring a book with you? Yes that is correct a book – to read and take notes – to use this waiting time as a gift for your own personal development.
In summary, think about how you are able to prepare in advance in order to make more efficient use of the time you have. The one thing about time is – once it is gone – it is gone. You cannot buy more – grow more – borrow more. Make the most of your time.
Mitch Tublin runs a boutique consulting firm with a main focus on leadership development, business consulting and executive coaching where people, teams and organizations are brought to their highest potential. Based in Stamford, CT.
