If You Have Had To Only One Thing To Be Successful: It Ought To Be Time.
Posted by Abdul Vasi on 23 Apr 2007 at 5:38 pm | Tagged as:
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So you are a hot-shot MBA? A very high-flying executive in a large Multi-National Firm? A business-man? Chances are that no matter who you are and where ever you are, you would be really slogging to get your 24 hrs working well for you. It is really the most difficult thing to manage for the clock-fearing and unorganized and the easiest for some focused people out there.
Time management has been raved and ranted about. It has been discussed and practised. It is still, very much Unlearnt. Not because it is difficult. It is because it calls for some major attitudinal change, the ability to prioritize and also say NO a thousand times during the day. It calls for refusing to fall for any temptations might even call for a major environmental change around you, every single moment of your day. That probably is the reason why it is not even put into practice, unless your life depended on it.
I loved this bit about the character, Will Smith plays in the movie ” The Pursuit of Happyness”, where he sets about explaining his ordeal of going through his interns and training which is about to form his foundation for a stock broking career.The little bit of back-ground narration almost changed the way I do my own business. He apparently starts making calls using the telephone from the word go and does even hang up the phone for saving those few seconds it could have cost him just to pick and replace the receiver. He also doesn’t indulge in drinking water to save time which would otherwise be wasted in the wash-room. While this might be an extreme case of a very successful man who has achieved a lot in his life since he had eventually started his own brokerage firm, it basically says a lot of things. Doesn’t it?
I had actually taken the cue from this movie and had applied it to my daily sales calls. It really works. I used to while away my time, resort to all kinds of temptations that abound in your daily surroundings, at every point during the progress of your day and make some 2 to 3 corporate calls per day. After I had put this time management into real use, I was able to complete almost 8 calls by half a day and still had time for 8 more if I had wanted to. Even after that, I could meet some clients casually as a courtesy call and then get back to office to finish my paper work. I could leave home by 6 after a day like that. Call it time management at its infant best. If it were done more scientifically, I could have done much more.
There are all kinds of templates at www.businessballs.com/time for your reference. All kinds of articles on Time Management and a lot of other resources online regarding this subject. Reading all about it is one thing. Doing it actually takes a very high level of committment, dedication and resistance to temptation, which again calls for a very focused attitude and an relentless passion for whatever it is that you do. Just try it once and see what it can do to your day.
According to businessballs.com again,
Manage your environment as a whole - especially at the proposed or actual introduction of new systems, tools, technology, people, or processes, which might threaten to generate new demands on your time. If you accept changes without question - particularly new technology that helps others but not you - then you will open the way for new increasing demands on your time, or new interruptions, or new tasks and obligations. Instead consider new technology and other changes from the point of view of your time and efficiency. Ask yourself - is this going to save my time or add to my burden? Managing your environment - which includes managing, redefining, or reconditioning the expectations of others - is a critical aspect of effective time management.
Like the title says, if there was just one thing that you could to see your life as a whole and business in particular change, it could be learning how to use your time effectively and productively. I Know it could be boring to have heard this a million times. But the question is, you won’t know how much more boring it could have been if you did not how to manage your time at all. Did I say boring? I think it could be devastating.