Do Your Best With Time

Here's another guest entry from my good friend and fraternity brother David Spiegel. If you know anything about the East Coast you'll get a sense for how his day went. If you ever struggle with managing time, some of this may sound familiar. As Dave says, we can't really manage time -- it's what we do with it that matters.

Now, let's hear what Dave has to share:

In a week where I have dedicated myself to regaining control over my time, I have come to realize that I am trying to accomplish something impossible. Time is time. Every day has exactly 1440 minutes to it and no matter what we do,we can not create any more of it.

So instead of creating more time we spend our energy trying to make better use of those precious minutes each day.We attempt to manage time.

Well guess what. We have no control over time. Time itself can not be managed. We can not speed it up or slow it down.

Do you know why a watched pot never boils? It's a time thing!

The only thing we can manage is ourselves and what we do with the time allotted each day.

Yesterday was a prime example. I had to be in New York. Without traffic, the trip from my driveway to mid-town where I wanted to be is roughly 18 minutes.I knew I would need about 30 minutes in the City and then blow right back to NJ.I carved out a 2 hour window mid day when I knew morning rush hour would be over and well before evening rush hour.It was a great plan.

Unfortunately that carved out 2 hours became 5.5 hours before I knew it. No big deal. I made adjustments . I had my phone with me and I could accomplish some things sitting in traffic.

Not really. At some point,my phone died. That was shortly after Susan was bit by a dog and had to get treated.Where was I ,her dutiful caring husband? 8 miles away sitting in traffic with no real means of being of any assistance. Truth be told she is fine and it was handled. The point being I could control neither the time or the situation. What I could control was myself and my response to all of this.

It is 4:10 in the morning on this June 12th How am I Doin' Friday. I am doing great as I prepare to make the best of the 1440 minutes allotted to me for the day.I have a seminar at 8:30 in the morning.I have a funeral at 11 , an hour south of the seminar which ends at 10.How long can a funeral possibly take?

Well ,as long as it needs to.Realistically, that may be the extent of what I can attend to today. I have no idea. I can plan to allocate another two hour window . I think by now we realize that will only end in frustration.That is why I am writing at 4 in the morning.One more accomplishment. One more item off of the agenda.By the way ,since I first sat down to write I have used up 34 minutes, approximately 2.5% of my day's total minutes.

I have a business partner in the UK whose work day started a short while ago. I will now jump on a call with him trying to recapture some of those precious minutes, or at least make better use of them.

All of this brings me to one remarkable conclusion. When I spend any amount of time worrying about not having enough time or how much time I am wasting, I am in fact creating my own stress and participating in an activity that I am so desperately trying to end. It can be a vicious cycle.

So I will do my best to do my best with the 1440 minutes I have for today. By the way,since I last checked I used up another 1%.

Have a Fantastic Day!

Shabbat Shalom!

David
Remember to say thank you....It pays dividends

Comments

One Kind of Choice

It is not always the answer, but surprisingly often it is: It's easier to hire a motivated worker than it is to motivate an unmotivated one. That's not the end of the story. It could be great hiring advice though. Whatever the technical skills are for people you are interviewing to hire, be sure to ask some questions about motivation that can't be answered with a yes or no. Questions like: When were you the most motivated in your life? What kinds of work motivate you? What's your approach to a work day when for one reason or another you don't feel very motivated? If you had been here for one week, what would we see that shows us how motivated you are? Start there, and follow-up with more questions. Give each candidate time to convince you whether or not they will bring motivation to your organization. You can teach people almost anything, but it's always easier if they are already motivated. -- doug smith

All Edge in Moderation

I once had a boss who, during my performance evaluation, told me that I was doing a good job as a leader but that I needed to develop more of an edge. I wasn't quite assertive enough. She was concerned that people might take advantage of me. I worked on my edge as a result. I sharpened it thru steady practice. I had an edge to end all edges. At the next evaluation, what do you think she suggested? "You need to dial that edge down a bit," she laughed. It's not either/or. Assertiveness is valuable and necessary. Aggression, not so much. You don't have to dull your edge -- just don't cut yourself with it. -- doug smith

Lead with Compassion

Does your team know that you care about them? How do they know? Is it from your flexibility? Is it from your discipline? Is it from the time that you take to talk with each and every one of them on a regular basis? Times are tough for many team members. They are wrestling with issues that we don't even know about, plus some issues that we DO know about. How leaders respond makes the difference between a functional team and a dysfunctional one. Go for the functional, fully moving forward team that delivers on performance. Build trust, build relationships, spend time getting to know your team and letting them get to know you. The payoff is immense. Lead with clarity, courage, compassion, and creativity. If you don't know where to start, start with compassion. Leading with compassion builds trust. And trust propels high performance teams to success. Go for that success. You can do it. You're the boss! -- doug smith

Character Is In The Actions

Some days it's easier to preach than perform. Resist that temptation. Telling people what to do works for a little while, but eventually they are going to watch to see what YOU do. Character, no matter how it is presented verbally, is revealed in action. Kindness is shown by helping. Courage is demonstrated by standing down an evil force or intention. Creativity is demonstrated in the art created, not the art criticized. I've sometimes fallen into the temptation to preach. It comes easy. Opinions just roll off my tongue. But, I'm working on that. Preaching is easy. Performing takes work. Practice build character. Do the practice. -- doug smith

It's More Than Talk

Every conversation is an opportunity to make someone's life better. Take the chance. -- doug smith

Try Not Lying

High performance leaders communicate without lying. That's harder than it sounds. So hard, that hardly anyone ever does it. -- doug smith

Something Other Than Games?

If you turn the system into a game people will game the system. Competition isn't the only way to achieve excellence. What if you could find a way that didn't also bring the side-effects? -- doug smith

What to Blame

It's better to blame the product than it is to blame the customer because you cannot fix the customer. -- doug smith

Show Integrity

The goals we seek bring a lot of pull to them. We get wrapped in them. It's useful and it's powerful when we care about our goals so much that they propel us forward and keep us working even when we're tired, beyond the boundaries of our usual limitations. But they should not take us beyond the boundaries of our usual values. They should not trick us into bending the rules just because the rules are in the way. Truly high performance leaders of character who are focused, and centered, and noble maintain integrity. No cheating is ever worth the outcome. Integrity is so rare that many people don't even recognize. If you do, be thankful. We need leaders like you. To truly understand integrity you've got to keep it. Even when it's hard. Even the lines are blurred. -- doug smith

Start With Kindness

When you start with kindness you don't have to stay there, but you probably will. It works better for others. It works better for you. If you're human, you'll probably relapse. It does take practice to stay the course. The course starts by starting. When you start with kindness, it becomes more naturally the way. High performance leadership develops from the core leadership strengths of clarity, creativity, courage, and compassion. Build one of those strengths today thru some act of kindness and the others will get stronger as well. -- doug smith

High Performance Leadership

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