To improve your performance at work, make sure you are spending your time the right way. It’s possible to be busy all day and accomplish very little.
Your time is a resource and you have to watch out for activities that may seem like a good idea but could lead to problems.
For example, when I was in college, I would sometimes see students move a mattress by tying it, with rope, to a car’s roof. For extra stability, the student would drive slowly and try to hold the mattress in place with a free hand.
For the students, it made sense, as a mattress is too big to fit in a trunk. The mattress on the roof option saved money and theoretically could work if you traveled short distances, at very low speeds. Otherwise, you’ll likely damage your car, the mattress, and maybe cause an accident. Some of these challenges are illustrated in this article.
You shouldn’t approach your job like a college student moving a mattress. Consider these tips to make sure you’re spending your time the right way.
Does The Shortcut Guarantee Success?
Your idea that should save time may not work as well as you think. Is it like a recipe, where if you follow certain steps, you are guaranteed an outcome?
Or does success depend on certain conditions being a certain way? The more you dance with unpredictability, the more likely, you’ll step on someone’s toes.
The Obvious Solution
For the college students, the best solution is probably to rent a moving truck or find someone who has a pickup truck. Those options likely involve some kind of compensation but you have a much clearer path to a good outcome.
Usually the thing that keeps you from accepting the obvious solution is price. But before you balk at the number, consider the cost if things go wrong or aren’t performed at an acceptable level.
Do High Value Activities Scale Up?
A business owner, who wants to improve customer retention, might decide to handwrite a personal note to every new customer, making sure each is satisfied.
This works well for 10 customers a week. But would the strategy work as well if the number of new customers increased to 150? Suddenly, the owner writing notes all day.
The otherwise good process doesn’t scale well to larger numbers. In your world, an activity that has been valuable, may not scale up, as you become more successful.
Same Activity, Different Way
Let’s stay with the handwritten notes to consider how it could work. Because sometimes a good process just needs to be modernized.
In the case of the customer notes, perhaps a printed card could convey the same information and the owner could just add a personal line or two, instead of having to write the whole thing.
The goal is to find a way to duplicate the impact, without the process monopolizing your time.
In business, it’s smart to review processes and best practices, in terms of demands on your time. It’s possible they take too long to perform or no longer have the impact they once did.
What’s Missing?
Are there activities you mean to get around to doing but never have the time to accomplish? This often happens when your schedule becomes packed with low-importance, time consuming activities.
If you learn the value of spending your time the right way, you may find you suddenly have more time to take on new projects.
Let’s Create a Memorable Meeting
