“Time is what we want most, but what we use worst” ~ William Penn
One of the biggest concerns I have for people in business, myself included, is falling into the same ‘groove’ we were in last year. I was reminded of this when I was facilitating a discussion last Thursday night. The topic of time came up and I was asked if I had observed leaders using time more effectively than others and how they did this.
Time is one of the most important and valuable commodities we have. We all have twenty-four hours in each day. No exclusions. And yet some people use their time much more efficiently than others. Why is that? There are too many reasons to highlight in this blog but I will share one of them with you. One of the most important factors.
They don’t tell themselves that they don’t have the time. And they don’t carry on about how ‘busy’ they are. I’ve never had a one on one conversation with Richard Branson but I wouldn’t think that he tells all and sundry how busy he is and how he hasn’t got the time to scratch himself! As he writes in his book Business Stripped Bare, he rises at 5am to respond personally to any significant client complaints. He makes that time as he sees it as important.
The current state of mental health in Australia is reflective of how poorly we are using our time and how we are being controlled by technology and our environment. The rate of anxiety is increasing in both men and women. This isn’t good for you or me, the economy or let alone the poor individuals suffering.
We need to disrupt how we are thinking about time and look at it differently.
Here’s the fact. You will never get time. It will never just show up. You need to make the time to do things you know you should be doing.
If we are to create a sustainable work ethic we need to utilise some of our time to stop and breathe. No this isn’t ‘woo woo’ stuff, this is needed to sustain the energy levels, mindset and critical thinking required to cut through the chaos of business life and hectic personal lives that run parallel to this.
For sustainability of your business, and your health, you need to change how you are thinking about time and change how you are prioritizing it. 98% of us could prioritise more time for health, fitness and simply breathing/reflective time.
We must to ensure we can navigate our way through the chaos and confusion of our current state of play in business.