Time may be the most valuable asset a business owner has in his control. Wasting time is a formula for disappointment.  By Gary Shotton #000325

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Time Wasted

By Gary Shotton

This text is in Extreme Rough draft and will be edited in the near future.

Hello, I’m Gary Shotton, and I surely enjoy doing these as a part of inspiring better business Hi, BB talks. Today we’re going to talk on the subject of time wasted. And this is not going to be the typical time management do the big things first, do the littler things. Second, I mean, those are true. But I’m going to dig in, I think more on those things that are eroding at your time. And those things that are are just pulling you away from accomplishing what you want to have done. I’m a little older. And so you know, this becomes a little more relevant to me, because when you’re younger, you think you have all the time and under the sun, I have many more years ahead of me, but I’m really conscious of what I’m doing now. So that time wasted is not something I want to do. Well, let’s talk about, we all have 168 hours in a week, you just take 24 times seven, and it’s 168. I’ve done this did it for several weeks, even a couple months, way back on early in my business career, and I clocked all the time on the on little paper chart, the times that I was sleeping, the times that I was eating the times that I was driving or the times that I was working. And I times that I was watching TV. And you know, I would just put a little mark and then I add up our slept most say seven hours each night on I’m not saying that’s what I did. But it’s for 6949 hours out of your 168. And let’s say you took 30 minutes to eat and he ate two meals a day, well do the math, you can figure that out. It’s probably about seven hours of time eating. And now there’s one out what about TV, what about other things to do that it’s well worth it worth it to see and monitor and just see what you really are doing. But still, that’s not what I’m going to talk about. I’m going to talk about those things that are eroding away from your time as a business person. Well, let’s get into it. Well, owning a business cannot become your one and only and number one priority in life. It just doesn’t work that way. It’s actually in my life. Third on the list, you do what you want, but God is my number one, I’m not preaching to you, I’m just saying, I truly believe that he is number one in my life. Yet he told me to work. And he told all of us to work and were responsible to least gain the revenues and monies to feed our families, it’s clearly laid out that that’s his expectation. Well, what’s number two, I believe that truly we should have our family, our spouse or children number two, square on number two, not number one, number two, because if you have number one, right, number two will fall in place. And then you can do something else. And I put third in there is work, job, employment, whatever you want to say. So keep that as your priorities, in my opinion. And still you’ve got a balance. I think the key word here for the entire talk is balance. How can you balance your life in a way that this is going to come out? pleasing at the end of the day into the week, end of the month, end of the year or end of life? That’s what I’m talking about? Well, I don’t like a few things that I seek that could happen. I could see people that are judging other people by how they value if I’m wasting their time. So let’s talk about ourselves first. You know, if I’m going to be respectful of my time, I think it should start with me being respectful of other people’s time, as real simple. If I’m going to set an appointment and be to a given point in time and say to somebody, I’ll meet you at a given time. I’ve said that I’m setting aside my other priorities. And I’m asking you to set aside your priorities for a given meeting time. All we can take two, four or five minutes, either side, maybe eight or 10 minutes, even if you’re driving or if you’re have a little distance involved, but not more than that. You should be there. What if What if What if you’re not? Well, at some point, you decided that your time was more important than the other person’s time. And you would rather waste their time than waste your time you thought, Well, if I just slip in here and buy something on the way to that appointment, I’m surely I’ll get it done. Well, you cut it too close. If you don’t allow some time to get there early on, like in case there’s a car across the railroad track or there’s some kind of traffic jam a reasonable amount of time, you’re going to be late occasionally. So you’ve got to make some adjustments in our system. it and I think the most around that we’re only have phones. So it’s appropriate to call and advise somebody that I have had something arise, could we reschedule that appointment, not for another day, because you’re probably not going to get it. But could we be about 15 minutes late or 20 minutes late, if that’s a a absolute necessity on your part. In other words, you didn’t predetermine, to be late, slip something in, mess up their schedule and your behalf, you don’t want that for them. Because you don’t want them to do that for you. And don’t call out here to be there at two o’clock in the afternoon. Don’t call it five till two and say, Hey, I can’t be there until 230. That’s too late, you should give him a good hour, or a reasonable amount of time I see that something’s come up, can we schedule it to be just a little bit later than we originally thought, just respectful. That’s what you want. My point is, if you don’t waste other people’s time, then you’re going to be more likely that other people are not going to waste your time, I’m going to get to the other people wasting your time real quick here. Another thing when you start a meeting, or you start talking even on the phone, you can do some polite things like asking how much time do you have, so I can gear my conversation. That’s what’s implied. Do you have 30 minutes, 10 minutes, five minutes, boy, look at your watch. Look at your clock. They say have about 10 minutes, then at nine and a half minutes, say I got to write wrap up here and respect for that. And we complete that conversation unless they want to carry it on unless they want to. And so it’s really important that you do that. And then when you’re into a discussion, don’t go on and on and on and on. Be respectful of the other person’s time, make sure that you’re doing it. Because you’re going to ask them to be respectful of your time. You want them to be on time, when you set an appointment, you want them to know how much time you’ve got. Now there could be a situation where you’re on the phone, and even another polite thing to do would be and I do this all the time, I might be in a conversation knowing that another call that’s important coming in. You see, I make a lot of personal calls, a lot of ministry calls, but I also have a company that I’m running. And so I would regularly mentioned, when I start a conversation, if this is true, say I’m kind of expecting a call from a customer. And they would understand that predetermine. Yes, that call is probably more important than the call I’m on now. And then I’d say I’m expecting a call from a customer in the next 10 or 15 minutes. If that comes in, do you mind if I take that call? They would probably say yes. Or you wouldn’t know where you’re at. Again, I’ve mentioned this a little bit ago, but I don’t I could pick it up when someone’s only have time for the special people only have time for those that are important or advance your career. I really don’t like to think of me being or being treated as a little people like a little person. So I don’t treat other people that way. I can tell you that I spend lots of time with many people that have zero chance to repay me, zero chance to in a way I don’t expect any from from this talk. I set aside my time right now to talk to you. And there’s zero chance for most people. I think that’s appropriate. Well, let’s get on some other things. You can look at things like piggybacking. Can you mow the grass and also use your time wisely? Can you drive in our society and talk? There’s where you can get in some extra time. And then of course, if I’m doing a menial task, I might need to do it for a little while. But I’m always thinking about how can I not just delegate it? But how can I create this into a system? Well, for just a few seconds, I’m going to talk about a one that may not everybody agree but my commitment to church, my commitment to my pastor, my commitment to to God, well, my commitment to God is this between me and God and so we have such in the UK And you should work that out to your satisfaction. But there is a scenario that does pop up for business people and I’m going to say this respectfully, especially for Small churches, they many times judge your commitment level to how much time you’re willing to commit and be at church and if You’re not careful. They’ll have a Sunday afternoon meeting. A Monday night meeting a Tuesday night needing a Wednesday morning meeting on Thursday Friday. Afternoon meeting prayer every morning and in a way that implication If you’re really spiritual, you’re going to come to all these meetings. Well, I’m in a ministry of business and I have to learn To say, No, I can do this but not that. I’m not shorting God because that’s another that’s another framework for me. That’s my private time with him. But my commitment to God through the local church or through volunteer organization needs to be The limit needs to be limited to What I can actually do when I’m busy building a company doing that I’m telling you I need every minute I’ve got yet I do some I do balance, but I don’t feel That I’m pressured or compelled. I don’t loud be pressured and compelled to be Overcoming Added to avoid voluntary organization when I read They need to be working and raising money for my family on my job or developed me my business. I hope that comes off in a square. I hope you don’t understand what I’m saying. I’m certainly not telling you to not help at your church because I do every week. Sunday is my day off and I rest and I like that. Thanks for being a part of inspiring, better business.