The Economics of Time-Wasters Vs Time-Savers

Do you work in an office? Do you believe you work very hard but get little results? The simplified table below can help you make the changes you need to be more productive in your use of time. All these may vary from person to person depending on their separate activities but the examples below can act as a good guide in carrying out your own exercise.

ACTIVITY Going to work Office prayers Meetings Telephoning Lunch breaks Receiving visitors Travels Procurement Selling Office paper work

TIME-WASTERS Taking long routes Using slow transportation Entering traffic jams Long sermons Congregational prayers Testimonials Exorcising Meetings in distant locations from work place Large group meetings Lack of meeting agenda Arguments Lack of focus for meeting Talking about trivia on phone Long conversations Talking socials at work Receiving incessant calls Taking lunch breaks at distant locations Taking multiple-course meals for lunch Taking lunch with a large group of people Receiving any and all kinds of visitors Welcoming visitors at all times Engaging in endless conversations with visitors Frequent and long distant journeys Slow transportation Making all journeys personally Aimless shopping Unplanned buying Discussing trivia with suppliers Window shopping Unplanned selling Discussing trivia with buyers Dealing with distant and far flung customers Piling up routine paper work Doing everything yourself Over-centralization of work Delayed decisions Lax approach to paper work Undue procrastination

TIME-SAVERS Live near your work place Avoid traffic jams Use fast transportation Private individual prayers Prayers outside working hours Prayers before work time begins Schedule meetings preferably within working environment Encourage only small group meetings Have a clear and written agenda Avoid unnecessary arguments Focus only on what is important Screen all in-coming calls Talk only business at work Limit your conversations to not more than 2 minutes per call Switch off your phone at crucial work hours. Take light and fast lunch Eat somewhere near-by if not convenient in your work place Eat lunch alone or in a group of 2 to 4 Skip lunch if you can Screen all visitors Receive visitors only at designated periods Discuss briskly and business-like with visitors Reduce frequency of journeys by making only those that are absolutely necessary Learn to use more of the telephone, fax and e-mail Send subordinates if any on less important journeys Use fast transportation if affordable Deal more with customers and suppliers not too distant from where you operate Plan and budget for all purchases Deal mostly with near-by suppliers Be business-like in all discussions Contract out supplies if practicable Order for procurement to be supplied to site Plan and budget for all sales Be business-like in all discussions Deal more with near-by customers Use distributors if convenient Treat paper work as due Delegate as much as convenient Trust and rely on others Avoid procrastination Time yourself Use dead-lines Make quick decisions

 

How to Economize Your Time

Here is one credible and practicable way to economize your time. Since the time available to you and all of us is heavily limiting, you can best use it by simple economics the way you use money. Some people choose to call it “time-management” but I choose to call it “time-economics.” The reason is simple. You can manage money because when you run out of money, you can arrange to get more money. You can get more money by going to withdraw from your savings or by borrowing. When you run out of time, it is gone and gone forever. There is no time-lender anywhere in the world where you can go to borrow more time. All you have and are entitled to is only 24 hours a day. The best you can do within the 24 hours therefore is to manage yourself and your affairs within the available time. This is time economics. 

It is safe to assume that you know how to prioritize your activities. That you know how to choose what is urgent and what is important. That said, you may now want to know how you can maximize the use of the limited time available to you for your work. It is also assumed that you do only the things related to your work during working hours. I hope I am right on this assumption because a lot of people use working time to perform many activities not directly related to the work they do. The best way to maximize the use of your working time is to minimize or eliminate time wastage on the things you routinely do at work. Here is how. List all your daily activities and replace “time-wasters” with “time-savers.” Very simple and the results and impact on your productivity can be quite amazing.