REIN-TIME

I've had this obsession for some time now, and that is what are some of the traits of successful people. One of the common traits that I've found out is, and I'm sure you'll have some references for what I'm about to say, how they use their time.

Someone once said, time is like a suitcase. Give the same suitcase to two different people and the amount of items each will put into their respective suitcases will differ. One may put more items in a suitcase then the other. Additionally, when you look at the kind of items each pack into their suitcases, it will generally reflect their personality. Perhaps one may wish to leave more space so that it can accommodate additional items. You get the idea.

Bottom line is, we can draw a parallel between time and suitcase. How for someone, it seems like they get a lot done within a day, while for another; its never enough time. In fact, I'm a proponent of being able to use your time in the most optimal fashion. Saying that puts me in the spot sometimes. You see, most people want to be able to spend time chilling out and just doing "brain-dead" activities. I don't deny we all need time to rejuvenate ourselves and we all need time to relax and stay away from 'work'. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

True. Having said that, Jack needs to be able to create a Balance between what's 'work' and what's 'play'. So for instance, if Jack chose to select a 30-70 rule in proportion to his work-play time division, then he needs to understand the returns this will give him. Should Jack be happy with the returns from this 30-70 division, so be it. Now, what I begin to hear about certain people is that they are not happy with the returns they have. "... but John has a bigger house!", "... but Jill now drives a BMW", and so on. However, they are not willing to relook at the fundamental equation of work-play time division. Worse they turn around and say, "... but I have a life you know?!"

One of my friends say, but you do not always put your time to 'productive' use. You need to relax your mind. Get away from the subject. Stand back. Ponder. Gain a new perspective. And I totally agree. I didn't say anything about making money! I only say, you put your time into the most optimal use. I don't think Mother Teresa spends her time reading trashy magazines or watching trashy movies! So, some may say, "... but I am not as great as she is you know?!" My respectful response will be, "You can if you choose to. In your current situation, you may choose another course of action, which doesn't confine you to only reading 'useful' materials and watching 'relevant' tv programmes." Of course, there are research out there that shows that sometimes staying away from the 'herd' instincts does pay. Just like in investment, where George Soros, Warren Buffett, and John Templeton certainly do not confine themselves to reading and watching what everyone else is reading or watching.

You can, and probably should; divide your time in an optimal fashion that you can get the highest returns, whatever your definition of returns may be. If you can just picture a downward slopping curve, with work on one axis and play on another. Any point on this curve will determine you work-play time division. And the curve that you are on will determine your returns. Let us assume that everywhere on this curve will give you the same level of returns now. In the immediate term. However, your choice of the position on the curve will determine how your time curve will look like in the future.

Let's take an example that, you have a fixed amount of monies in a time deposit. It will generate a fixed amount of income for you, based on the existing rate of returns. Now, assume you do not do anything to cause this amount of monies to grow overtime, do you think your returns will remain the same over the years? In fact, for most of you, you'll already know that your returns will diminish in value over the years. Faced with an inflation, you could even possibly run the risk of drawing on your fixed amount of monies, thereby reducing this sum and causing your returns to diminish even more. So, certainly you can still engage in the same work-play time division, but your returns will change over time.

Of course relating this to real life, when you fail to invest your time in a manner that places you in an advantageous position that in the event of certain fundamental shifts in the economic structure, social conditions, or political upheaval.

For the second part of this blog, I'll like to touch on the systems perspective to respecting your own time. Picture this for a second. Say, Jill, a good-natured graduate who left her employer to start her own enterprise. With her experiences and educational background, she is able to provide consulting services to small business on their marketing plans. Being a one-woman outfit, she then decide to be contactable and so got herself a blackberry where she will always be able to answer to emails on the fly. Great for the customer. They feel like they are the only customer and that she is dependable. Of course, Jill does a decent job (probably more than decent as she needs to prove herself). After a while, it got the client thinking. Wait a minute, if she is able to answer to my mails so promptly and is always contactable whenever I need to speak with her, then she might not have a very large client base. If she doesn't have a large client base, which means she will be hungry for business. And if she is hungry for business, she will be willing to accept a lower fee than others who have more clients and are more successful, and possibly better at what they do as well. Now, Jill thinks she is proving an excellent service to the client by being prompt and diligent. Meanwhile, she attempts to ask for a higher fee and find that this become quite challenging. As a result, she needs more contracts to keep herself afloat and because of that she spreads herself too thin and might even ends up compromising on her quality of work, which will prove the client's perception that "... maybe she's not that good".

Now, lets examine this illustration in detail. First, Jill does everything she could to provide the best services for her client. Second, the client is basically just perceiving all of these, where it may not be real in the first place. However, as a result of Jill, unknowingly not respecting her own time, she created a delusion for her client that she may not be too hot a consultant if she is always at the beck and call of the client. Another interesting factor involved in this is, when the client has the slightest thought that "... maybe she's not that good", the client has already activated his reticular activating system, where subconsciously he will be looking for evidences that "... maybe she's not that good". And as we all know, what the mind seeks, the mind finds. Now, the client will start having evidences that "... maybe she's not that good" and as a result of that be not willing to pay her higher fees for her services.

Please don't get me wrong here. I am certainly not advocating that you suddenly refuse to take the calls of people, stay aloof, and demands everyone to make an appointment with you just to see you. Should you do that, you'll see a slight in your popularity that will very soon make you redundant in your organisation or your industry. What I am saying is simply this. Respect your own time. If you say you are going to devote 30-70 to work-play, for heaven's sake, adhere to this and do not let others talk you out of it. There will be people who will sway you from your firm adherence to your work-play division, and that is because its not the social norm that is practiced by everyone. These people probably tried doing it themselves but met with limited success or just didn't have the courage to see it through. What I'm saying is, your firm adherence may make them uncomfortable.

Now, once you firmly adhere to your 30-70 division, you not only demonstrated to others, but more importantly; demonstrated to yourself that you are serious about this commitment and not just paying lip service. When others observe this from the outside, what they generally see is a focused individual who works at what he desires. And how would you feel when you meet someone like that? You'll respect them! You'll not waste the time of Donald Trump, or Warren Buffett, or Steve Jobs. When you respect their time, you'll find that whatever time you spend with them was well worth it, and also you appreciate them taking time off their schedule to be with you. You'll feel honoured as well. You'll feel special. More importantly, you'll find that whatever they tell you to be of value of some sort because your reticular activating system is turned on and your subconscious mind is searching for evidence to back this up.

Of course, if you are Jill, you'll need to be of certain substance. But what can you do if you are in Jill's shoes? If you totally respect your own time, you might get a voice mail instead, so that you can screen the calls and return the ones that are important or urgent. You might check your emails but choose to respond to those that are of priority to you. You may wish to allocate your time and activity in such a way that you can allow yourself to play? You don't want to work yourself to death! See, as a consultant, when you stop working, your income stops as well! What's more, you can invest in an inexpensive call answering service that will screen the calls for you. More importantly, you will be able to demonstrate to clients that when you are with another client, the time is for that client you're physically with. You want to be fair to this client who is currently with you and will give them the same priority if you are with them as well.

So, bottom line of this blog is to REspect and INvest your TIME.

Now for the challenge of the day:

1) Itemise what you do each day for at least a week.

2) Look at the time-stealers (things that are unproductive) and look at how much more you can achieve if you were to fill these (maybe not all, as you're not a dull child) with optimal-time activities?

3) Visualise yourself doing this to see if you are comfortable with this new work-play division.

4) Once you are done visualising, be sure to adhere to it firmly, respect your own time by investing it by engaging in more meaningful activities.


Love and respect,
Melvyn Tan

PS: Just a side note. There was once a friend of mine referred a website designer to me because I was looking for one. I spent at least 2 hours explaining to him about what I do and what I'll like to do for my company's website. To be fair, he did gave some good suggestions and proposed to get back to me with a proposal and quotation. He asked for one week. Its been more than a month now. I hope he's not met with some mishap that impede his speech or ability to send emails. God bless him.