My Time Isn’t Yours to Waste

“You may delay, but time will not.”

– Benjamin Franklin

Maybe it’s my good ‘ole Marine Corps training, but I’m a stickler with time. If a meeting starts at 10:00, I want everyone to be there ready to go at 9:50. If I have an appointment at 3:00, I strive to be a little early to ensure any delay is not due to me.

My time is incredibly valuable to me. I juggle multiple priorities and a ten-minute delay here or there could result in a lost hour of productivity on any given day. This lost hour cuts into my life outside of work, which impacts my precious, precious to-do list.

I value my time. Recently, though, I wondered how much I valued the time of others. That was a humbling thought. I then thought of ways I may be unintentionally wasting other people’s time … here’s my list:

Failing to come to meetings prepared
Rescheduling meetings at the last minute
Unnecessarily cc’ing people on emails
Not moving people to bcc after their role in an email is over
Introducing people within my network to each other when I don’t envision a mutual benefit
Tasking people with projects when I don’t have full awareness of the scope of the project
Underestimating the time it takes to complete projects when I delegate
Not allowing for enough time in a conversation to cover all the agenda items

Leading others requires mutual respect. If I value my time, I must also value the time of others. Time is really one of our only non-renewable resources. What we – and others – do with our minutes matter.

I’d love to hear from you – what do you feel are the biggest time wasters in your day? If we all have greater awareness of when we undervalue people’s time, we can work to improve how we treat people’s precious minutes. Email me at amorgan@leadstar.us.

My best, Angie

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