Time should be an ally, not a foe

Time. We all spend it. But whether we spend it wisely or not is another issue. Knowingly or not, some of us follow a well-known business law originated by economist Wilfred Pareto. The Pareto Principle states that, on average, only 20 percent of the work we perform each day are truly necessary and fruitful. The remaining 80 percent, we largely fritter away on trivialities or unnecessary tasks. But a question arises. If spending 20 percent of our time can get us through our daily grind, why not spend 100 percent of our time pursuing our goals? While we may not all achieve mega stardom or financial success, we can certainly learn to use our time more wisely and efficiently.

Business, relationship and self-help gurus remind us that in our personal and professional undertakings, we should set a new goal for ourselves and concentrate on achieving it. We must not let resistance, distractions, or setbacks prevent us from moving steadily toward the finish line and get the reward for a carefully planned effort. Focus is key in reaching the ultimate destination, and based on our own experiences, we can see more clearly which activities really matter, and which don’t.

Emmet C. Murphy, author of the New York Times business bestseller Leadership IQ, offers four strategies for investing our time wisely:

• Look before we leap. Our initial investment of time in any project – that limited period during which we contemplate a task before rushing headlong into it – can be the wisest we can make. Doing so sometimes requires a good deal of discipline, a self-control often hard to maintain before the battle commences. Haste makes waste – a truism we all know but often forget. In our eagerness to succeed at a task, we can easily waste that pre-battle contemplation.

When we have to make a major decision, avoid acting brashly. Taking a break or a time off to allow us to think long and hard can be a welcome proposition. It can provide us the respite to clear the cobwebs in our mind, brainstorm our thoughts, and write down our strategies. And as we head back to our homes or offices, we hopefully have been able to visualize the steps we will take that vouchsafe positive results. Anxiety can get in the way, but if it does, we must pause and review. By looking before we leap, we can make things go right.

• Make the most of every minute. Time, just like a coin has two faces, and we must value both sides of this coin. Concentrate on what really mattered and shun what didn’t, consistently set and re-evaluate priorities, and separate activities that count from those that don’t. We must appreciate the value of time well spent, and avoid the trap of irretrievable waste of time squandered. Whatever tasks we tackle in our businesses or our lives, we should be reminded of this simple maxim – It’s not the time we spend; it’s how we spend our time.

• Follow our heart. Oftentimes, once we’ve chosen a particular route in life, we hesitate to change direction; even if we’ve grown disillusioned with that route, we fear that we will look back and regret all the time, we wasted doing something we didn’t really love. But, how much more might we regret not having the time to change direction?

Never turn our backs on our dreams. Our hearts will be overruled by our heads if we do so. Can we honestly say we’ve never felt regret over not having followed our dream, even if that dream somehow seemed impossible? Listen to our hearts, discover our passion, and don’t let logic always win out over our feelings. If we do what we love, success will follow.

• Practice, practice, practice. Anyone who has ever tried to hit a little white ball with an eight iron into a 4-and-a-half inch cup 120 yards away knows the meaning of frustration. Everyday millions of people play golf around the world, but only a select few can land the ball close to the cup a hundred times. Maybe we could, but not without practice.

Do we ever do something enough to get fairly good at what we do? Have we ever given something up because we found the necessary practice too tiring, frustrating and time-consuming? Practice may not make perfect, but it can make things go right.

Where has time gone? The question we ask ourselves at the end of each changing season. Indeed we all know how easily time can get away from us, with minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and even years seeming to pass in the blink of an eye. Nevertheless, we can choose to manage our time rather than let it manage us.

Time Well Spent At Iabc Forum

"X-People" with fantastic careers shared their precious time talking to members of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) in a forum held at the Filipinas Heritage Library recently. They divulged how their rare pursuits zoomed with their adept use of communications skills.

Stage actress Monique Wilson, disc jockey/columnist Joe D’Mango of WAVE 89.1, composer/folk singer Noel Cabangon, and diplomat turned PR consultant Junie Del Mundo talked on how communications helped them carved extraordinary professions. The freewheeling discussion, "Fantastically Fresh Ideas: Using Communications to Succeed in Extraordinary Careers," featured a town-hall arrangement to allow for greater interaction among speakers and audience.

Wilson is, of course, a seasoned thespian, while D’Mango is a hip radio executive-announcer and newspaper columnist famous for his "Love Notes" that dish out empathy-filled but never patronizing advice to the young. Cabangon is the name immediately attached to the heartwarming "through-the-years" jingle of McDonald’s, and Del Mundo is a former foreign affairs crackerjack who now enjoys staging events and doing advocacy work.

IABC Philippines is a grouping of senior and up-and-coming communications professionals who refuse to be stereotyped and be predictable in their lifeworks and the major communications programs they handle. It is the local chapter of a San Francisco-based global association of some 13,000 PR practitioners. Its annual Gold Quill awards are one of the most prestigious awards for best practices in the communications industry.

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E-mail bongo@vasia.com or bongo@campaignsandgrey for comments/questions.