Tag: saving time

If They Aren’t Listening, Stop Talking

A loved one
calls every day
to ask me
to ask someone else
to do things
for her.

I’ve told her
numerous times
to leave that someone else
a message.

She doesn’t listen.

And I’ve realized
she will NEVER listen.

So I’ve stopped saying anything.

I’ve also stopped
relaying messages for her.

I listen
and then I ignore her requests.

That has made life
much easier for me.

And surprisingly
she still manages
to get the loved one
to complete her many tasks.

When people aren’t listening
to you,
stop talking.

Leave that energy
for some other task.

Touch It Once

One of the things
that has saved me time
over the years
is
touching tasks only once.

For example,
I don’t open emails
until I have time to answer them.
I’ll scan my inbox for urgent messages.
Then I will save the rest of the emails
to process at a later time.

When I process those emails,
I read them,
answer them if I can,
and
forward the emails
I can’t answer.

This saves me time
because I only have to read them
once.

If I read the emails
and set them aside for ‘later’,
I’d have to read them twice.

That might not seem
like a huge time saver.
It is, however.
Because I receive thousands of emails
a day.

If you can,
arrange your work flow
so you touch tasks only once.

Whose Time Is Being Wasted?

It takes time and effort
to craft the short posts
here at client k.

I read for hours every day,
researching topics.
It then takes about 30 minutes
of writing-time
to condense my thoughts
into about 100 words.

It likely takes you
about 5 minutes
or less
to read each post.

I could have
plopped snippets of everything I’ve researched
into a much longer post.

That would have saved me time
but it would have cost you time.

Seth Godin
shares another example.

“A friend recently sent me
a note via voice mail.
It was 14 minutes long.
Because he didn’t spend
another ten or fifteen minutes
editing it
into a three-minute long email,
he wasted a ton of my time.
But the nature of 1:1 interaction
meant that it was
either his time
or mine,
even steven.”

When crafting communications,
determine whose time
is most important.
Then design the interaction
to benefit that person.