Are You A Rolls Royce?

Here’s one of my favourite tips to help you regain more time.

Whatever task you’ve got on your to do list, whatever job you’ve got lined up, simply don’t do it as well as you normally would. Put less effort and care into it.

Every job you take on could be achieved in less time if you didn’t do it as well.

There you go. That’s it.

Stay safe. Have a great weekend. Etc

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Stop Right Now!

No, I haven’t really finished. There’s more to add but I’ll pause for a moment here to allow the perfectionists to calm down and stop hyperventilating.

Look, it’s a valid point. If you spent less time on certain jobs then you’d have more time to do other things.

True, the consequences of doing the job more quickly might be terrible and there might be a cost involved. Sometimes however the cost would be outweighed by the time you’ve saved. And sometimes there might be no penalty at all!

Immediately you might be saying ‘I’m not willing to compromise on the quality. Full stop’ but I’ll wager that you already are compromising.

How so?

Well, most tasks you do could be done even better by spending more time than you currently allocate. True? In most cases, yes.

So there you go, you’re already compromising and didn’t even know about it!

Can I Ride With You?

You might be doing things to BMW level and that’s because doing them to Rolls Royce level is unnecessary. You’ve already calculated that equation. Or should I say you’ve already come to that compromise.

But what you could consider more carefully is whether or not BMW level is actually required. What’s a step down from BMW? A Ford?

I know nothing about cars so don’t have a go at me if that’s not right but it sounds about right. I’m going to say that Ford Fiesta level is step down from the Beemer but you know what, it’s perfectly adequate for the level required.

It might not get as many admiring glances but will certainly do the job. And working at the functional Ford level, not perfect but definitely good enough, will leave you with more spare time for yourself.

What’s the next level down from the functional Ford? I’m going to say Trabant or Deux Chevaux. Something that just isn’t good enough these days. Maybe doing this level of work just isn’t going to cut it either and you should ensure you don’t cut corners to this degree.

But at the same time you’ve got to check in with yourself to make sure that you’re not aiming to achieve Rolls Royce quality or working overtime, polishing up the BMW when it just isn’t required.

Too many people do this and waste time that could be spent on other things that matter more. If that’s you then you are spending time on things that are not important and you’re cheating yourself (and others I bet) out of time.

Don't polish the underside of the bannister is a saying that I often share when delivering Time Management training.

Well, I have to tell you that I used to polish the underside of my car! It's true.

She She She Shine On

The guy who used to service our car came to me the first time he did it and he looked really confused.

"Iain, I've got to ask you. Why do you polish the chassis?"

"What's the chassis?"

"The underside of your car. It's in the best condition I've ever seen. It's burnished. You're completely wasting your time."

I know nothing about cars but even I knew not to polish under it. I didn't actually know what he was talking about.

It took us some time to work out but what was happening was that we used to park at the back of our house and to access the rear drive we drove along a minimally used grass access track.

The grass, more like wheatgrass really, would grow checked only by the infrequent traffic from just three neighbours. Of course every time we drove along the track the grasses would polish the car chassis.

So I wasn't really spending any time polishing my chassis but I do sometimes use that memory of my mechanic's confused face as a reminder not to waste precious time working excessively on a job that just doesn't need it.

What do you waste time being a perfectionist over? This weekend take a moment to reflect on how else you could better use that time elsewhere.