Time. You can save it, spend it, invest it, and waste. In our business we even sell it. There are many ways to measure it: years, months, weeks, days. You know the drill. With all those physical qualities it remains intangible. While we can't touch it, it certainly touches us. It adds lines, wrinkles, gray hairs, and it whittles down our stamina and ability to sleep through the night without getting up to use the bathroom at least once.
Of all the many things we can manipulate and control, time still eludes us. People talk about saving time. Cool. Can you show me where you store it? Is it in a box or a vault? It's the one thing you are spending while you're in the process of saving it. I realize that "saving time" is a turn of phrase that really shouldn't be taken literally the way you would if you were saving box tops for a decoder ring. It's one of those things we say to give ourselves the illusion that we can control it.
Wasting time is a bit different. It is just that: wasted, never to be found again. That's a shame. What's worse is that in trying to avoid the loss of such a precious resource, we often end up doing just the opposite. We make ourselves quite busy running here and there doing this and that thinking we're investing our time wisely. Sometimes that's true, but I see in my own life that "busy" is just shorthand for "wasting time". If I were truly investing my time, wouldn't I see some sort of benefit beyond being dazed and confused at the end of the day?
Telling the difference between wasted time and invested time can be difficult when we're in the heat of the moment. You have to step back and look at it from a different perspective.
The other day I had to take some important paperwork to my son for his second job he's just taken. That meant a trip to his workplace in Decatur...in the middle of the day...with traffic laden with accidents...in a thunderstorm. After an hour and a half of fighting traffic and calling into question the parentage of every driver that cut me off or honked at me, I finally arrived. Wow, what a waste of time!
My son stepped out of his workplace. I gave him the papers. We exchanged small talk about his jobs and life in the ATL. As he spoke, I caught a glimpse of the easy-going, life-loving boy who used to live with us dancing within the eyes of a capable, confident young man. We only spoke for five minutes. He was on the clock and needed to get back to business. As I walked away, I thought of the drive behind me and the one still to come. Three hours in traffic for a five-minute conversation with my son? Ugh! Then it hit me...time invested, not wasted.
Driving home from work recently I saw a young father in his front yard playing with his daughter. She couldn't have been more than two years old. He was totally at ease. Not rushing and not in a hurry to do anything else. I'm sure there were things that needed doing. Laundry. A call to return. An email to read. It seems he's learned a lesson some don't until it's too late: there will always be time for busy stuff later, the really important work can't wait.
Respond to Bill with an email to [email protected].
