Using and losing

Most of us spend a lot of our lives working at our jobs, whether we like it or not exchanging our time for money is essential to life for most of us. Humankind's most wasted commodity is time; so many people seem incapable or unwilling to take the ownership required to make the best use of the time they have and isn't that the funny thing...none of us know how much we actually have.

I'm often asked how I fit everything into my life, a question that has many answers some of which are: Less sleep, prioritisation, efficiency, delegation, discipline, effort, diligence, even passion as it's passion that helps me deploy all the other things. It's the same whether I'm at work or in my persona life, my true life, I call it. I work hard at making the most of the time I have.

Using time at work

I work in the fast-paced trucking, heavy transport and logistics industry, a demanding and usually unforgiving environment upon which everybody relies. Everybody.

There's always something to do and generally not enough hours in the day, but here's a few ways I make the most of my time and find efficiency.

I spend a lot of time in my company vehicle and whilst I have a home-office I work from I still have to see clients and attend meetings in the company office. Some days I drive fifty kilometres and other days it could be two hundred and fifty, so a reasonable time in the car, but I don't waste it.

• When driving I make calls to customers, potential new ones and other various calls that are required like internally within the company. It means I have to be organised and have everyone programmed into the phone with basic supporting notes, but the time it saves me is amazing. An hour of driving and phone calls saves me an hour of office time.

• Email templates also save me a lot of time. Any email communications that are repetitive like introductions, account applications and communications with my head office are templated. I amend them slightly to be person or situation specific, but the bulk of the body is in my drafts folder. I cut and paste them as required; it's a big time saver.

• Also on emails, I use them to email myself a lot too. I write notes and end email to myself which means I don't forget things which are likely to cost me additional time and trouble later. I use voice dictation for this a lot also.

• I have a phone off policy when processing paperwork or doing basic CRM administration. It means I'm not disturbed and am more focused on the task which translates to efficiency and time saving. People leave messages and I can always get to them later, when driving.

• It's not often, but when I'm tied to my desk I always take a five minute break every hour. I don't go for a cigarette, smoking is for losers, but I wander about my office, stretch my neck, loosen up shoulders, arms and hands and do some deep inhalation breathing. Then I get back to it. The benefit of that five minutes is huge as is the productivity that results.

• Evaluating my day every three hours: 09:00, 12:00, 15:00, 18:00 and 21:00 is another beneficial thing. I take a few minutes to determine how productive the last three hours were and rate it out of ten then ask myself what would lift the score, then deploy that. It means that, should I have been time wasting, instead of losing a day I only lose three hours. Of course, ownership and discipline is required for this one. If you don't have it, you'll not make it work.

• Staying on the front foot is an important time saving method for me. I don't like my phone ringing, it usually means problems, so I call outbound a lot. A lot! It means I stay in front of problems and avoid surprises. Doing this also shows my clients I care, that they can rely on me and the company and that their issues will be sorted out quickly and efficiently.

• Ownership and responsibility are time-savers for me. I have always looked for work, taken on the things people have whinged about doing and done them myself, completed tasks and found new ones and generally lifted heavy shit, which means worked hard. I do this without complaint too. The thing is, people see, those below and above me on the chain, and it's respected. Also, and here's the good part, people catch on and start taking ownership themselves whether above or below me on the chain. They start doing their jobs better, and that makes mine easier. I think it's a good leadership quality and have found it works well; those that don't catch on don't often stay around for long. So, by working harder, doing more, others do the same and that eventually means my job gets easier and I build a lot of good credit with people up and down the chain. If you don't understand ask me about this one and I'll give you a specific example and clarify further. (It's a very important element.)

• Looking after myself in my work day is important and that's why I take the time to start my day in a café each morning. Of course, the ability to do so has occurred due to the the point above, the hard work. It takes care of my mind, thoughts and attitudes, and from there stems the ability to do all the other things required of me. It's a good way for me to start the day off.

• Presence is another most valuable element to making the most of time at work. I am there when I'm there. I mean, I have one hundred percent focus on the task at hand, not less. I've always hated the phrase, fifty-fifty work-life balance. If you turn up and bring only fifty percent focus in a team of mine you'll not last long. Presence in the moment is important, and not just at work; being fifty percent present when making love won't make the experience very enjoyable right? So, be there one hundred percent, or at work, recreation, with the family, whatever...just be there. Yes, that switch can flick from work-presence to personal life-presence in a moment, and so it should...but being present in the moment helps me get the best from the moment.

Ok, this is way longer than I wanted it to be and I've only scratched the surface. I'll stop though, I think y'all get the point.

Being time-efficient means many things and is specific to the scenario we are in at the time. We all do different things so what works for me may have no relevance to you, but I think there's many things we can be doing to make the most of our time at work, to make what we do more efficient and effective and to reduce the level of stress we feel when working. Working smarter not harder, is another phrase I hear a lot, and whilst I think hard work is the path forward, I also feel that we trip ourselves over sometimes, and that's where the work smarter part comes in. I guess that's all my techniques above really are.

Every day, billions of humans are using and losing time; some do it well, and others not. Time-efficiency isn't just a work thing, but let's focus on that part of life. What's your thoughts on the matter? What do you do to find efficiency or get the most value from your working day? Feel free to share some below in the comments if you would like. Also, here's a motivational track about time.