Make the best use of your time

It is important to make the best use of our time.

When I was the top man in a large company, I had a driver for my company car. The company was not financially strong during its earlier days, so I used a 7 year old car.

But, I employed a driver (paid by the company) to drive me. The driver can worry about driving the car and finding a parking space, while I can sit back and do some thinking and planning. While not driving the car, the driver worked in the mail room.

Now that I have retired, I prefer to take a bus, rather than drive. I am able to do some thinking or read the news in my tablet while I wait for the bus or on the journey. Although the bus journey takes a longer time, the time was not wasted because I could put it into productive use. This is how I could get many ideas to be developed.

As travelling is time consuming, I avoid travelling to meet people. There are other ways to communicate with business associates, e.g. by e-mail and by telephone. There will be opportunities to socialize, e.g. to go to sports or business events.

This is my suggestion to young people. If you can do some errand for your boss, e.g. to make coffee or clean the office, you should volunteer to do the work, even though it does not fit into your job description. If you can save 1 hour of your boss time, that time is more valuable than your own time. So, you are trading your 1 hour, which is less valuable, for 1 hour of your boss; time which is more valuable. You are making better use of your time.

Some people may think that it is demeaning to be running errands for the boss. But it should be seen as a good strategy to trade up the value of your time.

I also encourage people to find a job that is near their home. This is to reduce the travelling time. If the job is far away from their home, they should consider moving their home to be near their workplace.