Making the Most of Time
By Azim Jamal
www.azimjamal.com

Sometimes you have to slow down to speed up. One day, I came home to a busy work schedule. My son, Tawfiq, wanted some attention from me and I ignored him, focusing on my computer work. He stood right beside me, not letting me work. I spent two hours trying to shrug him off. I did not get much of my work done and Tawfiq was disappointed at his dad’s lack of interest. The next time this happened, I went on my knees and gave Tawfiq my heart, attention and love. Within three minutes, he was so satisfied that he went on to play and I had a good hour and fiftyseven minutes to work on the computer. Sometimes in life, slow is fast. If you have an irate customer complaining about something, give that person your heart, body, mind, spirit and unconditional attention and in a short time you will defuse the difficult situation.

“The less effort, the faster and more powerful you will be.” — Bruce Lee

There is often an inverse relationship between urgent and important. People focus on urgent, but the urgent is not always the important. For example: health is not urgent but is important; reading is not urgent but is important; reflection is not urgent but is important. Brain Tracy states: “One of the best uses of your time is to increase your competence in your key result areas.”

Many of us are familiar with the example of big rocks being put in a jug followed by small rocks, water and sand. Once the big rocks are put first, the small rocks, water and sand go in easily. If, however, the small rocks, water and sand go in first, there is no room for big rocks. What many of us don’t know is what our big rocks are and if we are putting enough time into our big rocks. The important items are the “big rocks,” which if not done first will probably not be done at all.

Doing less to achieve more I was sharing the concept of doing less to achieve more with a pharmaceutical company in the United States. One of the participants could not get his head around this concept. He questioned how one can achieve more by doing less. He was always taught to achieve more by doing more — working harder, faster, and smarter. I explained the key is to be laser-focused on important things and eliminate insignificant things. If something is not significant, it should be eliminated. If for some reason you cannot eliminate it, you should delegate it. If you cannot eliminate or delegate, then procrastinate doing it. After elimination, delegation and procrastination, you need to prioritize. Once this is achieved, you execute around a tight set of priorities. In doing this, you do less but achieve more by removing items that do not add value to your life.

If you have too many priorities, you have no priorities! As Warren Buffet states: “I can’t be involved in 50 or 75 things. That’s Noah’s Ark’s way of investing. I like to put a large amount of money in a few things.”

Kairos and Kaizen, not Chronos
When we spend our time wisely and practise continuous improvement, we invite “signs” that expedite our journey in this direction. Some people are too caught up with traditional time management. Chronos is the Greek word for time as we measure it by clocks and calendars. It is linear and sequential. Everyone goes through time. However, few practice Kairos. Kairos is the Greek word used in the Christian Bible to indicate a fixed or definite period — an opportune season or a critical time. The latter practice happens when we are present. To get maximum benefit from it, you must reflect on how to spend it and how to make appropriate choices. When we learn to differentiate between chronos (linear time) and kairos (quality or value time), we begin to manage time well and appreciate the power of being present. Kaizen is a Japanese word for continuous improvement, which also happens when we are fully present and spend time on important things, such as reading, exercise, planning and meditation.

Knowing when your energy is highest helps you do your most important work at that time. I wake up at 1:30 a.m. a few days a week to do my most creative work. I sleep at 8.30 p.m. I do not recommend this sleeping pattern to everyone. However, choose the pattern that enables you to do your most important work when your energy is at its highest.

Azim Jamal is the No. 1 Amazon Bestselling Co-Author of The Power of Giving: How Giving Back Enriches Us All (published by Penguin). Now available on Amazon and at major bookstores.