How Do You Use Your Time?

One could argue that the most valuable resource on this planet is something you can never acquire more of, and you can never get back.  Time.  The great Warren Buffet once taught Bill Gates a lesson about time management and described it last year at an event where they both spoke. Buffet said, “It’s the only thing you can’t buy.  I mean, I can buy anything I want basically, but I can’t buy time.”  I know the financial situation Warren Buffett or Bill Gates are in is not relatable to us, and we most likely aren’t able to purchase anything we want, but I think that’s why when I heard this speech it really stuck with me.  I spend a lot of time researching and studying what the people I deem “successful” do in their day to day lives and try to utilize and replicate these tasks in my own life. After hearing them talk on this topic of time management, it really opened up a new world to me.

Enamored by what they were saying, I watched the entire speech and it led me to pursue much more research on the topic.  (P.S. The speech took place at Columbia University, and if you are interested in it yourself it can be easily found on YouTube.) Warren taught Gates about the value of time.  Gates, like myself and many other people, liked to schedule his day out from start to finish.  In fact, I have read that many successful business owners, CEO’s, entrepreneurs, high level executives, etc. schedule their days out in 15 and 30 minute increments. Interesting fact, Elon Musk schedules his days out in 5 minute increments!  Gates was just like this, scheduling out every part of his days and sticking to it as closely as possible. When Warren showed him his schedule and there was essentially nothing listed in his pocket calendar, he couldn’t believe it. 

And here is where the big lesson lies. Warren doesn’t let other people use his time.  He uses it for himself, and to his benefit.  He, like us all, only gets so many minutes in the day, and as he said, it is the one things we cannot buy more of.  “Sitting and thinking may be a much higher priority,” Gates said , reflecting on the lesson taught to him.  Now, I have no idea what Elon Musk’s daily schedule looks like.  It may include scheduled periods of time for sitting, thinking, or reflecting, and as crazy as it sounds, scheduling his day out in 5 minute increments seems to work for him.  Personally, I like to schedule 70% of my day in 15 minute increments. I make sure to even schedule in the drive times to jobs, meetings, and events so I get a reminder 15 minutes before leaving and I remember I cannot schedule anything for that 15-30 minute block. 

I only schedule 70% of my day because, working in the Landscape/Construction industry, it seems like there are more variables that I am unable to control than there are that I am able to. Things pop up every day, so I need to be able to adapt and adjust and having 30% of my day set aside for such variances is something that works well for me.  Implementing this type of schedule has allowed me to do a lot more throughout my day, and therefore has led to an increase in my productivity. Another benefit I have found in scheduling my time is that I make sure the time scheduled for a certain task is what I spend my focus on. Previously, I would try to focus on a specific task, but I would have so many other things on my mind that I was distracted, and my time wasn’t utilized the most effectively.  Now, since I have all those other tasks also scheduled, it’s easy for me to let those ones rest until their scheduled time, and just focus on the task at hand.

This is what has worked for me, but just like how Buffet and Gates are so different, so are we all. For example, if I were to ever show my wife my daily schedule, I think it would stress her out more than help her because her mind works so differently than mine.  Warren Buffet would probably look at my schedule and how I go through life and think what I do is completely wrong.  Elon Musk would probably look at it and see wasted time on tasks.  You have to take the time to figure out what works best for you, even if it comes with some trial and error. And then when you find what works for you, the key is to stick with it and be disciplined to it. 

Discipline is another key word when it comes to being successful with time management.  If you are going to schedule your days out, you need to stay rigid and committed to your schedule. We all have tasks that need to be done but are the ones we would happily put off or skip because they are the ones we most strongly do not want to do. Once I started to schedule these “least favorite” tasks onto my calendar, it was the first thing I would try to move around in my schedule because, the fact of the matter is, I still didn’t want to do them. I quickly realized that if I wasn’t going to use the schedule I created, then I was really missing the whole point. You must stay disciplined to your calendar and do what you have written in, even if you don’t necessarily want to.  It is pointless to put something on a schedule to accomplish and then keep moving it so it still never gets done. There is a saying about “eating the frog first”, and even though it sounds strange it is such a great statement. Nobody wants to eat a frog, but if it has to be done, schedule it to be one of the first things you do and get your most dreaded task out of the way first. After that, everything else will seem much easier to accomplish.     

There are 1,440 minutes in each day.  How you choose to use this invaluable resource will dictate your future.  As I have laid out in this article, there are many different ways to best utilize your time, and no one way will work for everyone.  Your job is to figure out what way works for you.  What is something that you have wanted to do/accomplish in life that you constantly don’t have “time” for?  How can you use time management principles to better schedule your days, and find the time to accomplish this task?  How can you best use your time to benefit you?