A friend sent me a YouTube video of Warren Buffett and Bill Gates (two of the world’s richest men) talking about the value of time. The video is titled, “Busy Is the New Stupid.” In the video, Gates talked about how surprised he was that Buffett had so few things scheduled on his (paper) calendar. (He also teased Buffett about that old-school way of scheduling.) You see, Gates thought that any truly successful CEO would have to have a full schedule every day in order to be effective and productive. I believe that’s a common misunderstanding.
When Buffett showed Gates his calendar, there was a lot of “open time” with nothing scheduled. But this wasn’t downtime, and it wasn’t wasted time either. Turns out, it was time for Buffett to read and think. To plan and consider what should happen next in his business and in his life. That revelation changed the way Gates thought about his own time. As he put it: “It’s not a proxy of your seriousness that you’ve filled every minute of your schedule.”
Sitting and thinking might be the most important thing an executive or any other professional can do. And yet I think most executives think if they are not busy, they are not being productive.
Your Time is Precious
Here’s the thing: You can and should control your time. If you are an executive, everyone wants some of your time. And they will try lots of ways to get it. But these folks probably are the least of your worries.
The thing I call “the swarm” is what you need to watch out for! “The swarm” is all the little, yet urgent, things you have to do in a workday. It’s that 90 minutes of catching up on emails (only to realize you can’t really catch up). It’s the customer calling with a problem that requires your attention. It’s the employee who “needs a minute” when you know that means 25 minutes of time you simply don’t have to spare.
It’s also the other many, many things that need doing outside of the office. It’s taking the car in for service. It’s your child’s ball game or school play or awards ceremony. It’s balancing your checkbook, cleaning out the garage, backing up your laptop, making dinner and checking homework.
Carving out time for yourself is not easy, but it should be a priority.
Schedule Time
In our executive coaching program, we encourage our clients to actually block off time for reflection and planning. Also, since we know their time is in such demand, we encourage these executives to spend that scheduled “thinking time” out of the office so they are free of any distractions.
Greater minds than most have had some interesting things to say about time:
- “If you win the rat race, you’re still a rat.” — Lily Tomlin
- “It is not enough to be busy; so are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?”— Henry David Thoreau
- “Time is what we want most but what we use worst.” — William Penn
Buffett put it this way: “I can buy anything I want, basically, but I can’t buy time. I better be careful with it. There is no way I will be able to buy more time.”
To watch the video, go to Busy Is the New Stupid.
Remember: Your time is way more valuable than you might realize! Spend it wisely, and you’ll do what you do better.