Workplace Calisthenics: Relax, prioritize to get the most out of precious time

We never have enough, but we can always find some when we need it. And it never reappears in exactly the same form.

Hair? Humor? Happiness?

No. Try ... time.

Tell me, how do you plan to use up your life this coming year?

Regardless of the size of your bank account, your address or your IQ, you and I share commonality when it comes to time. Both of us are given exactly the same number of minutes every hour and the same number of hours every day and the same number of days every year.

As we get ready to wave good-bye to a year we will never see again (unless you are stuck in your own "Groundhog Day"), maybe some skills on how to unwrap the best present any of us can ever be given, another day, would be appropriate.

Specifically for 2001, here are four practical principles that detail how we can devour each second.

First, relax. That's right; even though you will never experience this moment in time again, just savor it. Roll this minute around in your head, let it hang there, and taste it. Becoming frantic over the unrelenting sweep hand on your wristwatch will only harvest a bumper crop of ulcers and nibbled nails.

Think about your child's Cheerio bracelet, designed at the breakfast table, which you totally missed because you were late for work. How about that sunset you did not have time to catch because the recount regurgitation was coming on? And have you had time to smell a flower or send one?

There just have to be kick-back moments when we just jump off the treadmill and savor the second.

Second (I could not have planned that), ask yourself, if you had one year to live, what would be the three priorities of your life? That's right, just three.

Those three items would sculpt your time. The passion connected with achieving your unfulfilled dreams would quickly dictate what goes on the pages of your planner.

For those of you who think this second item would just drag you from one continent to another conducting orgies of selfishness I don't think so. I am convinced some of our passions would include our families, our faith, our communities, our artistry and our businesses.

This second item drives me. I, like so many of you, in the absence of pain, believe I am immortal. I just found out I will be a grandfather for the first time in May of the new year, and I am already looking for the miniature fishing pole, planning the summer evening Little League baseball games, taking pictures of awkward teens at the Snow Flake Ball and planning quiet moments of starting all over again with an infant in my arms.

But in the back of my mind, I know there are no guarantees, and, in the absence of surety, I still have dreams that I need to dress in flesh. These dreams drive me and how I spend my time today.

Third, find a healthy erasure.

What on your "to do list" do you need to obliterate and then dump the guilt of "I just can't get everything done." Well, of course not, unless you are suffering delusions of grandeur.

There are three questions which should govern how we make the decision about what to deep six on our list. They are: 1. Will this item add to the bottom line of my career? 2. Will this item enhance my personal and professional relationships? 3. Will this item create growth in my organization?

If the answer is "no" on one or more of those questions, then dab on the White Out or start creating a little friction with that eraser. There are so many "to do's" which have been pitched to us by other people and bureaucracies, which we have never owned, that to continue them just makes us angry givers.

Finally, work smart. Working smart means maximizing your time by doing the task the easy way, which will also enhance the business. Much of time management is about doing it the hard way because that is only way it has been done. There are smart choices which will both minimize the effort and maximize the profits.

Companies that have taken advantage of this principle include Tesco, CMGI, Four Seasons Hotels and Starbucks. There is profit in being smart.

There you have it: four steps to suck out of this moment on how to use your life in 2001 and love it.

(Cal LeMon solves organizational problems with customized training and consulting. His company, The Executive Edge, can be contacted via the Business Journal at sbj@sbj.net.)