Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/827403
30 • June 2017 • S I G N & D I G I T A L G R A P H I C S ARCHITECTURAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL RUNNING THE BUSINESS Coming to Grips with the Time Management Myth Do you put off today what you can attempt tomorrow? Vince DiCecco is a business training and development consultant and owner of the Acworth, Georgia-based business, Your Personal Business Trainer, Inc. He has been sculpting his sales, marketing and training techniques since 1979, and he has shared innovative and practical ideas on business management excellence for two Fortune 200 companies, the U.S. Coast Guard, and in seminars at past NBM Shows. Since 2003, he has been serving small- to mid-sized com- panies in their efforts to strive for sustained growth and market dominance. Contact him via email at vince@ypbt. com or visit his company website, www.ypbt.com. B Y V I N C E D I C E C C O Make it Your Business with the people and resources I have at my disposal today?" Doing more with less is the underlying dilemma, it seems. American businesses lose billions of dollars in productivity to wasted time and procrastination. It's an epidemic problem of which business owners are surely aware. Yet an Amazon.com search of "time management books" yielded over 43,000 results. In addition, there were nearly 2,000 office products for work and more than 500 software programs that claim to offer time management help. It caused me to stop and ask myself what I could possibly add to this body of rhetoric that could make a difference in the day-to-day lives of sign and digital graphics business owners. Well, there's this: Perhaps the tips, techniques and thought- provoking suggestions that follow will get you to look at this profit-robbing phenomenon in a slightly different light and prompt you to (gulp) change your ways. So indulge me, please. Time Management, a Misnomer There are 168 hours in a week—no more, no less. Every hour, every minute, every second is a gift of time—a priceless resource that is freely given to us. The amount of time one dedicates to one's chosen vocation has no standard in today's economy. It could be the dozen or so hours a full-time student works part- time to earn some extra "scratch," all the way up to the 80-plus weekly work hours of the driven workaholic. No doubt you've heard the phrases, "It's a real time-saver," or, "I've got to manage time better." If you could actually save time, as if it was money, you would be able to deposit it in some secure location to be used at a later date. And if that were the case, wouldn't it mean you could experience a week with more that 168 hours in it? Sadly, though—one must admit—that's not possible. The dictionary states to "manage" something is to handle, direct, govern or control in action or use. Last time I checked, people have no influence over the pace or consistency of time. One hour will always be 60 minutes. At best, we can only manage ourselves—our thoughts, perceptions and actions—but not time. Time is meant to be spent and/or invested. When we spend time in a wasteful manner, the inner feelings that are generated are usually not life-giving or uplifting ones. Let's see, there are guilt, regret and self-loathing, to name a few. How difficult would it be to alter our perception of time as an investment of a resource rather than zeroing in on how much of it we've wasted? Remember, we can manage our thoughts far more effectively than we can manage time. F or a while now, it's been my intention to write a column about the awful practice of procrastination, but it seems like something always comes up that forces me to put it off. Alright, alright, I know it's corny, but I couldn't resist. Lately, when I have an occasion to hob-knob with small business owners, invariably a frequent complaint is raised—"How can I possibly accomplish all I need to, within the time I have available, and