The last single advice you need on time management

Engagement prepares our mind for serendipity – picking up ideas from diverse areas and keeping a look out for interesting cross-sector insights.

• Engagement builds porous walls around ideas and helps cross-pollination of ideas.
• Engagement clears the deck of the mind and prepares it for ‘deep work’.
• Engagement helps you to build a mental ‘ to do’ library.

Another word which is closely related to ‘ENGAGEMENT’ is ‘FOCUS’ … Much has been written about focus and here are some ways to train your mind.

• Focus – builds with some ‘alone time’ each morning. Spend 15 minutes without any distraction, thinking and mentally visualising the day when you begin it.
• Focus – catalyses when you turn off screens, keep away the busy hand phone, and create a mental construct of the issue at hand.
• Focus – uncovers more time when you travel,walk, eat et.al.                                                                                 Simon Sinek , in his much-watched TED talk, reminds us that there are three frames of our action –  the WHAT , the HOW and the WHY. Typically, we are guided in that sequence as well. We spend time on ‘what’ we are to do and the mechanics of ‘how’. What we neglect is the ‘WHY’!The ‘Why’ is the raison d’être of our existence. It is the sole reason we are in business, our larger purpose and our objective to spend most of our lives! It is like a calling rather than employment.         Let me explain the consulting context. I have been in consulting for close to two decades now. The whole and sole purpose of every consultant is to become a ‘trusted business advisor’. This is not just about signing contracts and delivering high quality or dotting every ’I’ and crossing every ‘T’. It is about solving their problems, helping them achieve their vision and reaching and surpassing their goals. Anything that is helping them do this is – ‘NOISE’. It is no use thinking that you have delivered the final presentation when the client still has the ‘problem’ on this table. This philosophy guides your activities, your time, and your actions.

It is easy to get ‘lost in motion’. At times some of our lawmakers and politicians are lost in this quagmire of ‘activities’- Speeding cars, aircraft being held up for their arrival or even a wide audience waiting for them to turn up.’Where are they going and what are they doing’, we wonder! It would be interesting, if they sit back, think and figure out the best use of their time. It may perhaps also help them think differently and, more importantly, act differently!

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