Introduction to Time Management and Control

Until you value yourself, you will not value your time. Until you value your time you will not do anything with it.

Morgan Scott Peck (22 May 1936 – 25 September 2005) was an psychiatrist American and best-selling author. He earned his bachelor's degree from , Harvard University He did premedical studies at Columbia University in New York City, and received his medical
degree from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.

Mr. Peck seems to have hit it right on the head, how do you value yourself? If your value of yourself is not much, then chances are you will not be getting much done with your life.
If your goal in life is just to punch a time clock and go home, then this blog is not for you.

Have you ever heard the saying “If you want something done, find someone that is busy”.
This is reserved for the elite. The ones that truly get things done in a day. They are the ones that are in control. Add one or two things to their list in a day and ZIP, it is done. These people for the most part have control of their time. They are not at all like I am going to address in the next paragraph.

I promised in my last blog to talk further about not using the word “busy”. This word alone will keep you from success faster than anything you can do.” Busy” sets you up for failure before you even get started. Everyone out there, when you ask them how they are doing will tell you they are “busy”. Are you in that group of folks that use that phrase? Then get out of it!! You will be surprised at the response of people when you start answering,”Fine Just Fine”. Don't be surprised if folks don't start coming to you to get things done!!

The person that truly wants to move up or to advance will never tell anyone they are “busy”. Why? Because they are in control, not just of what they do, but of their TIME. And that is what we are going to talk about over the next seven to ten blogs.in this series I hope to share with you a simple time management program and some of my own experiences. Please give your feed back!

Jim Zabloski said it best in his book “25 most Common Problems In Business”'and How Jesus solved Them:

He slept beneath the moon; he basked beneath the sun; he lived a life of going-to-do; and died with nothing done.”

I recommend this book, it is full of wisdom if you are running a business.
Jim Zabloski, “25 most Common Problems In Business”'and How Jesus solved Them”. Published by Broadman & Holman Publisher, Nashville Tennessee.

Rule number one
in working on a plan for time management is to pray. Pray daily, that your direction and your decisions will be in God’s will. In your planning and daily activities you should look not only to your own interests, but to the interests and well being of others: (Philippians 2:4)

As I stated in my last blog :

“No one has enough time, yet everyone has all there is. What we do with our time determines what we do with our lives”.

As simple as that…what we do with our lives….
Wow, blog is over, we just become more careful on how we manage our lives and our time management skills will fall into order!

Whoa, wait just a minute, there are hundreds of folks that have written books, pamphlets, and given seminars to the tune of millions of dollars per year that say different. If only you will use their system on “Time Management” you will solve all your problems and become millionaires overnight Seems there a lot of folks looking for answers to meet the challenge of getting more done with the time they have.

Statistics say that between 50% and 75%of our time is taken from us by the people we are associated with. These people come disguised as wives, children, friends, business associates, and customers. I know that as I came up through the ranks I developed solid relationships with a lot of people. As my responsibilities grew (and pressure on my time) these same people thought they could just call me up at anytime and 'shoot the bull' as they had for years. I had to put a stop to it or I would never get anything done. In the beginning I felt there were some hurt feelings, but when I got these people one one one and explained what was going on they pretty much understood. It was still difficult however.

Rule number two
in working on a plan for time management, I found in a cute little saying, but oh so true:

”The executive who works from 8:00a.m. to 8:00p.m. every day will be both very successful and fondly remembered by his widow’s next husband”.

Are you going to work for the family, or does the family make you work? No, really, what type of executive are you going to be? I can tell by experience your family must come first. In all that you do, there will be good times and bad times, but in the end Family must come first, Right behind God in all your business dealings. Regretfully I did not find this out until late in my career. But trust me, behind your relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ, You must put your family second. And make it stick. There is no way to go back and catch those years. The business will thrive even better if all things are good at home, from your Parents, inlaws, children, and your wife. A good manager of time will make sure the real reasons they are working(Family) is scheduled and filled daily and weekly and monthly and yearly.

I remember hearing Managers brag about the amount of vacation they had accrued. I always thought to myself, “What an idiot”.You must take time off for yourself and family.

Personal time management skills are essential skills for effective people. People who use these techniques routinely are the highest achievers in all walks of life, from business, to sport, to public service, to your personal life. If you use these skills well, then you will be able to function exceptionally well, even under intense pressure.

In my next blog we will be stepping off into that world of time management and control. I look forward to talking to you then.

Time Management and Control

You miss 100% of the shots you never take.

-- Wayne Gretzky

All in one year I got a new Vice-President (that I will report to), A new Group of Centers. Plasma Centers are facilities that stand alone in different cities, and countries that collect Human Plasma used for further manufacture in the production of medicines for Hemophiliacs as well as other specific medicines. They numbered about 75 in total located from Seattle WA to Berlin Germany, both Company owned and contract facilities, Quality Assurance problems both in number and type like I had never had, installed in several locations programs that had failed miserably. And now it was evaluation day, by my New Boss.

During my performance Evaluation, my VP made a remarkable statement to me.

He said, “If I do not have direct reports that are not making mistakes, how do I know who is trying?” He actually praised my performance and out of the 6 Regional Managers at the time, he ranked me as the top performer for that year.

How does one know the difference between the trying hard to do the right thing to the person who is just goofing off? Talk to his employees. They will fill you in on the absolutes of a good or just a fair or even rotten Manager. On visits to the facility always invite the Manager and his spouse or significant other to dinner. This will give you information beyond belief of what is going on with your operations. It will also give you an opportunity to praise the performance of your Manager in front of his significant other, this is vitally important for good performers on up. Pinning as many (earned) medals on him/her in front of their significant other is the best praise you will ever give. It will also take care of all the HAEA’s (Honey, ask Ed about….)Your person, man or woman who keeps forgetting to ask about the company, be it benefits, policies, or just why can’t significant others go to the annual meeting/

Got an idea you would like to try at a specific location or local business group? As long as the money is there or you can finance the plan or can go find the money to do so, then go for it!!

Most Senior Management is made up of folks that could/would take a chance, and make it work. If they failed, they modified their concept or dropped it all together and started on another one. Fact is how you make all of this work. The first thing I would suggest is to never use the word busy. This is an over used word to begin with and it does not fit the role of someone who wants to take/make all the shots.” Busy” has become the world wide answer to ‘Hi how are you?” If you truly want to succeed in business you will remove this word from your vocabulary. We will discuss this more in detail in future Blogs. Take on as many assignments as you can say for…6 months. Evaluate your “Time” at the end of it. Now what do you call busy? Some how in the last six months you will have learned to budget/schedule/manage your time. This should make you shine within your department/business walls.

Just a quick word about the employees, both who work with and report to you. You must tell them what is going on. What with the change in your work activity and/or theirs. Remember, it really doesn’t matter what you meant to communicate---all that matters is the response of the other person as to what they understood. This is why I am so negative sometimes on meetings. Something of this nature and complexity needs to be communicated one on one to each of the people you will be influencing with this change.

Now it is time to think about challenging your staff, or anyone that will be effected by your change of “taking more shots”. Develop a Plan (which will appear in later blogs) present it to the group, then meet with each one of your staff and or others effected one on one. For your direct reports, make it a bullet point on their evaluation.

Remember, no one has enough time, everyone has all there is. What we do with our time determines what we do with our lives.

How many shots have you taken recently?

Spend the extra dollars

Spend the extra dollars to maintain your equipment. Remember, you don’t have to brush all your teeth, just the ones you want to keep.

Seems year after year I was always trying to explain to a few of the managers within my group about the importance of budgeting for the upkeep from the simplest of things like painting interior/exterior walls or upkeep of parking lots, to the maintenance of freezers, centrifuges, and blood/plasma separation equipment devices. You see, in a truly successful operation this budgeted (Dollar amount) grows higher and higher each year with growth and looks to be very easy pickings when pressured for dollars to fill other dollar requirements. I think the old saying “ you gotta dance with who brung ya” started in a discussion over this very subject.

It is really funny, we purchase something one day and the next day we immediately start to depreciate it for our financial needs, while operationally we want to get as much life out of it as possible. We have to not just keep things in good working order, in most cases we must keep them in a “good looking” sense of repair as well.

Are we budgeting yearly to replace certain items that we know will need replacing annually, bi-annually, or within our five year long term planning budget? This is a critical step in keeping us successful/up-to-date with current technologies, moving forward in all aspects of our business.

Can you operate with/plan for/or accept cavities to form within our business? You bet you can! As long as you are in control of and have at least some of the direction. You can fill the cavities to

meet the Quality Assurance Standards (QA) of your company. Just remember in this highly competitive market QA is every thing, and standards of QA must be met.

I will cover in future blogs long term planning, delegation, and short term delegation. However for this example today I must use a few of the rules associated with them.

To make sure you “brush all your teeth” you must delegate! To me this must start in your strategic planning process, allowing the appropriate dollars to be available first. Then a planning process within the walls of the business to monitor/track success throughout the strategic planning time. This can be as simple as a large wall calendar or a computer program.

Of course all of the management team of the business should be well versed in the expectations of the plan, but more importantly the rank and file should know the expectations and goals that need to be met as well.

I have said for years, “ A key tactic to success is to model your business on the distinctions of others---processes, thinking, habits and characteristics.” Your people will win or lose weather all the “teeth” are brushed!

Just getting started and the hope of good things to come.

Hello to all that may be there, in the coming weeks I hope to be sharing my experiences of 40 plus years working in the field of business. I happened to be in the Pharmaceutical manufacturing side of dealing with people, but Hey! people are people are people not matter where they work. Am I right? I hope to be sharing some cute little sayings with you and then elaborating on the real meat and potato's of what is at hand. I hope to do this in a language that all can understand. I do hope I can gather from your experiences as well with feedback that will help us all.

So look for me coming soon!!!
Ed Vreeland