Advice for the day… don’t use this phrase any longer. And if you don’t say it, we know you hear it fairly often just like we do. Here’s the reality, we’re all busy, it’s just that some people manage their time and business better than others. We hear bankers complain quite frequently that they are short-staffed. We get it! It’s Friday at 2pm and one employee is out sick… ok, you’re busy. But it’s not Friday at 2pm all day every day. In fact we see many branches where an argument could be made that they’re over-staffed with two employees… Can you say “ATM Machine”??? Don’t roll your eyes, banks and employees are being replaced by machines more often than you may realize.
Anyway, the next time your boss or customer or coworker needs some help or you’re interrupted with a question or added task, don’t respond by saying you’re too busy or “I don’t have time”. We all have time. We all have the same amount of time each day. We just choose to do some things that we feel are most important to us and we choose not to do other things. I’ve chosen not to play golf in the past year. It has nothing to do with being too busy. I’ve just chosen to spend that time doing something else that I feel is more important right now.
Here’s a hint though. If you don’t have a task list or “to do” list. If you’re not utilizing “time blocking” for each day and week for designated tasks and most certainly if you and your team are not utilizing a calendar to manage the day, week and month then you will most definitely be saying “I don’t have time”… or at least you’ll be thinking it.
