WIZE TIME MANAGEMENT

People love to play games.  The games they play are often fun and energetic like Cranium or Monopoly or Pictionary.  However, some people also like to play games which cause themselves and others to waste a lot of time.

You know them – they are the people who think the rules are written for everyone else and not them.  They want things their way no matter who is inconvenienced or who gets hurt – the bully syndrome.  Yet, on the other hand, if someone else doesn’t follow the rules, these game players are incensed, especially when they lose!

The time they consume is extraordinary!  Just to get their own way . . . for the smallest, most idiotic win.

Here’s an example.   A landlord had a tenant.  This tenant decided to disregarded the terms of their lease.  The lease required that they get written approval from the landlord to assign or sublet the rental unit.

The tenants decided to just go ahead, sublease without written approval with still two months to go on their lease.  They sublet to a family.  And then wanted the landlord to check out references and financial ability to pay rent and utilities after the people who sublet were already in the unit!

The tenants just handed over the keys to the people to whom they sublet and that was it.

There are rules to follow.  Did they want to follow the rules as laid out in the Act?  Of course not and they’ve spent a lot of time and energy “trying to wiggle” their way out of the situation.  If they have followed the rules of common decency, none of this would have been necessary.  Instead, they tried to pull a fast one and it has wasted everyone’s time – theirs, the people who sublet, the agency responsible for resolving disputes, and, of course, the landlord. 

People who want to get their own way at all cost sap everything out of others – time, money, energy.  They do the same on the job.  The wisest thing any boss can do is to get rid of these kinds of people as soon as possible.  They have no sense of right and wrong as they are not concerned with anyone but themselves and want what they want at all costs – and the cost is high!  No company can afford to lose that much in either time or money or both!

To be vague – is to be lost as a result of not  understanding what you are either trying to do or think or say.

A professor mine in stats taught me a great lesson and certainly it has served me my whole life. 

He used to give us all the questions ahead of the exam which was quite unusual all in itself.  Here is how is system worked:

-  students were to practice answering each of the questions ahead of the exam.  Why?

-  because, at exam time, you were required to answer the questions in 60 words or less otherwise you were docked marks for every single word over 60!!!  Quite a concept, huh?

Well, it worked.  I can tell you it worked like a charm!  If you did the work ahead of exam time, you really, truly understood the concepts taught in the course.  The confidence it gave you was tremendous.  Why?  Because, in your mind, the concepts were very, very clear and understood so you could write them down often in less than 60 words. 

So when you see long, long writing about a topic and it seems to go around in circles which happens very frequently in today’s world, you know the person has no understanding of the topic so they try to bamboozle people with a lot of unnecessary words.  We say we have very little time and yet we tolerate this kind of communication.

Try it in your life – whenever you are vague about something – try writing the idea or concept in 60 words.  I guarantee one thing – if you can express it in 60 words or less, you’ll understand it.  It takes work, thinking and reworking the words until you reach the heart of the matter.