There are many times during our day when we can (and should) cut redundancies and focus on better uses of our time (indeed, I spend most of my working hours helping people in this quest).
But, how many times have you said to yourself: “I wish I had just taken the five minutes to do …”? Hindsight is always 20/20, and there are many times when a few extra minutes upfront would have saved time ‘fixing’ things down the road.
The Bad and the Ugly
You may have noticed in our last e-newsletter subject line that there was a spelling mistake (Writing Things Down ). Some of you ignored it and some kindly wrote to say that there was a typo.
The discussion in the office was whether we should call attention to our mistake or sweep it under the rug. It’s been a month since the last newsletter, so who would remember – seriously? But then the idea sprung that it might be helpful to use this as a teachable moment. (For those of you wondering, this ‘teacher’ is sometimes the first person who needs the lesson!)
As professionals, we tend to follow a process when we are trying to achieve something. When we skip steps in this process, we run the risk of costing ourselves more time in the end. Here at Clear Concept, we skipped the final e-newsletter review that would have clearly
The Good
There are certain times when we should take the time to complete each step in the process. Examples include:
- Making sure that a direct report clearly understands the new task assigned
- Holding a mid-project review session
- Providing feedback to a colleague
- Calling a client who had a not-so-good experience with a product
- Proofing an email to make sure the content is clear and the correct ‘To’ people are listed
As we all know, taking a few good extra minutes at times like these can help avoid the bad and the ugly.
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