It goes without saying that life has become…well just very busy. Family, civic and social activities, work, and hobbies if you have time for them, our daily routine and personal lives seem to be full of activity. Unfortunately and all too often one of the last items on the to-do-list is carving out time for strategy and planning ahead, be it vacation planning, education planning, your next career move, retirement, or next week’s workload. Are we always able to accurately plan and research for the next aircraft maintenance induction, tomorrow’s meeting, the next equipment purchase, next year’s operating budget, future product and service offerings?
Managing communications in today’s busy world has become nearly a full-time task itself, and frankly a bit distracting. Most of us have computers and telephones both at home and work. Land-line telephones, mobile phones, multiple email addresses, and more. Have you ever received a telephone call asking if you received the email or text message that he or she just sent to you? Is rapid and constant communications really that important? In some cases yes it is, and in other cases I offer it’s another distraction that eats away at people’s energy that could be used for more productive tasks. We have become a society of feeling unconnected to the world if we don’t have our mobile communication device with us at all times.
During a discussion on strategic planning an executive once asked the question, “Tell me about your think time?” After a long pause to yes think about this question, my response was, “I don’t have time for think time.” Now this was not the answer he was looking for but this answer was reality.
Regardless of your role at work, I believe it’s important to have think time in order to do your very best; time for crew meetings, staff meetings, planning sessions, developing strategies for next week, next month, next year, and beyond. You also need time to plan your personal and family activities and time to unplug yourself from work. So tonight after work don’t check your email, don’t answer that text message, turn off your cell phone, and give yourself some think time.
