In today's audio, I discuss one of the most important time-management questions you can ask yourself if you want to be both productive and happy.
You can listen to the audio by clicking on the play button below. Beneath the audio, I have provided a general transcription. There will be some small differences between the audio and the transcription.
Transcription
Hi it's Carthage here, from Coaching Positive Performance.
I have another quick productivity tip for you today and what it really is something you need to understand, a decision you are going to have to make at some stage; if you haven't already made it.
You see, I've done a number of jobs over the years before I got to the point where I settled on what I wanted to do for my career.
In one of those jobs, I worked as a general operative on the factory floor. My job, like the other operators, was to screen the product which came off the machines to make sure that we removed any bad parts and then, to pack the good parts.
When I arrived, each operator had two machines to work. There was also a technician who had to maintain the machines and he had a number of machines to work too. If there was a problem with the machine, it was his job to correct that problem as quickly as possible and keep the amount of waste down.
At first, we had a reasonable workload; we were kept going but we weren't overworked. We had the time to do our job properly but then about 2 months after I arrived, the C.E.O. Came in, and he told us that there were extra machines going to be running.
Our workload increased by 50 percent to each man so, I had worked 2 machines; I now had to work 3 machines and; the third machine each of us was given was a little bit faster than one of the machines that we were already working so, effectively it was an increase of more than 50 percent in productivity.
A few months later, the CEO called the technicians into the office for a meeting. He asked them why there had been a massive increase in waste over the previous few months.
This made the technicians laugh and to be fair, when they came back on the floor and told us about that question; we laughed too. Because we could see what the C.E.O. was refusing to see.
What was happening was the operators now had more work than they were capable of doing. We had less time to screen the products which of course increased the likelihood that bad products were going to get through. And, it meant that we were getting stuff returned from customers.
The technicians, well they were busy trying to keep machines going and regularly, when one machine would start going badly, they would already be working on a machine that was going wrong so; what happened then was the machine that had just started going badly was producing more waste before they would get the opportunity to fix it.
You see we could see what the C.E.O. was refusing to see and that is that you cannot keep increasing the quantity without having a detrimental effect on the quality. There is only so much you can do and, do correctly, before you start pushing yourself too far and doing things badly. When you realise that, you realise that sooner or later you're going to have to choose between quality and quantity. Which is most important? And, if you value both highly, then your only other option is to find some extra resources to invest. So, in our case it would have been to employ extra operators and extra technicians and then you could demand a higher quantity but unfortunately the CEO refused to accept this.
He refused to believe it. He did not want to spend the money on the extra resources, but he still wanted to demand higher quantity and higher quality and what he ended up with was disgruntled employees; frustrated customers; increased costs; and reduced profits. Because if you're producing more waste, that waste costs money to produce. It just kept going and going and the problem was still going when I left.
You see, life isn't about how much you get done. It's about identifying what's important to you and doing that to the best of your ability. That's how you get more from life. I would always recommend to people that you value quality over quantity but ultimately, it's your choice and, you will have to make that choice. Nobody else can do it for you so, if you find yourself under a great deal of pressure and you find yourself getting results that you don't really want; ask yourself are you demanding too much? Are you trying to do more than you're really capable of doing? And, if you are, it's time to make that decision.
So, either you value quality over quantity, quantity over quality or, if you value both you're going to have to find a way to invest more resources. So, think about that carefully and when you get the right answer, you'll see much better results.
So, that's all for today.
Thank you for listening and I'll talk to you again.
If you want to start focusin on quality rather than quantity, The Organised Mind will help you to get on the right track.
It's Carthage Buckley here from Coaching Positive Performance with a quick tip for you.
Today I want to discuss asking for help and the need to have realistic expectations. Now, before I give the example I'm going to use today, I do want to make clear that I have often had unrealistic expectations myself and I'm not free from sin in this area; but I want to demonstrate how having unrealistic expectations prevents you from getting what you really want and how it's often unnecessary.
So, I want to give an example that happened earlier this week. I produced an article or rather long article on the topic of Passive Aggressive Behavior one of the many topics I discuss. In the article I talked about five experts and their viewpoints on what Passive Aggressive Behavior is. They all wrote articles that are in various places on the Internet and I linked to those articles and; I gave quotes from them. That's how I was trying to add value to my readership. Then later that day, I got an email from one of my readers and his email started 'You're Great'. Now, I'm always wary when somebody starts off by telling me I'm wonderful because I don't believe it but you usually know there is something fake coming afterwards.
But what I got then was 'Really enjoyed the article. Can you please forward the five books the quotes are taken, from free of charge.' Now, first of all they weren't actually books. This person had mistakenly assumed they were books. They were articles I had linked to the articles in my own article but what really struck me was the sheer 'gall' is a word we would use here in Ireland; the nerve to ask for so much from somebody in the sense that if these were actually books, I was going to have to track him down a copy of each of the five books and forward them to him at no charge so, any expenditure of my time or my money, I was going to have to absorb that so that he could have these books. And, I was thinking that's completely unrealistic to expect somebody to do that but not just that.
Don't forget these books, if they existed, if they were actually books, belonged to somebody else. Most books are copyrighted material. I was going to have to be completely immoral and unethical and give away somebody else's copyrighted material for free to help this person. That to me is insane. There was no way I was ever going to do that to somebody else because they're like me. They're working hard trying to earn a living. They don't want everything given away for free. Some stuff they charge for or, at a minimum, if they offer a free ebook or a free webinar, maybe they want you to opt in for that so that they can keep communicating with you. They can offer you great value and if you need help further down the line maybe you'll hire them to deliver the help, You hire them to get you through a rough spot but this guy just wanted me to send him a whole lot of material for free as if everybody else should be doing his work for him.
I'm sure he didn't mean any harm but it's completely unrealistic and if you want people to help you you need to have some form of realism so a couple of questions I'd like to give you to think about when you're asking for help from somebody else:
1. Are you making it easy for them to help you?
Well, if these were actually books and I had to go to the effort of tracking them all down for him and getting a copy of each for him, before sending them on to him, whether itincurred any financial costs or not that's a lot of effort on my part and then another question:
2. Is offering this help within their remit? Can they actually offer his help?
Technically speaking, yes I could send you somebody else's book. Am I supposed to do that? I don't think so. I think it's unethical, I think it's immoral and, I think it's hurting somebody else's business and I'm not prepared to do it. So in my viewpoint that's not in my remit.
So, if you're asking for help for somebody else, make it as easy as possible to help and make sure it's something they can do because most people, me included, are happy to help where we can but if I was to give that type of time and effort to one in person; bear in mind that I have thousands of people who read my website everyday and thousands more on an email list who communicate with me on a regular basis. If I was to give each and every one of them that level of time and effort, with no payment, how would I ever have a business? How would I ever be able to pursue my goals? How would I ever be able to do the things I need to be able to do? I do want to help other people as much as possible but I can't do it at my own expense and I would say the same for yourself. If somebody else asks for your help if it's easy to do it and you'd want to do it; go ahead and help. But you can't put their needs before your own and you can't be giving them so much of your time, your energy, your money or any other resource that you have none left to pursue your own goals. Because you are here to live your own life, not somebody else's. That's my tip for today. When asking somebody else for help, make sure your expectations are realistic.
Thank you for listening. I'll talk to you again soon.