Quality Time

In the last post I talked about Quality investment. We discussed how Culture, accountability, and expectation affect the outcome of what we do. Today I want to dig into something a little less obvious.

A few weeks ago on my way to NY I sat next to this man who asked me what I did for a living, and it sparked a longer conversation between us. He randomly asked me what I thought mattered in life. My answer was experiences. He looked at me and said I was an “odd one”, well we knew that already! He said most of his clients tell him Work and Family. I responded that great experiences include work and family. He conceded my point, but then he asked me what surrounded all those things. Can you answer that? I thought long and hard and said I couldn’t come up with anything. What was his answer?

Time.

It hit me like a train as he went on to explain that time is limited, so what are we going to do with it? He sparked a whirlwind of thoughts in my mind. Time… that one word is just so massive, yet it is limited. 

After I had a minute to digest this, I asked the man, “You mentioned clients, what is it that you do?”. Since we hadn’t come back to it yet and he knew what I did, it was a fair question. He tells me he is an Executive coach. He was the CEO of a few different companies, and now he has moved into the world of coaching. If I was not already thinking about the topic of time… It now had even more weight.

In the world of business, we move fast, we must because new ideas are popping up all the time. Customers want the latest and greatest and businesses need to give it to them to keep making profits. A vicious circle, but a required one. So how can we make time work for us?

I’ve seen articles a mile long offering ways to; improve time management, or here are the 5 things the most successful people do. I am not going to offer advice, I am going to talk about my thoughts. 

So, time is short. The real question is, what do you want to do with it? 

Your answer, whatever it is, is what we refer to as quality time. Contrary to belief you can have quality time at work. If you believe in what you are doing and constantly work at it, then you are making yourself better, potentially even the people around you. That is quality time to you. Who knows, it could have ripple effects into your personal life. Some of my greatest epiphanies happened at work. Heck, the idea to pose these questions came from a work trip. We spend so much of our time at work that we need to be purposeful in what we do with our time.

For me, I love Quality, Agile, and Client experience, get me talking about it, and the only time you will see me smile brighter or be more passionate is when I am spending time with my family. Warren buffet even talks about the importance of how we treat ourselves, and time is ours to control. Embrace the time you have, spend it wisely, give it quality attention, and enjoy it! 

How will you spend your quality time?