One of the most important time management decisions : Coaching Positive Performance

​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.

​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.​