Two Tactics to Save You Tons of Time

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Two Tactics to Save You Tons of Time

I just can’t seem to get time management off my mind. I’ll tell you why. There’s a bit of a story here, so hang with me. I used to buy audiobooks from Audible. I like to listen to books more than I like to read them – I’m a verbal and auditory learner. If I bought a typical 8-hour audiobook, it might take me six months to read it. Well, several of my friends use the Libby app, which allows you to check out audiobooks from your local library, but you can only check out the audiobook for an initial max of 3 weeks. So, a few weeks ago I checked out an 11-hour audiobook called “Born to Run” – as a side note, it’s a great book if you are looking for recommendations. So, considering my previous track record on audiobooks, how far do you think I was able to get in the book by the end of the 3-weeks? I got through the whole thing. Now, I don’t have any more time than I had back when I was buying from Audible. I’ve got the same number of hours in the day. I didn’t create more time. But somehow, I found 11-hours over a three-week period of time, when I previously was unwilling to do so. 11-hours is a massive amount of time for a guy in his mid-40’s with 4 kids and all the activities that come with it. So, this eye-opening experience reminded me of some time management truths that I wanted to share with you in today’s episode.

Remember that two episodes ago I challenged you to take two weeks to track your time to see where it is going. If you took the time to do that, you are going to be better equipped for today’s episode. My goal is to share these management truths to help you seize the time you have and make sure it is being used in a way that is fitting and fulfilling. I used the word fitting, because I think that it is a really important thing to consider. Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 tells us that there is a time and season for everything. For example, it reminds us that there is a time to plant and a time to uproot. There is a time to keep and a time to throw away. This passage from the Bible lists many activities that human beings engage in and it reminds us that there are appropriate times for all of them. Our job is to discern the right things to do and the right times to do them. And this is a hard thing. 

That leads to this first time-truth I want to share – every activity has a home. Or I might say it this way, every responsibility has a zone.  In other words, if you can create a zone for every responsibility that matters to you, you can make sure that it is eventually getting your attention. Now, as you think about all your responsibilities, it can be a bit overwhelming. Where would you even start? Let’s break it down, there are two domains that all of life falls into: I’ll call these the Personal and the Professional. Now, within your personal domain, you might have a zone you call the “family relationships zone.” You might have another you call the “personal recreational” zone. And you might have yet another called the “housework zone”.  In this case, you are identifying your family, your own mental health, and your house as responsibilities that you have, and you can designate certain times when you plan to attend to each of them. For me, the early morning is a recreational zone where I run, read my Bible and spend time praying and thinking about the day. The evenings, on the other hand, are generally a family relationship zone where we are talking over dinner, playing a game together, or running back and forth taking the kids to activities. A portion of the evenings are also spent on housework. Saturdays are often a big housework zone for us. This structure helps us give time to all of these different zones in a balanced fashion. When you are out of balance, the scales will tip over and something will get neglected. You certainly have more than these three zones for your personal life, but I’m trying to keep this as simple and as basic as possible.

Now back to the audiobook experiment.  I started listening to it for a portion of my run, when I’m getting ready in the morning, when I’m driving, and when I’m getting ready for bed. Seizing time that previously consisted of wandering random thoughts has made me feel more purposeful and fulfilled. Now, if my wife walks into the bathroom while I’m shaving, the ear-buds come out and we talk. She’s more important than an audiobook. As we attend to all of these zones, we must be careful not to be overly rigid or legalistic about the boundaries. Think of them more as lanes than walls – guidelines that are helpful but flexible when needed.

In the professional domain, there is really no limit to the number of zones you might have. I have a “read and respond to email” zone. There are certain times in the day when I check email. This allows me to make sure that I’m responding timely, but it also allows me to not be in the middle of something and decide I need to stop what I’m doing and respond to my email. I can turn off all of my notifications and sounds for email because I know that it will get its turn. It will have my attention at the right time. I have a “teammate meeting zone” where I schedule meetings with other people here at the bank. I do this because I want to be an engaged leader that understands and is dialled into the people that I lead.  I can give that person my full attention, because I know that my other work responsibilities will have their own zone eventually and will get my full attention, at another time. I have a “client meeting zone” as well that allows me to build deeper relationships with the clients who trust us with their money. Once again, I don’t have to worry about an email notification while we are meeting because I will get to that once I hit my email zone that day. It’s easy to make these zones. Just decide what your responsibilities and goals are and make a zone for each one of them. You might not be able to touch that zone each day. It may be that you schedule some of these zones weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, quarterly or even annually. If every moment has a home, a zone, an abode, you can live more fully in each moment as it comes without carrying the stress of the moments that have yet to come.

Well, I spent a lot of time on that first time management truth that everything has a home, but I’ll share another. A second truth is that time limits and reasonable deadlines can be helpful. You can’t give everything a deadline, or you will stress yourself out. But you can give some of your most important item’s deadlines. I had 3 weeks to get that audiobook read. I decided it was important to me to do it, so I found the time to do it. Tasks are like water – they often fill the space you give them. So, when you have a project to work on, instead of giving yourself however long it takes, consider setting aside a reasonable goal of how long you will spend on it. You can do a lot of things in less time than you think. Meetings can also be this way. If you have less time to meet, you might find that you stay on task and topic and can get done in less time. Every morning our strategic leadership team has a huddle to start the day and share a win from the previous day and a focus for the day ahead. How long do you think that daily meeting takes us? 5-7 minutes. That’s right – we set that expectation on the front end. We seek to be concise, to share the information, and to move on. We set a limit or deadline for when to be done, and most of the time we do. Once again, you don’t want to be legalistic here. But setting a flexible deadline can help you do more in less time. You can also set flexible deadlines for your top 7 focuses in the workplace and you might be surprised at how it keeps those things moving forward. This same strategic leadership team reports to one another on tasks with a one-week deadline, and it is amazing how each step seems to get done because we’ve given ourselves flexible deadlines.

Speaking of deadlines, I have a time limit I try to stay within for each podcast episode, so I’d better wrap up. If you’d like to hear more time management tips, we invite you to go to the contact us section of our website and give us some feedback. Hopefully these episodes give you some insight into the culture and identity of our local community bank. If we sound like a bank you might want to do business with, you can start your financial conversation with us today on our website or at your local branch. We hope you’ll subscribe to this podcast in your favorite podcast app and share it on social media. Until our next episode, God bless you.

-President Chad P. Wilson, CFP

Today’s episode of “Money Matters” was written and recorded by President Chad P. Wilson of Foundation Bank/McKenzie Banking Company on July 15, 2025. This episode does not constitute financial advice. Please consult a financial professional to discuss your specific needs. Any rates mentioned are subject to change and are accurate as of the recording date. Foundation Bank/MBC is an Equal Housing Lender, Member FDIC.