What is the point of being efficient?
Today I participated in a quiz game in Pärnu Yacht Port Pub, where I was a regular player some years ago, but it has bee nearly three years since it was the last time I was there. It is a relatively popular social event in my town, which means that once in a week more then 50 people get together, play a quiz game and have a couple of beers.
It was nice to meet the club members after so long period and see how they are doing. My life has changed a lot since I stopped participating in these events. Three years ago I was aiming at a steady and stable scientific career. Being super-efficient and making a lot of money was not so important for me. Sitting in the pubs and drinking beer was a usual way of passing time for me and I enjoyed it. My life was much slower then and I was not so much result orientated as I am now.
But then I participated in a speed reading course and it changed my life. I saw so many new possibilities for working faster and being more successful. From that moment onwards I have been constantly looking for new ways of working more efficiently. I started to teach speed reading and time management to other people in order to make their life easier. I have got clear goals what I want to achieve in my life and I work on them. This has allowed me to achieve success and to some extent it has turned me into a different person.
When I met these people in that club today I realized that we are so different now. Their life seemed to be unchanged. They were still enjoying the same lifestyle as before. They talked about how comfortable jobs they have, which allow them watch TV or browse internet websites for fun during their working time. Some of them used that time for preparing the quiz game. And they could answer many more questions correctly in the game than I did. This seemed to be so pointless to me. Why are they wasting your working time? Is it because they are lazy or they do not want to achieve more in their lives. Most of them were not doing very well on their job and the economic crisis had worsened the financial situation for many of them. They knew answers about the early career of Finnish president Mannerheim and forty year old Estonian movies, but the there still driving old and cheap cars, wore inexpensive clothes and they can never afford a vacation in Hawaii or Brazil.
When I was giving on of them a ride back to home, then we discussed topics about setting goals in your life. For him it seemed to be not understandable why I was taking everything so seriously and why I was so much committed to my goals. I said that I like it this way and planning my time and being efficient is a normal routine for me. He said that he would be fully satisfied if he would make $50,000 yearly. It was not easy to guess that his current income was well below that level. I thought that if he is going to continue with his attitudes and life style, he will never reach that level. Many people have a wish that I want to earn a lot of money, but they are not actually taking any steps, which could make it happen.
For me being efficient allows me to earn more money as well as have sufficient spare time. If I had been working less efficiently I would not have been able to afford my present level of consumption and would not have been financially secure as I am now.
The people who are inefficient actually pay a high price for that although in most cases they do not realize it. The fact that there waste time on their jobs and that they do not have clear plans about achieving success will cause the result that they will never reach that $50,000 per year. Of course it is all about making choices and everyone can decide on his own what he wants from his life. Still I somehow feel that these people are not fully satisfied, they definitely want to achieve a better living standard, but they do not have will power to start improving themselves.
Actually it is not that difficult. If you start applying the principles of time management to your life step by step then you will gradually improve. You start setting your goals, thinking out plans how to achieve these goals and planning your time. As you progress you will learn new ways how to use your time more efficiently and working becomes easier and more enjoyable for you. You will start achieving success then.
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My name is Kristjan-Olari Leping. I am a speed reading trainer. I have an associated professor position at the University of Tartu, am a policy analyst in a policy research center, I am a trainer and I am involved in many other business projects. 