The Ninety-Minute Hour in Action

Tom Dennison is the president of a profitable and growing company.

Tom lives with his wife, Kathleen, and two kids, Nan, fourteen, and Grant, ten, in a restored 1820 farmhouse on 185 acres of land. The property is secluded and it’s only fifty-five minutes away from the city in which his office is located. His workweek begins the moment he leaves home at 8:00 Monday morning. It ends with his arrival at home, around 6:00 Thursday evening.

That seems like a lot of free time for the president of a growing company. What is important is the way that Tom considers time.

Tom considers time to be one of life’s most precious assets – ranking right up there with health and love. Time is far more valuable to Tom than money or fame or travel. To Tom, time is really another word for “life”. As far as he’s concerned, time for him will end when his life ends – just as it began when his life started. Sure, he deeply loves Kathleen, Nan, and Grant. They’re the most important people in his life. But he recognizes that his life, and theirs, is really composed of time – large and small pieces of time that have been artificially divided into segments called minutes and hours.

So Tom knocks himself out to waste little time and to spend what time is his as valuably as he possibly can. In pursuit of this goal, Tom gives serious and conscious thought to the expenditure of time. He wants to get the most out of his working time, his playing time, and his relaxation time.

Here’s how he goes about it: On Monday morning, Tom dictates two memos into his microcassette player-recorder while driving to the office. He asks Jerry Daniels, his production vice president, to attend the Boone meeting for him and to negotiate the Baker printing deal afterward. Baker is coming to the office to finalize the terms of the deal.

Tom asks Sandra Masters, his secretary, to answer three letters, following the format he’s established. She’ll do a perfect job; she always does. Tom trained her well. Truth is, she answers about 90 percent of his mail.

Next on Tom’s agenda is a meeting with a videotape production company that wants to talk merger with Tom’s publishing company. Because he wants to view their operations in person, the meeting is arranged to take place in their office, a thirty- minute drive away. While driving there, Tom speed-listens to an entire sixty-minute cassette on creative problem solving. After the meeting Tom drives back to his office, using his car phone to return three calls and make three more on the way.

After an unhurried lunch, Tom speed-reads his business mail, three business magazines, and two newsletters. His computer prints out an acceptance of his proposal by the bookstore chain.

Tom isn’t the president of a successful company by accident. He enjoys the benefit of having more time than ordinary people. He has become a master in the art of time extension – doing one thing while doing another, delegating tasks, and speeding up the time it takes to do many activities. As a result, Tom’s hours have ninety minutes in them.

Discussion

1. How do you consider time?

2. What is more important for you: time, money or fame?

3. Have you ever thought about the expenditure of time?

4. How did Tom manage to become the president of a successful company?

Date: 2016-04-22; view: 934