In our daily lives, whether it’s at work, home, or any other setting, our actions are geared towards achieving desired outcomes. To enhance these results, it’s crucial to optimize our activities, whether they’re simple or complex. Failing to do so can lead to losses in both time and money. In this article, I’ll share some personal observations that prompted me to raise awareness about this concept, especially for my children.

Time: A Precious Resource

Time is often more valuable than gold, and mismanaging it can lead to substantial losses. I often shared a thought-provoking quote with my colleagues: “Look, they are trying to control the movement of a mouse, but an elephant is going which they forget to stop.” In this analogy, the mouse represents an investment, while the elephant symbolizes an expense.

Learning from Experience

I was once assigned to a workplace with an overwhelming workload to be completed in a short time frame. On the first day, I arrived at 7 in the morning, only to watch my colleagues quickly leave the office. Uncertain about the tasks at hand, I remained idle throughout the day. When questioned by the manager in the evening, I explained that no tasks had been assigned to me, and he left without a word. Day 1 ended unproductively.

On the second day, I asked my colleagues about the tasks and how they were assigned. One of them advised me to walk around the work area, and someone would eventually assign a task. I followed this advice, but still, many of us spent the entire day idle in the office. Observing this, I wondered why everyone was in a rush and if there was a more efficient way to work.

By Day 3, I was labeled as “incompetent” and moved to another workplace. Over the years, I encountered similar work habits in various settings, even among individuals with impressive educational backgrounds. This realization compelled me to teach my children about effective and efficient work practices.

Steps to Optimize Activities

I shared with my children a set of steps to follow before embarking on any task to achieve more effective outcomes:

• Proper Planning: The foundation of any successful task is meticulous planning. While mental planning is valuable, putting your plan on paper (prototyping) helps refine it. Prototyping facilitates the creation of a realistic plan.
• Verification and Validation: Before executing the plan, thoroughly validate and verify it. Identify potential obstacles and minimize them during this stage. If the plan fails during verification, it can be adjusted and re-done (prototyping), resulting in minimal financial and time losses.
• Execution: With a well-planned and verified strategy, the execution phase is more likely to yield optimized outcomes. This approach minimizes losses, both in terms of time and finances, and ensures the desired results are achieved.

By following these steps, individuals can significantly enhance their effectiveness and efficiency in various aspects of life. Recognizing the value of proper planning and the importance of validating and verifying one’s plans can lead to more successful endeavors and fewer setbacks along the way.