Know thy time ....

This is one of the pillars of Peter Drucker’s book ‘The Effective Executive’ where he states that all executives should know thy time as time is finite. I think everybody can take something from Peter Drucker’s idea in knowing their time.

As I travel around the US I am constantly surprised at how much time is wasted by people on flights; especially when I’m upgraded to First Class. I typically fly from the West Coast of the US (Los Angeles) to the Mid-West or the East Coast for the work that I do. This means I have at least 3 hours of time on a plane to utilize. On these flights I would stay 80% of people sit there and either sleep, watch a movie or play a game like solitaire on one of their many devices. For example the guy next to me in First class today had a double vodka screwdriver, a beer and spent half of his time playing solitaire on his phone and the other half passed out. Here we are in a world where people constantly call out how busy they are? Crazy right?

I actually love flying (except for the red eyes) because it is an opportunity for me to disconnect from the rest of the world and catch-up on many things whether that is work tasks, email, reading, OmniFocus (my task manager) and general planning. I never pay for wireless on the plane as I don’t need it given I’m connected for the other hours of the day when I’m not on the plane. Better said, I am the most productive on plane when it comes to getting things done (and that includes when I’m in economy, typically in an exit row).

I’m all about having a nap or chilling out sometimes on the plane however we should use this time for ourselves to grow and learn. Use it at least for that!