My father began teaching me about managing time when I was about 5 years old. He was very much from the old school of work hard, earn your keep and keep your mouth shut. I vividly remember him stopping me in mid stride and asking, “Where are you going?” I replied, “I’m going outside to play.” He said, “Well, take something with you when you go. Don’t ever go anywhere without thinking about what you could take with you to save a trip or what you should get done before you go. Always be thinking two steps in front of where you are. If you do that, you’ll never waste time or energy”.
I thought he was crazy! I heard him say that same basic phrase at least a thousand times over the next 10 years and I still thought he was crazy.
It wasn’t until I went to work for him as a laborer that I really started to understand the importance of “keeping two steps ahead”. He had me carry wall framing materials from the drop site onto the sub floor where the carpenters were going to build the outside walls of the house. He took a red marker and drew lines on the floor and told me, “I want the wall studs right here and the plates right here. Put the sheathing right here and don’t let any of the lumber get outside these lines or I’ll make you do it again. When you carry lumber in, stack it like I told you and when you go out for more, don’t go empty handed. Grab some trash or debris and throw it in the dumpster. You’ll note it’s right next to the lumber pile out there.”
I thought he was crazy! All I was doing was stockpiling lumber for the carpenters. What difference did it make if I stayed within his lines?
The next day, when the carpenters showed up, I got to help build those walls. The foreman started laying them out and we started building them. As we were working, it came to me that the subfloor was cleaned off so we weren’t stumbling over a bunch of junk that would slow us down. I also noticed my lumber pile wasn’t in the way of building any of the walls. There was room to swing a hammer, raise them up and brace them off. Not one stick of lumber had to be handled twice!
Maybe he wasn’t so crazy after all.
You see, his business depended on how well he managed his own time and how well the carpenters he employed managed their time. He taught his men never to go anywhere empty handed and to make sure that every step they took was thought out far enough in advance that they wouldn’t work their way into a corner. He would say to them, “Think first. Think about the big picture, then think about the steps you need to get there. If you do that, it will be right the first time, every time and you won’t have to work so hard.”
That is time management the old school way.
