There is one thing we all know that is limited and we have no way to get more, our time. The days have a limited amount of hours and we have a limited amount of days to accomplish what we want. What can be more valuable than something that we cannot buy or have more?
In a fast world where we can do so many thing and lost our way with things that do not matter, we must have our mind focused on what really matter and be willing to give up our most valuable asset, our time to do that things. But people like to feel they are very busy, giving them a sense of accomplishment, when in reality they are often occupied with low value tasks, exchanging time for low economic return tasks. This is a point that does make people less productive.
We must always have in our mind that we want to maximize the return of our time and when that time is used in low return tasks, accomplish the goal becomes difficult. An agricultural company CEO that spends half of his day in the field doing the same tasks that his employees do every day may give a positive attitude and motivation by example with his work but probably is not having the right attitude towards the grow of his business. And if that farmer stops working at the fields, hire a new employee and free half of his day? There is no problem. He can continue to go to the field to support their employees and the rest of the time think about the business and plan strategies to increase business profitability, employee productivity and so make and investment in time now to gain future dividends.
Although it is easy talking about delegating low value tasks to occupy yourself in future returns, it is not easy to implement because society does not look well when a person is not occupied in a tangible task. What is the immediate thought when you ask someone what you did this afternoon and the answer is “I think and plan all the afternoon? Possibly he does not do anything during the afternoon.
If we are able to create value with our time why to be occupied with low value tasks that can be delegated to other people? We must always remember that our time is very valuable and limited and therefore we must spend it doing things that give value to us, like be with our most valuable one.