100 Business Days Out: Day 22 - No Watch

I realized today that for the first time in a month I haven’t had my watch on my wrist. It’s in my briefcase, when I decide to carry it. I wondered to myself today why I haven’t been wearing my watch. What I realized is that I have been scheduling meetings and events with ample time to get to them early (my quote: “There is no stress in being early”) and then plenty of leisure time between so no rush if I run over. It’s pretty liberating actually. I always thought that back-to back was the way to go…get lots jammed in and don’t have downtime as that would be wasted. I was fascinated that Bill Clinton, when President, was scheduled every 5 minutes and I figured that a back-to-back schedule was the way to go. Now in hindsight I realize that when you are back-to-back what you are really doing is not finishing meetings well. In fact, you are finishing them poorly because you start to think 15 minutes before they end on how to wrap up this one and get to the next one on time. And then if you are late, well you know how that feels. I will not mention a CEO who I worked with once who would run so far behind that he would carry over meetings into the next day. That was a nightmare for all involved and made people feel very disrespected. I was more than once on the receiving end of waiting until 7:00pm for a 4:00pm meeting to start only to be told that it was rescheduled for the next morning at 7:00AM. I never wanted to be like that so I worked hard to get done on time, but I now realize that to truly be present and respectful I should have left time between meetings so that I could be fully in the moment for an entire meeting and then have the downtime between meetings to get in the moment for the next one. Not to mention, I wouldn’t have to wear a watch.