Time is such a precious resource in almost any profession.

"The bad news is time flies. The good news is you're the pilot."  Michael Altshuler

With my background I tend to focus on salespeople or recruiters, but I expect most people could relate.

It would probably be fair to say that the more you can achieve in your working hours the more successful you will be and in the case of sales and recruiters particularly, the more income you are likely to generate. This assumes a constant level of quality across the timeline.

The more you sell the more you make... a classic commission based model.

This should be plenty of incentive for people in a commissioned environment to develop fantastic time management skills. It should be a no-brainer that they would want to maximise their effectiveness while at work!

"Ordinary people think merely how they will spend their time, a man of intellect tries to use it." Schopenhauer

What do you do in these situations?

1. You have a meeting in 45 minutes, and have just completed a major task. Do you...

a. Go for coffee at Starbucks;

b. Go and tell your co-workers what a great job you did on your latest close;

c. Crank out 45 minutes worth of calls to clients/prospects; or

d. Catch up on the latest Facebook, News, Sports... or other internet based time wasters?

2. You have a client meeting at the other end of town, which is a 45 minute drive. Do you...

a. Book more meetings in the same area, so that the commute time can be maximised;

b. Set your phone up so that you can speed dial a number of people and have brief conversations whiles driving to and from your meeting, thus maximising your commute time.

c. Start work late because it's quicker to get to the client from home than from the office;

d. Go to the meeting and lose 90 minutes of productive time commuting?

3. It is 4:45pm and you finish work at 5pm... because that is what the policy manual says. Do you...

a. Habitually put in more time because you know your success is depending upon your productivity;

b. Do what it takes for your clients, so use the 15 minutes to call clients and if it takes longer it takes longer;

c. Wrap up and be ready to leave on the dot at 5p, or

d. Just leave early.

As professionals we are given situations every day where the "easy thing" is to not work. If you adopt a mindset that you will accomplish as much as possible every day, then you will look for ways to "get things done" rather than avoiding work.

I don't believe that "work" should be your life.

I don't believe that you should put in hours for the sake of putting in hours.

I think that most people could accomplish a lot more with their 8 hour work day, just by planning their time better.

I think that doing what it takes to be successful at work can have a positive impact on your whole life.

You have to work anyway... why not be the best you can be?

"Time lost is never found again."  Benjamin Franklin