You’d expect a businessman, investor, speaker and philanthropist with an estimated fortune of around 80 billion US Dollars to have a calendar filled to the brim with appointments, meetings, conferences, calls and more, wouldn’t you?
However, one of the richest men in the world, Warren Buffet says he has one of the emptiest diaries of everyone he knows.
Surely a businessman of his calibre would be expected to be extremely busy and have a packed diary? Taking into account how busy the average person is, it makes sense that he’d be even busier.
So, how does he manage to protect his time and ensure his diary doesn’t become filled with unnecessary things?
Buffet credits this to one important realisation he made years ago…
“I can buy anything I want, basically, but I can’t buy time” – Warren Buffett
Buffett has the knowledge that time is precious and should be protected. He treats time as something to invest and use to the fullest, rather than just filling up his time with meetings and calls that aren’t really serving him to reach his goals.
It’s not that people don’t want Buffett’s time. Instead, it’s that Buffet values his time more than most other people do. He knows that time isn’t money and ensures that he protects his time accordingly.
Many people these days are guilty of filling their calendars to the brim. They believe that the busier they are, the more successful they’ll be and the more money they’ll make.
This is what’s known as being a busy fool.
It’s great for your ego, but not so great for your business.
But, Buffett proves that this just isn’t the case. We don’t need to have diaries full of appointments, calls and meetings in order to be successful.
Instead, we need to protect our time and to treat it like something precious. We need to learn how to use it wisely and how to use it for things that really serve us.
“We all have the same 24 hours of time each day. When you begin to value your time more, you waste less of it and invest more of it. As Warren Buffett says: “There’s no way I will be able to buy more time.” How can you be more effective by being less busy? How can you invest your time better by saying “no” to the wrong things and “yes” to the right things? “Time is more valuable than money. You can get more money, but you cannot get more time.” – Jim Rohn
So, how can you be more like Warren Buffett and protect your time better?
First, you need to realise how important your time is.
Then you need to recognise that people will always want your time.
Instead of just giving it away to others by scheduling pointless meetings, taking unnecessary calls, completing mindless tasks and more, you need to get in control of your time. You need to choose where you want to invest your time and how you can invest it most wisely.
One way Buffet invests his time in large chunks is by blocking out time to simply sit and think.
“Sometimes blocking out time to just sit and think, might be a much higher priority than what you are doing right now” – Bill Gates
Because when you block out chunks of time to just think, that’s when you have the head space to start thinking clearly.
You’re not caught up in the fire-fighting, stress and everything else that comes with running your accountancy practice.
You just have space to think, reset, and find new ideas and new ways of approaching things.
Once you’ve blocked out time to think, you need to figure out how you can be more effective by being less busy. How you can work smarter and not harder to get the same amount of things done in less time.
Start by asking yourself how you can invest your time better by saying no to things that don’t help you move closer to your goals and aspirations.
Then, with the time you’ve carved out by saying no to unnecessary things, start saying yes to the right things – the things that are going to help you move closer to your big dreams and goals.
Could you be investing your time more wisely to better help you in your life and business?