Time optimization always depends on the knowledge we use to do things.
We already recognize the importance of human beings and our time to achieve the goals defined by different groups, teams, and organizations.
Today I want to briefly share something that I have experienced about the impact of what we learn day after day, that is, the knowledge that we build from the experience that we live on the effectiveness of what we undertake.
It is about optimizing time, doing things very well, allowing us to leave a valuable contribution to society and generating growth opportunities for those around us in the different areas in which we operate, whether they are personal, family, social or labor.
All the time we are learning new things, without referring to the concepts and theories that are shared with us in the academy, where almost all of us have passed one day; This learning that I want to talk about is completely different, it is what grandparents would call the school or university of life, where we can build what we are and what people with whom we share some space perceive of us.
From childhood we are learning and we only stop doing it when we stop living, it is part of the existence of the human being. Babies learn by imitating what the people around them do, they learn to communicate, to make gestures, then they learn to speak and walk by telling only the most representative knowledge that we can observe.
Nobody has been born with the knowledge that I have mentioned and it is not frequent to find a baby in an imitation class or attending a theoretical subject on how the proper posture should be to take the first steps, these are things that are learned from experience like many others that are happening in the lives of the People.
As we practice what we know how to do, our skills are perfected, becoming as efficient as we need according to the environments in which we operate.
On the other hand, if we never exercise the knowledge we acquire, the result will be the opposite, that is, such skills will never develop and will be forgotten by our brains.
As we grow, we become more demanding when it comes to receiving new knowledge, we consciously begin to build justifications for learning or not learning.
Now imagine a person who is preparing to learn to drive a vehicle, goes through several stages that are different from when we are very young, first we identify a need, which may be to mobilize or is generated by observing that it is a social requirement or simply By the example of other people around us, it is our justification for learning to drive.
Then we see the need for someone to tell us the concepts and theories, such as what components we find in the vehicle, what each pedal, button and lever we have at our disposal is for.
The next part is the practice, to put the vehicle to walk in a little trafficked place to gain “experience” and correct mistakes, to finally go out on the streets and then be able to build the way of driving adapting to the behaviors and habits of the other participants, such as other drivers, public transportation, traffic signs, road conditions, pedestrians, among others.
We find similar behaviors when we are about to learn a sport, some competition that we need for work, some habit that helps improve our financial situation or our family communication.
Well, we already know in a very general way how some knowledge of people is built and how to keep skills in good shape you have to practice and practice.
Then, when we already know something or when we already have a skill, we have several options, among them we will focus on two:
The first, which perhaps seems the easiest, consists in continuing to do things as we have always done them, maintaining a skill as we have learned from the beginning, staying in our comfort zone, perceiving a security and adaptation to what Society demands of us, thus generating the least risk, even though we know that we are making certain mistakes or repeating some activities unnecessarily.
The second option, which from my point of view is the one that will allow us to reach the next level, improve our level of quality of life, get closer to our goals faster and is about developing the habit of learning permanently, building and using in practice what we know, the knowledge we have, even when that learning involves destroying what we have learned before or unlearning especially when we live in a large global community.
It is the second option that I have wanted to focus on, in lifelong learning, because I find that there is no other way to increase the effectiveness in what we do and again we must talk about the time we have available to act as integral human beings.
It is only from knowledge that we can build new solutions, innovate for the benefit of the people and organizations around us, since it is this knowledge that gives us the ability to act in a certain way and modify our habits.
Let's see a small example, if after having learned to drive in a city with huge traffic, with heavy traffic congestion, where there are high levels of aggressiveness on the roads, which have taught me the behavior I have, I move from city to a more organized one, with less congestion and with habits of friendliness in its drivers, it is probable that the need to modify the behaviors that it had acquired in the city in which I learned to drive will be generated. Now we see that we have an opportunity to improve the environment on the streets, therefore we already know that we can drive more relaxed, generating less stress for those around us, even taking this behavior to the city from which we come.
The same thing happens in our work, when we joined the organization, they gave us the manuals of the position, they offered us an induction telling us the importance we have for collective objectives. We have the same two options, on the one hand, understanding the importance of what we must do, adapt and do the same until for some reason the employment relationship ends.
Or we can use the knowledge we learned, what we were taught, what we observe around us, and what we experience to take advantage of new opportunities to do things better. Maybe a new method that allows me to reduce the time of a production unit, or a new tool in Excel that helps me optimize the time I spend preparing the report to deliver it one day before the deadline, or it could be observe the behavior of customers towards products to propose a new functionality that so far no one has available to make their lives easier, among many other options that will be adjusted to the generation of value for which we are responsible in our daily work.
As we can see, with any of the ways that we have to take advantage of time using knowledge to do things faster (efficient) and better (effective), that is, generating innovative solutions, the result will be tangible with indicators that will show us that it is increasing the ability to create value.
If you want to spend your time doing the same thing every day or if you prefer to invest it learning and using what you know to tirelessly improve what you do… THE DECISION IS YOURS!
