Stop Managing Your Time. Start Auditing the Trade

Jerry's back after a two-month break — one spent on two vacations with his grandchildren, the first real time off since he was 25. That break turned into this episode.

After decades of Covey systems, Hyatt planners, and every productivity app that promised to fix his calendar, Jerry landed on a different conclusion: you can't control time. You can only control what you trade it for. The average life runs about 4,000 weeks — roughly 80 years — and most of us spend that trying to optimize the minutes instead of questioning the trades.

The shift is one question. Not "how do I manage my time better?" but "what am I trading my time for, and was that trade worth it?"

Jerry walks through a 24-hour trade audit you can run today, then puts himself on the hook with a story from last week: a full day spent rescuing a customer who'd run out of chemicals, and the phone call the next morning telling him they were leaving anyway. He still isn't sure what to make of it.

If you sell, manage accounts, or run a territory, this one's about the calls you say yes to and what they actually cost you.

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Jerry Bauer
Hospitality Cleaning 101 | Bauer Consulting
Jerry@hospitalitycleaning101.com

Transcript

Introduction

 Hi, this is Jerry with Cleaning Processes with Jerry. Thanks for joining me today on a new season of Cleaning Processes with Jerry. I've taken off a little bit in the last couple months. It's been two months since I did a podcast, and hopefully we're gonna get back where I can meet my goal of two per month.

It has to be two per month. And I've fallen behind this summer. A lot of things been busy. I've actually taken two vacations this summer. First time since the age of 25. Took two vacations, both of them in different locations, both of them with grandchildren. Something I'll never be able to get back again was the time that we all had together.

The 4,000 Weeks Concept

totally fantastic. Everyone needs to do it. And today's session is on time management. Well, I believe that... Let me show you a book I just recently, uh, started reading, uh, 4,000 Weeks: [00:01:00] Time Management for Mortals. And what it talks about is, no matter what business you're in, but- Especially for thinking about this as I get older, I should say, is that I have bought many books, many things to look at time management, to be better at it.

Uh, years ago, and I'm sure they still have it, they have the Covey system. I've then used, uh, Mike or Mike Hyatt's, um, system, which I actually still y- do use, use, and don't have next to me. But I do use Mike Hyatt's, um, system as well. I've used different apps. I've used many different things, but this book is saying throw all that away, and quite honestly, I totally agree.

We Can't Control Time

We can't control time. We can only control what we trade [00:02:00] that time for. When it talks about 4,000 weeks, 4,000 weeks comes out to about 80 years. Do the math. And what it's teaching me is that the average lifespan is not even 80 years. And why are we trying to control little things here today, and we forget about the end goal?

The Bigger Picture

We've all heard the stories. People on their deathbeds aren't gonna be sitting there going, "Boy, I wish I'd have made that one more sales call on that Friday afternoon. Wow, I wish I would've done this. Wow, I wish I've done this and when that customer was upset." And we get really worked up on all that stuff, but we really need to look at the bigger picture that we are here only 80 [00:03:00] years.

And possibly, I didn't realize when I said it earlier, possibly that's why I was thinking about this is the first time since age 25 I took two weeks vacation. I think I deserve three. It's the mindset that we have to have. So in time management, there has to be a shifting of managing your time versus what you're managing, what you trade that for.

The Shift: What Are You Trading For?

there's a shift, and it changes everything. Quit asking yourself, "How do I manage my time better?" Start asking yourself, "What am I trading my time for?" And is the time, or I actually said it wrong, is the trade worth it? This question [00:04:00] forces clarity. It forces honesty. It forces responsibility. It forces you to look at life through the lens of value, not of minutes.

The Trade Audit Exercise

And when you start making better trades automatically. A simple exercise to prove this point is try this later today. For the next twenty-four hours, write down everything. What you did, how long it took, what you got out of it. Then ask, "Was that time worth it? Would I make that trade again? What trade should I have made instead?"

Possibly I'm gonna work on a trade audit and I'll, I'll probably share it on, uh, the website, Hospitality Cleaning 101. You know, a trade audit of trying to pinpoint this stuff for myself [00:05:00] as well as for you My speeches frequently is, or talks I should say, come about because I say them for myself as much as anybody else.

A Real-World Example

Because we always have to be re-examining how we spend our time and what we trade for it. I can remember that just this past week, I spent the time of a complete day to help a customer, and then the next day the customer said he was leaving us, or me, or making a change, and the reasons why. Was the trade worth it?

No, because he had ran out of chemicals. I went and got him some, delivered him some, took care of it, and he thought [00:06:00] delivery should have been faster. Well Unfortunately, chemical companies are not as fast as Amazon, and I really do support this customer. He called me out, called my company out on things that we had done wrong, and I appreciated that.

And I don't know today, did I waste my time that day? Should I have been doing something else? Because I traded my time for value to this customer, and they eventually left anyway. Many things to ponder there. 

Closing Thoughts & CTA

I hope you enjoy the quick new podcast that came out with this. If you're interested in joining the show, send me an email, jerry@hospitalitycleaning101.com.

You can go to the website, fill out a [00:07:00] form to join our newsletter. We'd love to have you. Love to have you as a guest on the show as we bring this together, become more friends. And before I end it, I will tell you that this past week I had a question, and I went to, number one, a podcast guest that I had on, and we collaborated on something.

I then went to an email or a person had emailed me some questions about joining the podcast, and they were a specialist in something I needed help on. I sent him an email, and he got back to me on the answers I was needing. So again, I'm building this miniature base of people that we can reach out to one another.

If I had the time, I would build on this more. But for right now, it's a podcast, doing a couple YouTube videos and that. Hope you enjoyed it. This is Jerry signing off, hoping you have a [00:08:00] great day. Thanks for joining me today.