Jim Rohn said, “Time is more valuable than money. You can get more money, but you cannot get more time.”
Making better use of our time also generates freedom and less stress in our lives.
There are many ways through better time management we can improve our efficiency and be more productive. However, today I chose one area I see every day where time can be saved, and that is through the way we choose to communicate.
We can either waste or save our time depending on how we communicate.
While technology has saved us a great deal of time, we have to be wise in how we use it.
We can easily send an email or text asking a question or requesting information, or forward someone else’s request, and feel accomplished because we thought we did what we needed to do. While we completed the task, there may be a more efficient way.
When the topic or circumstances are uncomfortable to discuss or more complicated to explain, we often default to the easiest and quickest way to respond, which is usually an email or text, but this is not always the best way.
One day I received an email from a borrower who outlined their loan request. It was not the right fit for Fidelis, and as we always do, we try to help the borrower find what they are looking for, and I knew of another lender that may be able to fund the loan.
My immediate response was to forward the email to the other lender and see if they had any interest. It would have been the easiest, but would it have been the most efficient? Maybe, but in this case, it wasn’t the most effective way to communicate and would have delayed the answer and wasted time.
What I did was forward the email to the lender for a reference point. Then immediately picked up the phone, called the lender, briefed him on the request as he showed interest, and patched in the borrower on a three-way phone call. In minutes, the borrower was connected with the lender and expedited the processing time tenfold.
Our mission at Fidelis is to help people achieve their financial goals, whether that is to help them as a direct lender or help them connect with someone who can.
We only have so much time, and wasted time means lost opportunities.
In the right situation communicating the old-fashioned way, bypassing technology, and picking up the phone and calling the person saves time. Try it. You will be amazed at how quickly you can get things accomplished.