Editor’s Note: The following remarks were made on The NEWS’ group, The NEWS Network, on LinkedIn.

The longer I take to work on something, the harder I make it for myself. I try to prioritize and get to everything as soon as I can, because in this industry you don’t know what tomorrow brings. If I have time to complete a task today, I am doing it today because one cold spell or heat wave can set me back for weeks, and I may not get to it again for a while.

If the task is a customer or coworker that needs help or an answer, the longer I wait, the madder they get because they haven’t heard from me.

If the task is paperwork, the longer I wait, the greater the chance of me losing it, spilling coffee on it, a deadline passing, or my forgetting the details about the project.

Jolene Methvin
Estimator/Customer Service
Bay Area Air Conditioning, Crystal River, Fla.

Choose What Not To Do

I am bombarded with all kinds of opportunities to “do things now” every day. I cannot possibly do all the things that are presented to me as opportunities to do something now. The question I ask myself is: “Is this the most important thing for me to do now?” My answer is often no.

I think that choosing what to do is no more important than choosing what not to do. Sometimes not doing something is exactly the right thing to do. This is especially true when you have the opportunity to react to a person or situation. When I don’t do something, I have time to do something else. … This gives me a little more time for spending time with my family or spending time doing things I like to do because I like to do them. In the final analysis, those are the things life is really all about.

Dale Rossi, Director of Special Projects
Field Diagnostics, Philadelphia

Publication date: 10/31/2011