Secrets of Valuing Your Time and Your Health
Harris Jensen, MD
503 Remington Street #210, Fort Collins, CO 80525
It may seem obvious about what it takes to get to your appointments on time, but
it is actually more complicated than most people imagine. Many people miss their
appointments because they simply don't know what to do to get there on time. Things
come up. Their lives are busy. People interrupt them and ask them to do things. As a
result they are missing all kinds of appointments and the resulting chaos and lack of
organization just adds to their stress which adds to the depression and anxiety in their
day!
What is the reality of an appointment? An appointment with any professional is
actually you purchasing some of their time for their service--whether they are an
accountant or banker or business consultant or doctor. You are buying their time, like
taking a loaf of bread off a grocery store shelf. If you don't show up or are late, it
communicates you don't value their time, and that is like walking out of the grocery store
with that loaf of bread…like it doesn't matter if you pay for it or not!
One businessman told me when someone doesn't show for their appointment with
him, it seems to me "like they think I have "Stupid" written on my forehead!" Of course
he doesn't tell them that. That would be tactless. When they call for another appointment
with him he says he doesn't have any openings. Professionals value their time and they
very much appreciate others who value their time as well.
Here's what people with busy lives tell me they do to value their OWN time and
the time of people they make appointments to see:
1. Write the appointment time down and look at it. Write it on a calendar or day timer,
but write it somewhere you can easily look at it, and then look at it every day, and
look at appointments for the coming week and month…so you don't miss anything.
2. Look at your appointment list two or more times a day. It is a discipline! If you don't
check for it, you can count on missing it!
3. Why do this? You are able to live smarter, know more, make more sophisticated
decisions, build a better life for yourself…emotionally, personally, spiritually,
financially, physically. All because you are taking the time to get advice from
professionals in these areas…your therapist, doctor, accountant, friends, etc. These
are exciting things to be doing in your life.
4. Being on time involves saying no about ten times for everytime you say yes. And
being careful anytime someone asks you to do something…careful to check your
daytimer first before you commit to anything! Your daytimer is your best friend!
This approach will allow you to actually do the things you need to in order to achieve
your goals…with much less stress.
5. This involves staying in the reflective frame of mind much of the time during the
day…seeking a better way to achieve goals, an easier way to get things
done…reflecting when you are not actually working on a task. This is how you can
be seeking to understand the needs of those around you and yourself. As Stephen
Covey says in the book the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, if you want to
be understood, first seek to understand.
6. When you value your time this way, and the time of those people you are consulting,
it actually results in better mental and physical health. You are treating yourself with
respect. You wouldn't have it any other way! You are not treating your time and the
time of other people as if it wasn't worth thinking about and planning for ahead of
time.
7. To value time, it is important to ask, "what could go wrong?" Then have a plan for
those things so you achieve your goal. Traffic jams could occur. Leave 15 minutes
early, then, and bring your mail to answer, or reading you need to do, or paperwork
that needs to get done. Other things to consider: get up on time, tell your boss or
family of appointment as needed so they can plan around it, get a babysitter and
backup babysitter for children, fix car if broken, don't set other appointments within 2
hours of each other (can be too hard to make both), if someone else is giving you a
ride--be sure to call them 3 days and 1 day in advance so they don't forget, and be
ready to use a bus or other transportation if they do forget. If you haven't had to
think ahead like this before, it might be quite an effort at first but it will pay off
with better mental health. Later it will get to be a routine to value your time this
way and you wouldn't think of doing it otherwise…that would be too stressful!
8. Of course unforeseen events occur and some missed appointments can't be helped.
But it general, when people make it on time to their appointment it didn't "just
happen." There was some work and thought involved. We appreciate that effort.
We are doing the same. It is part of choosing to have a healthy rather than a "sickness
producing" lifestyle. Congratulations for making a good choice!