Don’t waste other people’s time
Suppose you had a friend who had this nasty habit: every time you met with him, he would put his hand in your pocket or bag, and take out your wallet, remove from it a $20 bill, light a match to it, watch it burn to ash, and then apologize with a smile. Would you like that?
It would be a burden to retain such a friendship, wouldn’t it?
One thing that we don’t often realize is that time is like money. Just like money is a valuable resource, time is also a valuable resource. Therefore, when we waste someone’s time, it is not too different from burning someone’s money!
For this reason, it is important to value other people’s time.
There are many ways in which we can waste people’s time. For example, if you are supposed to meet a person somewhere at 5:00 pm and he arrives there at 5:00 pm but you arrive at 5:15 pm, you’ve just wasted fifteen minutes of his time.
Another way that we can waste people’s time is to chat with them on and on and on without saying anything substantial. Sending them a bunch of unnecessary emails or text messages achieves the same thing.
We can also waste people’s time by bringing unnecessary conflict into their lives by saying or doing something stupid.
Wasting people’s time is one extreme. Some people, at the other extreme, are already paranoid about wasting people’s time. They hesitate to ask questions and they talk hurriedly because they feel as if they are imposing on others by their mere existence. I don’t want such people to become even more paranoid after reading this. Therefore, if you are already a person who is very timid and extra conscious about wasting people’s time, please note that this message is not for you.
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