Management – The Fairhaven Scholarship

Nowadays, time is the most precious resource. While it’s nearly impossible to know what was going through people’s heads thousands (and even hundreds) of years ago, we know one fact. People live longer now than they did in the past. This increase in lifespan has only made (many people) want to live even longer and make the most out of their lives.

Whether making the most means more money, more property, more fame or more experiences, more is more. The only way to accomplish more with less… efficiency. I want to look at an industry that is always forced to maximize their efficiency in order to stay profitable. The food industry, specifically eateries that serve fresh food, have grand challenges that need to be overcome.

One model that has helped turn new chains into billion dollar businesses has leaked into mom and pop shops. We recently saw this model being used at Fresh Pita, a family owned and operated Mediterranean/Middle Eastern eatery in Los Angeles. Even though the food is certainly fresh, they prepare everything similar to Chipotle and Subway so that they can quickly assemble custom orders.

Here, they’re willing to sacrifice their need to combine flavor profiles to create signature dishes in order to increase their rate of turning out dishes and also give the customer what they want. It might back fire to a certain degree because the uncertain customers take longer to decide what they want, but the effort and desire to be more efficient in many ways is there.

By having nearly everything set up ahead of time and not meddling with beverages by having pre-packaged options, they can give better customer service and also hand-pack their falafel with every order.

What do you do in your every day life to be more efficient? Being prepared can make a huge difference and save you tons of time, clearly.

Keep it. Don’t just tear it up out of frustration and throw it in the rubbish bin. You’re better than that. You had the discipline to create a list of tasks that you thought were worthwhile, so don’t be so quick to abandon what you placed value in before.

There are certain ways to approach a to-do list, and while we’re not focusing on how to make one, the order has an impact on your actions. Hoping that you created a mindful to-do list that takes the order of events into consideration, there is one way to approach it.

Attack it. Ruthlessly. Viciously. With passion and intensity. Don’t delay. Don’t Flounder. Don’t reconsider what it says. Again, you made a to-do list. Now do everything on it.

Let’s look at this in another application. Let’s think of a to-do list that someone else made for you. Imagine your significant other made you a grocery list. Let’s even say that they cook the meals and you know nothing about food, so in this extreme situation, you’re going to get exactly what the list says. Right?

Now, think back to your list. Go at it with the same mindset. Plow through everything on that list, from top to bottom, considering you made it properly. Perform the first item on the list… now cross it off. Same with the second, third, forth, fifth, etc. Sometimes, completing a to-do list is about working hard. Sure, making the list might take longer and involve more thinking, but that’s the hard part. Or is it?

This might get the chores done, but on a grander scale, it’s about execution. It’s so easy to make grandiose plans, but going through with them is harder. If you practice making small plans and crushing them every day, even if it’s just household tasks like washing dishes, vacuuming, etc… you’re going to start to develop the ability to execute. Take that laser focus to your big ideas and one day you’ll start to see serious results.

So, again… what should you do with a to-do list? Do it.