That Could Have Been An Email…

Yesterday morning, one of our manufacturers for Key wanted to meet in person.

So we set it up. And then, before the meeting, we jumped on a quick call to run through a couple of things first.

That call lasted less than ten minutes.

The entire reason for the meeting, resolved.

Ten minutes on the phone, done.

The in-person meeting, once you factor in the sit-down time plus the drive there and back, would have been the better part of an hour and a half. For a conversation that fit into ten minutes.

And here’s the thing. It would have been so easy to just take that meeting.

Not because it was necessary. Because it’s the way these things have always been done.

You meet the supplier.
You sit down.
You have the chat.
That’s how business gets done, right?

Except a huge amount of it doesn’t need to be done that way anymore.

We complain constantly about being stretched for time.

The schedule is full.
The week is packed.
There aren’t enough hours in the day.
We run from one thing to the next and wonder where all our time went.

But be honest with yourself for a second.

How much of what’s on your calendar actually needs to be there?
How many meetings are you taking that could be a ten-minute call?
How many Zooms could be an email?
How many emails are you reading and writing manually that an AI assistant could now handle for you?
How many recurring commitments exist purely because that’s how they’ve always existed?

I'm not saying that in-person commitments don't still have their place. They absolutely do. And there is no denying that they are a powerful way to build real relationships.

But at the same time we’re living through a period of technological change that is quietly turning a huge amount of what we currently do on it's head.

The problem is, our habits haven’t caught up to the tools.

We keep booking the meetings, taking the calls, sitting in the rooms, and doing the manual work, not because it’s the best use of our time, but because it’s familiar.

Because questioning it feels like more effort than just doing it the way we always have.

But that familiarity is quietly costing you hours every single week.

So here’s my challenge for you.

Take an honest look at your calendar.

Go through it and ask some simple questions of every recurring meeting, every standing call, every task that eats your time.

Does this actually need my time, or is it just habit?
Could this be a quick call instead of a meeting?
Could it be an email instead of a call?
Could an AI tool handle this instead of me?
Could it simply not happen at all?

Be ruthless with it.

You’ll be genuinely shocked at how much time you can claw back, just by scrutinising what you’re actually spending it on and cutting the things that no longer earn their place.

“The way it’s always been done” is not a good enough reason to keep doing it.

If you know someone who would benefit from reading this, please forward it to them. It may change the trajectory of their life for the better, and the catalyst could be you.