Life Lessons: Pistachios theory for time management

Pistachios have high levels of unsaturated fatty acids and potassium. Both have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory traits.

Their fiber and protein can make you feel fuller for longer. 

Src: https://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/benefits-pistachios#1

Keeping the health benefits of consuming Pistachios aside, let’s look at what you can learn from the activity of consuming the Pistachios.

There was a time when our marketing team was doing a fantastic job by generating a lot of leads and the sales teams performance was declining gradually. It was a major concern and we had to figure out a solution before the team gets demotivated.

During one of the briefing sessions with the team, I have given them this interesting activity of eating a bowl full of Pistachios.

Team Member X - I have given him a bowl full of shelled pistachios and asked to eat the pistachios and put the shell back into the same bowl.

Team Member Y - I have also given her a bowl full of shelled pistachios along with an empty bowl. I have asked her to put the shell into the empty bowl after eating the Pistachios.

Now during this process, after 10 mins, I have asked the “X”, how much more time do you need to complete this task, very doubtfully he replied, “ I might take another 10 more minutes but note sure “ and when I asked the same question to “Y” her response was very instant, “ I need exactly 5 more minutes to complete this activity.

By now, I assume, you are smart enough to figure out why the same clarity was missing for “X”.

Moral of the story: You might be working on 100 different tasks with different levels of priorities. You can be successful, only if you have a clarity on the list of completed tasks and the pending tasks as per the priority. This was missing for “x” during his entire activity. He was putting back the shells into the same bowl after eating the pistachio, due to which, he was not having an exact clarity on how many more are left to be consumed.

Now, how was this activity related to our sales teams performance decline? When the marketing team was doing a good job in increasing the lead flow, the sales team not prioritizing and segregating the leads as per the priority, due to which, they were missing out on important leads and the numbers were not achieved.

Certain times these simple activities, which we perform daily will teach a lot, provided we are open to learn.

Time Management is the key to happiness.

Keep spreading happiness.

Gowri Baba

About the author:

Pradeep is a founder and chief experience curator at Happy Retreats. He also mentors entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs on time management.

Note: please ignore the grammatical and sentence formation mistakes. I am still exploring my skill set on writing.