How do you spell love?

The answer is T-I-M-E. That’s how your children and all the other important people in your life spell it. They believe the amount of time you spend with them is equal to how much you love them.

Your understanding and affection for others grows when you spend time with them. When you are too busy to spend time with kids, spouses or significant others, you lose touch with their lives. In the case of our kids, they go off into their own personal world of school, friends and other activities.

Time is irreplaceable, especially in relationships, be they business or personal. The most successful among us create uninterrupted blocks of time they can spend with the important people in their lives.

Make a decision now to redirect and reallocate your time away from low-value tasks, like traveling to meetings, and toward high-value activities.

Plan to spend more time face-to-face with the most important people in your life. Free up your personal time by taking advantage of technology like online meetings. Meeting online saves that most precious of commodities, time.

The people you love will thank you for it.

Making Nice

Want to know what really works to influence people? Making nice. That’s it in a nutshell. Instead of meeting with your clients to do the talk and sell hustle, why not just take them out to breakfast or lunch — and leave the business presentation back at the office. Getting to know your prospective client, building trust and a friendly relationship is a smart way to do business.

I can hear you now — who has time for that these days? If you are going to be successful you must make the time to get to know your prospects and clients as friends and partners. Be like a farmer sowing seeds.

When you leave your breakfast or lunch meeting ask if you may contact your client in the future. If he or she agrees, great. Make that business meeting online, rather than face to face, and you’ll make up the time you ‘wasted’ by not talking business at breakfast!