I was talking to a friend of mine that used to work in the hotel industry, and he explained one of the unique challenges of the business this way: “your inventory expires every night.”
It makes sense when you think about it. You can rent each room each night, but if a room goes un-rented for a night you don’t get that night back. You can’t rent it twice the next night to make up your money – that opportunity has expired.
In a situation like that, it’s to the hotel’s advantage to get as much as they can out of each room each night. This is one of the reasons that hotels sometimes offer great last-minute deals. An empty room doesn’t make them any money, and the cost of renting it – a few little soaps, a bit of laundry, and a person to clean it – are trivial compared to the lost revenue from it sitting empty.
You probably don’t manage a hotel, but each and every one of us manages our day. And time is a lot like that hotel room – you get 24 hours each day, and your inventory expires every night. You can’t go back and use yesterday’s, but you can use today’s and plan tomorrow’s.
When you think about it like that, does that change how you view planning and scheduling? Does it make you think differently about priorities?