A little common sense

Common sense seems to take a back seat nowadays more than it did in the past.

I recently watched a video from the 5th chief Master Sgt of the Air Force, CMSAF, Bob Gaylor.

In the video he talked a little about common sense in his view, and it made sense to me. Here is my take on what he said.

The first is when you’re planning something like buying a new car or planning a vacation.

The two words to keep in mind here are essential and desirable. These have two separate meanings and it you forget them during planning you could end up with something that you’re not happy with.

Essential – Must have, cannot do without, vital, or indispensable.

Desirable – like to have, want, or not critical to your plan.

Examples of this would be like buying a car. List your essentials; must have AC, must have front and side airbags and must have an automatic transmission. List your desirables; would like a red car, would like a two door and leather interior.

You go shopping and find just what you’re looking for, but next to it is a blue car with everything you want and it’s $5,000 cheaper.

Common sense says to buy the blue one for a cheaper price. How many people do you know that will throw common sense out the window and pay the extra because they convince themselves that red color is essential?

The second two words that gets confused in common sense is timeliness and accuracy when doing something.

Of the two, timeliness is the most important. Of course, we all want to be on time and be 100% accurate when we do anything, but that’s not possible all the time.

An example would be the boss comes in and tells you, we need to pour a concrete foundation for a building starting in 10 days. I need a plan tomorrow by close of business to give to the customer. You look at all the concrete work your company has going on, call the concrete company and give them your requirements and see if you will have people ready to pour that day.

You present your plan to the boss and make sure he knows that it’s as accurate as you can get it at this time. Your plan is a WAG (wild ass guess) because there are a lot of things that could change in 10 days. Equipment breaks, people get sick, and you can’t always count on the weather.

Common sense should tell you, getting the plan in on time is more important than getting it absolute right. Sometimes you just go with this is the best WAG I can give you with what I know now.

If you waited until the plan was 100% accurate, your company would probably miss out on the bid.

This is just a couple of examples where common sense needs to be used. When you’re planning or doing anything, just step back and ask yourself what the commonsense approach is. You could save yourself a lot of money or from wasting a lot of time.