Many years ago, a management consultant named Ivy Lee was called in by Charles Schwab, chairman of Bethlehem Steel Company, to give Schwab advice on how to better manage his time. After observing Schwab for several hours, Lee suggested: "Every evening write down the six most important things that must get done the next day, and list them in order of importance. Don't begin item two until item one is complete."

Schwab asked Lee how much he wanted for this advice. Lee replied, "Use the plan for six months and send me a check for how much you think it is worth."

Schwab realized the value of this advice, as well as the importance of time. How you spend your time can be as important as how you spend your money.

After six months, Lee received a check from Schwab for $25,000, which was a lot of money in the 1920s.

I would submit that time is an organization's most valuable commodity. Waste it, and you are throwing away an irreplaceable resource. Time is not an enemy unless you try to kill it. An hour lost is never found.

We all start out in life with one thing in common -- the same number of minutes and hours in each day. That remains constant whether we live 50 years or 100 years. So why is it that some people accomplish so much, and others, very little?

Do you complain that you never have enough time to finish projects or complete your work? The reason may be that you're wasting your time, because you haven't figured out how to use it well. Here are some ideas to get time on your side:

-- Begin your day with a plan. If you have no plan on how to tackle your workload, you'll end up battered by competing demands. Manage your time better by doing the right things well, not by doing the wrong things faster. At the end of your day, make a to-do list for the next day, so you can be productive immediately in the morning.

-- Prioritize, don't procrastinate. Many people like doing the easy things first and saving the harder things for the end. But what if those harder things never get done, or there are emergencies that come up? Your plan should be prioritized by order of importance, even if it means tackling the hard jobs first.

-- Take on what you can reasonably handle. Sometimes it's hard to say "no," but be careful not to let your work pile up, causing you to miss deadlines. This can lead to poor performance and unnecessary stress.

-- Tidy up your workspace. Studies show the average American worker is a disorganized mess. A minute here and there spent looking for stuff can add up fast. A messy desk wastes time and adds to your distractions. Organize and get rid of the clutter.

-- Focus. People lack productivity because they can't stay focused or they are continuously distracted and interrupted. If you are able to maintain your concentration, you will be amazed at the amount of work you can accomplish.

-- Get adequate sleep. Lack of sleep increases your stress level and intensifies feelings of being out of control. You'll spend time at work wishing you weren't so tired. It will also be hard to focus on the task at hand, which leads to a major time-waster: having to redo projects.

-- Take a break. Get away from work. Eat lunch somewhere other than at your desk. Take a walk around the block. A brief breather recharges your batteries and keeps you more productive, as evidenced in this story:

Two men were engaged in chopping wood. One of the men worked hard all day, seldom took a break, and took only 20 minutes for lunch. The other man took several breaks a day, spent 45 minutes for lunch, and even took a 15-minute nap before going back to work.

The first man became increasingly frustrated because, no matter how hard he worked, the other man's pile of chopped wood was always much bigger than his at the end of the day.

"I don't understand how you do it," said the first man one day. "Every time I look around, you are sitting down, and yet you cut more wood than I do. Why is that?"

With a smile, the second man replied, "Did you also notice that while I was sitting down, I was sharpening my ax?"

Mackay's Moral: Killing time isn't murder, it's suicide.

Baseball has been in the headlines lately, and for the ugliest of reasons: cheating.

Not the old hide-the-ball-in-the-glove trick or greasing or scuffing the baseball. No, those would be too obvious.

In their pursuit of perfection, or at least superior performance, dozens of high-paid athletes, superstars and utility players turned to performance-enhancing drugs that they hoped would evade discovery. It didn't work, and America's pastime is plagued with scandal.

The sad thing is that cheating is not that uncommon. We see it on Wall Street, in politics, in famous marriages and just about everywhere you look. It seems it's become part of our culture. Is the spirit of competition that drives American progress creating a nation of cheaters?

People cheat on diets, at cards or on fitness programs. Bolder folks might cheat on taxes, resumes or dating profiles. But where do we draw the line in the sand? Is some cheating OK?

We need to examine that attitude. I still believe that trust is one of the most important attributes of any truly successful person.

In a Conference Board poll of 15,000 juniors and seniors at 31 universities, more than 87 percent of business majors admitted to cheating at least once in college, the largest such percentage. Engineering students came in second at 74 percent. Next came science students and Humanities majors, tied at 63 percent.

According to USA Today, college students on 27 campuses in 19 states were asked what they would do if they caught a classmate cheating. Would they report it? 81 percent said, "No." Are you as surprised as I am that there are more than 150 websites that offer essays, term papers and dissertations for sale?

Does that set the stage for life? Well, I surely hope not. But reading the headlines might make you think otherwise.

Political sex scandals are hard to ignore these days. Certainly not all politicians are cheaters, but when the news is dominated day after day by some outrageous behavior that most of us would never condone, it casts a long shadow. After all, if they'll cheat on the ones they love, what will they do to get votes or push legislation through?

When trust is eroded, an entire group suffers, even those who are squeaky clean.

Business is hardly exempt. A survey by CFO Magazine found that 20 percent of financial executives feel more pressure since 2001 to "make results appear more favorable." In a survey of students at the nation's top business schools, two-thirds of women and more than half the men said they do not believe that most companies are "run honestly or ethically."

In a speech, former Bank of America global risk executive Amy Woods Brinkley spoke about what the research firm Inferential Focus called the "gaming" of everything in our lives. "What they mean in short is that our passion in America for games -- for entertainment and competition -- seems to be exceeding its normal bounds. As a result, the lines between recreation and reality have grown blurry. More and more aspects of our society appear to be treated like a game to be won ... rather than a real life to be lived."

A baker bought his butter from a local farmer. After some time, the baker began to suspect that he wasn't receiving full pound bricks of butter from the farmer.

For several days, he weighed the butter after it was delivered. His suspicions proved correct. So he turned to the law to settle the matter.

The farmer was brought to court to answer for his act of fraud. "What kind of scale do you use?" the judge asked.

"I don't have a scale, your honor," replied the farmer.

"Then how can you weigh the butter that you sell?"

"It's pretty simple," the farmer said. "I have balances, and I use the one-pound loaf of bread I buy from the baker as a weight."

Case dismissed.

I learned a long time ago that by not cheating -- and doing the right thing -- you will live a much happier life than you will by trying to cheat your way through it. Just tell the truth. It's so simple, so basic -- and the cover-up is always worse. You'll also sleep much better at night.

Mackay's Moral: Sophocles said it best, "I would prefer even to fail with honor than to win by cheating."

Do you have what it takes to be successful?

One of my closest friends, Lou Holtz, the Hall of Fame college football coach, believes there are four things any person or organization needs to be No. 1.

Few people know more about success than Lou. He led six different programs to bowl games, and he was the only coach to take four different programs to the final top 20 rankings. Along the way, he guided Notre Dame to the 1988 national championship.

"First," he says, "you have to make a commitment to excellence."

Second is complete attention to detail. "It is the teams that pay strict attention to little things that win," says Holtz. The third thing is to have sound fundamentals. "You can't be bored with such basic things as blocking and tackling."

The fourth requirement is discipline. "Virtually nothing is impossible in this world if you just put your mind to it and maintain a positive attitude."

Let me give you my take on all four of these tips:

-- Commitment to excellence. When you are interested in doing something, you do it when circumstances permit. However, when you're committed to something, you accept no excuses, only results.

Commitment is a prerequisite to success. Commitment is the state of being bound -- emotionally, intellectually or both -- to a course of action. Commitment starts with a choice and is sustained by dedication and perseverance. Actions speak louder than words.

Have you ever seen a team run on the field yelling, "We want to be No. 2!"? Of course not. Everyone wants to be No. 1. Those who actually achieve it are those who are willing to put the blood, sweat and tears into their effort.

-- Attention to detail. I like to add one word -- fanatical attention to detail. The difference between failure and success is doing a thing nearly right and doing it exactly right.

Having a fanatical attention to detail is a mindset. It must be an obsession. It has to be part of a company's culture or an individual's mindset. You can't just talk about it. You have to practice it every day for years.

It is not enough just to do the best you can. You also have to do everything you can. There are no shortcuts in the world of sports -- or life. If it were easy to become the best, everyone would do it.

-- Sound fundamentals. Look at the great athletes and musicians. There are no walk-ons at the Super Bowl or in Carnegie Hall -- or in corporate boardrooms, for that matter. The level of performance in those exalted places is only partially a reflection of talent. Practice sound fundamentals.

It's kind of like a stonecutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps 100 times without making a dent in it. And yet on the 101st blow, the rock splits in two. And it was not that blow that did it, but all that had gone before. If you're not willing to practice -- and practice until you get it right -- you will never make the 100 blows that make the breakthrough on the 101st.

Whatever it is you do, you can be better at it if you just keep on learning and practice. The minute I persuade myself that I have learned all there is to learn about a subject and can relax, my competition will hand me my head and slam me into the pavement.

-- Discipline. Most people aim to do right, but they fail to pull the trigger. For whatever reason, they just don't have the wherewithal to finish the job. They are lacking discipline.

It doesn't matter whether you are pursuing success in business, sports, the arts or life in general. Hope is not an option. The difference between wishing and accomplishing is discipline.

Discipline is all about setting goals, figuring out a schedule to achieve those goals, and then following your plan.

The formula is the same for athletes, business and professional people and students: Have a no-nonsense attitude, work hard and improve every day. Arrive early and stay late if that's what it takes to get the job done. Go the extra mile. It is one stretch of the highway where there are seldom any traffic jams.

It's the old adage: The more you put in, the more you get out. To me, it is better to prepare and prevent instead of repair and repent.

Mackay's Moral: There aren't any rules for success that work unless you do.