A major league batter has approximately two-fifths of a second from the time a baseball leaves the pitcher's hand until it reaches home plate. In that split second, the batter must attempt to gauge speed, trajectory and placement of the pitch.

Those batters who can do it well enough to hit safely three out of 10 at bats become millionaires. Those who are a millisecond slower and can do it only two out of 10 times have to find another way to make a living.

Companies and their employees face similar challenges. They may have a little more time to deal with their problems, but if they expect to stay in the game, they have to be able to make rapid adjustments. Fortunes are made and lost by those who disregard the importance and power of time.

People have been talking about time for centuries. Proof positive is this excerpt from a book titled “Zadig or the Book of Fate,” by the 18th-century philosopher Voltaire: “Of all the things in the world, which is the longest and shortest, the quickest and the slowest, the most divisible and the most extensive, the most disregarded and the most regretted, without which nothing can happen, which devours everything that is little, and gives life everything that is great?

“The answer is time. Nothing is longer, since it is the measure of eternity. Nothing is shorter, since it is lacking in all our plans. Nothing is slower for him who waits. Nothing is quicker for him who enjoys. It extends to the infinitely little. All men disregard it. All men regret the loss of it. Nothing happens without it. It makes forgotten everything unworthy of posterity, and it immortalizes the great things.”

I have a saying that I’ve often used: Killing time isn’t murder; it’s suicide. We all start out in life with one thing in common; we all have the same amount of time each day, each week, each month and each year. Now it’s just a matter of what we do with it.

Questions that I am repeatedly asked are: How can I get everything done with so many interruptions, distractions and shifting responsibilities? What’s the trick to prioritizing? Where’s the balance between work and personal time?

My primary advice is to first get organized -- really, really organized. I don’t mean just tidying up your desk, although that might be useful for some. I’m talking about defining your immediate needs and long-term goals, and planning your time to accommodate both.

Start with a daily planner. Electronic or paper, it doesn’t matter. Choose a system that gives you at least one page per day, and then make sure you pay attention to the commitments. If a distraction is going to put you off-schedule more than a few minutes, either reschedule your prior commitment as soon as possible or plug the new item into the planner.

Then get rid of your to-do list. Why? Because there is a better way to use it. Transfer the items to a particular time and day in your daily planner. You’ll be amazed at how much your stress level goes down and how much you accomplish when you actually schedule a specific time to achieve certain things.

Give each item on your calendar your full attention during the assigned time. Don’t multitask when you deal with people. It seldom pays off. Whether talking on the phone or in face-to-face conversations, make the other person your top priority. Don’t page through your email or texts, or shuffle papers when you’re talking to someone. Make sure that your communication is clear and focused, which will reduce the need for clarification and other time-wasters in the future. Before you sign off, make sure you have a mutual understanding of next steps and make note of deadlines, which you will naturally add to your calendar.

Reserve enough time so that you don’t have to rush through things or do them over, which is a giant waste of time. Taking your time can sometimes be the best use of your time. Give your brain time to reboot and reprogram for the next challenge.

Finally, once a project is completed, let it go. Channel your precious minutes and hours into the next big (or small) item that demands your attention.

Mackay’s Moral: The race against time is a marathon; never stop training!

We all try to do our best, at least most of the time. And when we don’t succeed, often we are our own harshest critics.

But if you never give yourself a break, even doing your best is never going to be good enough.

Don’t get me wrong; demanding excellence of yourself and your performance at work are admirable goals. But we all mess up occasionally, despite the best of intentions. How you respond to failure is what determines whether you can figure out what happened and move on or put yourself in a negative downward spiral.

Six helpful questions from Ruth and Gary Namie's “The Bully at Work: What You Can Do to Stop the Hurt and Reclaim Your Dignity on the Job,” can help you assess how you handle missteps at work.

-- When you make an error or an oversight at work, do you criticize yourself harshly?

-- Before important meetings, job interviews or work assignments, are your thoughts negative -- do you focus on all that might go wrong?

-- When you are running late, do you bombard yourself with harsh criticism, even before anyone else notices you are late?

-- Do you worry you will be found out and others will discover you’re not really able to do what is expected of you?

-- Do you lie awake criticizing yourself for anything that went wrong during the day, even though you didn’t have much control over what happened?

-- Have you ever said or thought to yourself that you are your own worst enemy?

The Namies say that if you answer yes to even one of these questions, then your inner critique is in overdrive.

An article in Psychology Today suggests that low self-esteem is a natural result of overactive self-criticism. That leads to a variety of problems that usually result in failure: you stop taking risks to avoid making mistakes; you don’t express opinions in case you say something stupid or boring; and you compare yourself to others and are never satisfied with your achievements.

Then larger issues surface: You stop asking for help; you think about hurting yourself; you get defensive; and you can’t forgive yourself or others.

If you see any of these characteristics in yourself, you need to take action to reverse the negativity. Don’t waste one more minute demeaning your worth.

Remind yourself that you have plenty of valuable qualities that others depend on. Forgive yourself for mistakes, repeating: “If I knew then what I know now, I would have taken a different approach.”

List your accomplishments and refer to that list when you feel a pity party coming on. Take a break! A change of scenery can do wonders to lift your mood.

Tell your negative inner voice that you aren’t going to listen anymore. Turn self-criticism into self-correction. Repeating a proactive message, such as: “We often learn as much from our failures as our successes,” is a great place to start.

Here's a story to illustrate my point. A teacher challenged his class, “Raise your hand if you would like this $20 bill.” Predictably, all hands went up in the air.

He crumpled the cash into a little ball. “How about now? Who still wants it?” All the hands stayed up.

Next, he dropped the crumpled bill into a cup of coffee. “Any takers?” Not a hand went down.

The teacher fished the $20 bill out of the cup, dried it off, then dropped it on the floor and stepped on it. “Does anyone want this dirty old thing?”

The students waved their hands wildly.

“But why?” the teacher asked.

“Because it’s $20!” one student shouted out.

“That’s correct,” the teacher replied. “This bill retains its value even though it’s been put through all sorts of situations. That’s what I want each of you to remember.

“The circumstances you find yourselves in, the obstacles you overcome and the failures you endure cannot diminish your value. Always remember how special you are, and hold your head high so others will also recognize your value.”

Mackay’s Moral: Life is full of ups and downs. The trick is to keep getting up when you are down.

A son is reading a newspaper while sitting on a bench with his aging father, who is taking in a beautiful sunny day. Suddenly, the father hears a bird chirping and asks his son, “What is that?”

The son puts down his paper, clearly annoyed, and answers, “A sparrow.” This goes on a couple more times, with the son getting more irritated, and finally yelling at his father that he’s already told him the answer several times.

The father abruptly gets up and walks into the house, and the son feels remorse at what he’s done. The father then comes out with his diary from many years ago, sits next to his son and asks him to read it out loud. “Today my youngest son who just turned 3 was sitting with me in the park when a sparrow sat in front of us. My son asked me 21 times what it was, and I answered all 21 times ... a sparrow. I hugged him every single time he asked the same question, without getting mad, feeling affection for my little boy.”

The son then puts the diary down and hugs and kisses his father.

Talk about a generation gap!

I love to study how the various generations view the world -- and, equally important, how the world views them. Now, a new group is coming of work age -- Generation Z. Gen Zers, also referred to as the iGeneration, were born between 1995 and 2010, which means that the oldest are now entering the workforce.

We’ve heard a lot about millennials or Generation Y, people born in the early 1980s up until the mid-1990s. Millennials are not children anymore: The oldest of them are now in their mid- to late 30s. Millennials are increasingly taking leadership roles within organizations. In addition to managing their peers, millennials will soon be managing Gen Z employees.

According to analysts at Goldman Sachs, America’s youngest generation is nearly 70 million strong. This group will soon outnumber their millennial predecessors. Will millennial managers complain about Gen Zers as much as baby boomer managers complained about millennials? Only time will tell.

I like most of what I’ve read about and experienced with many Gen Zers. Full disclosure: Most of my 11 grandchildren are part of that generation.

First off, they are more connected. They grew up with the internet and have been plugged in since day one. They spend more time on their smartphones than any other generation, using them for education and entertainment. They are more likely to browse the internet than go to a movie. They process information faster than any other generation.

But they also like to communicate face-to-face -- a more personal approach. They have both physical and online friends, and many are connected around the world.

Because Gen Zers live in a high-tech world with constant updates, their attention span is shorter than millennials or other generations.

Gen Zers value ethics. They like companies that take a stand. They are well educated about brands and make sure a company’s actions match its ideals.

They like to be individualistic, are more do-it-yourself and prefer their own work spaces versus working together in a group. They are used to having things personalized, from news reports to music playlists. They’ll pay more for products that highlight their individuality.

Members of Generation Z are more diverse than any other generation. They are good at multitasking. They are used to blending work and play, up to seven days a week. If they can log in and log out, they can work from anywhere, which is why the physical office is changing.

According to Wikipedia, Generation Z members self-identify as being loyal, compassionate, thoughtful, open-minded, responsible and determined. They view their millennial peers as competitive, spontaneous and adventurous -- all characteristics that they do not see readily in themselves.

Perhaps the characteristics I like most about Gen Zers is that they are resourceful and entrepreneurial. High percentages want to start their own business. A Gallup study found that about eight in 10 students in grades 5 through 12 want to be their own boss rather than work for someone else. They are willing to try something and fail.

Maybe Generation Z will help other generations step out of their box and see the world in a whole new way.

Mackay’s Moral: While you’re busy teaching the next generation how to do things, don’t be surprised if you learn a thing or two.