How To Avoid Results and Not Get Much Done Without Really Trying
Time is our most precious resource. Once spent, it can never be recovered. Time cannot be manufactured, mined, or synthesized from component elements. A day cannot be expanded, an hour stretched, a minute slowed down to last longer. And you can't run to the bank to borrow and extra 50,000 hours for a big project.
The time that we have is ALL that we have. And yet, how often do we use time to its best advantage?
Down Time
Each of us needs time to rest, relax, and refresh our minds and bodies. This so-called "down time" - time spent on sleep, exercise, recreation, and connection with loved ones - is not a waste. It shouldn't be hurried or sacrificed.
Time spent on refreshment and revitalization is an essential partner of the time that we spend being productive, i.e., the time that we use to accomplish things. Without adequate rest and relaxation, we cannot maintain our energy level or our mental clarity. We need energy and clarity in order to meet our obligations and accomplish objectives.
Productive Time
Productive time is the time that we dedicate to getting things done or for preparing to do the same. Here are some examples of productive time. I am listing them in reverse order to show their hierarchical relationship.
- Time spent solving a problem for a client.
- Time spent making a presentation to the client.
- Time spent developing the presentation.
- Time spent doing research in order to understand what the client needs and what to offer.
- Time spent acquiring the skills that enable us to help the client.
- Time spent setting up and managing a business that helps clients.
Wasting Time
We waste our Productive Time when we don't use it to its optimal benefit. There are two ways to waste time.
Time Wasting Strategy 1
We can spend time on something that's unrelated to accomplishing our objective - gossip, gaming, non-essential internet surfing, rehashing sporting events or television programs, etc.
Time Wasting Strategy 2
The second way to waste time is to spend it working inefficiently. Through lack of planning, understanding, insight, or communication, we can waste time even when we think that we are being productive and effective.
Focus and Awareness
It's easy to waste time when we lack focus or fail to maintain an awareness of its importance. Here's a common situation. I've witnessed similar activity countless times.
Mr. Latecomer arrives at the office at a leisurely hour (i.e. considerably later than the official office starting time). A few minutes later, a colleague ask the latecomer for assistance with something.
"I can't talk to you right now," insists Mr. Latecomer. "I'm working on a deadline." The colleague returns to his desk empty handed.
Thirty minutes later, someone in the office mentions they're vacation plans. It turns our that Mr. Latecomer has vacation time scheduled, so he joins into the conversation for several minutes.
Time for a Lesson
Mr. Latecomer was acting without focus. If he had been more aware of time and it's impact on the productivity of the team, he might have reached one or more of the following conclusions.
1. If you're working against a pressing deadline, try to arrive promptly rather than strolling into the workplace at a leisurely hour.
2. If you arrive at a leisurely hour, don't make excuses about how busy you are when someone asks for assistance.
3. If you're too busy to help a colleague with a work-related request, don't waste the time by joining off topic conversations.
Institutionalized Time Wasting
Sometimes policies backfire. A department might believe that it can save money by reducing the number of administrators on staff. But the result is that more highly paid workers will have to spend more of their day handling administrative tasks.
It doesn't make sense to have highly paid engineers or sales reps spend time filling out expense reports. They should focus on the work that they were hired to do. And yet, many companies reduce administrative support to save the expense of a modest salary. It's inefficient to put it mildly.
Ye Olde Car Service Scam
Corporations enact unproductive policies, but employee abuse of those policies by employees is also a problem. A notable example involves car service.
In larger cities, many employees take mass transit to the office. Sometimes business requires employees to work late when bus or train service becomes more limited.
In these cases, employees can book a car service to take them home. (This is similar to having a car pick you up at the airport.)
If an employee works past a certain hour (typically, 8 pm, but some companies have moved this up to 9), they are allowed to ride home using a car service. The company pays the bill for the ride. But is the expense justified?
Did the employee really need to work this late? Were other options feasible, such as commuting at a normal hour and working from home? Could they catch up on their work the following morning? Or could they have gotten more done during normal business hours if they had used their time more wisely?
The car service abuser is a busy person. At 5:30, they're still working hard - when they're no boasting to fellow employees about how late they'll need to work.
By 6:00, the employee has slowed down a bit due to fatigue. They take a short break to call their family, to let them know that they'll be working late and that they'll come home via the car service. "Don't wait for me! Go ahead and have dinner. I'll be late."
Ah, dinner! Even busy people get hungry. By 6:30, the late-working employee has looked through a drawer full of menus and placed an order for take out. At seven, they're in the lobby waiting for the food delivery to arrive. From seven to seven-thirty, the employee enjoys their dinner while glancing at their computer screen half-heartedly.
At 7:30, they wash their hands, use the rest room, and place one last call to the family to let them know that they'll be leaving soon.
And what do you know? It's time to pack up and get to the car!
Car service isn't cheap. What does the company gain in return for having a limo driver usher Mr. Busy back home to the suburbs? At best an extra sixty to ninety minutes of effort from an already tired employee who could just as easily have completed the same amount of work from the comfort of home.
Environmental Time Wasting
External events and conditions can inspire time wasting, as well. People discuss the Olympic Games, the Super Bowl, and the World Cup at length in the office. Ditto the World Series and the Academy Awards. Workers spend time on office pools during football season and college basketball's March Madness.
Companies aren't responsible for these events, but they do occur, and they dominate people's attention when work would otherwise be getting done.
Boom and Bust
The Internet boom of the late 1990's and early 2000's was worst environmental time wasting phenomenon that I have ever witnessed. It surpassed the impact of the Olympics, the Super Bowl, the World Cup, political conventions, royal marriages, and everything else fifty fold.
Office workers monitored their portfolios all day long. Today, we complain when someone is texting rather than paying attention to what we say. During the "dot com" boom, people had one eye trained on their stock positions and their pending trades virtually at all times. It was out of control.
People used to daydream about joining a successful start up company or making enough through "day trading" to stop working for a boss altogether.
Everyone seemed to know someone who knew someone with stock options that were worth "a paper million" - even though very few people actually sold the options and realized windfalls of such magnitude. "We would all soon be rich!" thought the conventional wisdom. It was only a matter of time.
Of course, the overhyped, over-inflated market eventually collapsed and crashed. Portfolios that were once apparently rocketing toward the stratosphere were now sinking rapidly into quicksand. Workers lost interest in market updates and financial reports when the news was no longer euphoric. Day trader envy disappeared overnight.
It's easy to become captivated by compelling environmental conditions. It's easy to be driven to distraction, especially when everyone in the office is riding the same bandwagon and sipping the same Kool-Aid.
Tempus Fugit
Time management is a vast and complex topic. I could list countless anecdotal examples of time wasting activities that I've witnessed in the workplace. But let's table that discussion until another day. I wouldn't want to waste your time.
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