Tuesday, September 14, 2010

About Time

There is never enough!
But I have found a way to get about 29 hours out of every day, without loosing sleep, of becoming a slave to my electronic devices.
It's called "discretion".
It's where I actually choose what I am going to do and pay attention to based on my real need to get stuff done.
Instead of letting everything get to me, I am applying the concept of a filter to what I choose to do.
The ubiquitous web has sucked us all into a vortex of "instantness".
You email me, I reply within minutes.
I surf and find what I am looking for, I become absorbed right now to the exclusion of everything else.
Unless you email me, and I react like a Pavlovian dog and answer you straight back.
And right there is the secret to getting another five hours in the day.
Don't.
Create a method of prioritising what comes in, and what you respond to instantly, and then create a TIME ladder - 1 hour, 4 hours, 8 hours, 1 day.
Use the colour coding in your email package to create folders for each time segment, and save the mails into the appropriate folder.
Set aside time to work the folders, usually as a break in real work, or before you retire for the day.
What I found, after a lot of experiment, was that suddenly by removing the "must answer now" itch the quality of both my work and answers improved dramatically.
I also found that the 80 / 20 rule was alive and well, and that most emails could be answered within the day without any loss of connectivity with the subject or the recipient.
Give it a try, and let me know if it works for you, I have about another 1,000,000 ideas on how to manage TIME and get your LIFE back!

1 comment:

Mike Gottschalk said...

when I'm with friends and my phone rings, I get a kick out of watching the intensity of their unease build at each progressive ring when I'm not inclined to answer it.

The other scenario is when their phone rings and they answer it in a fit of exasperation.

In either case, they've not yet grasped the utility of voice mail nor the "off" selection under their ringer options.

Do you have any opinions as to why this frantic state seems to be meaningful to people?

Btw, as I'm just beginning to know your work PJ, I'm thrilled that you're gonna blog! You've got alot to say.