SIRDAR
Guiding boards. Growing business.

The Too-Much-Time Trap

I believe that the following will resonate with you:

The Practice

Last week Sunday, I was reading the news and saw that the petrol price would increase substantially on the Tuesday night at midnight as it does in South Africa. I thought that I must make use of the opportunity to save myself a bit of money by going to fill up the next day, but other things took priority so I didn’t get round to it. On Tuesday morning on my way to work, my fuel light came on. I didn’t have time to go past the petrol station so decided to go during lunch time. I got into the swing of things in the office and was asked to attend a three-hour meeting which had plenty action items coming out of it, and meant that I left the office only at 18h00. Of course, by this time, the petrol station had multiple queues of people in the same boat (car) as me. Some 15 minutes later – time that could have been spent on something much more productive – I was on my way home again, but traffic was a nightmare so a trip that would have taken 15 minutes, took 40 minutes. That’s a lot of wasted time!*

I’m sure that this story resonates with you.

Why am I telling you this?

Because at some stage of our lives, everyone has been “time poor”. It affects all of us and in all spheres of our lives. Sitting in traffic due to bad planning – or any wasted time for that matter where you can’t do what you want to do – can lead to frustration which can turn one’s mood upside down and impacts those around us and our productivity.

The Theory

Consider this: Time is actually an infinite concept. It is defined only by the fact that our mortality is determined by our body’s ability to keep going. Inevitably, we will pass on, but time keeps going… 

The above procrastination case is the perfect example of Parkinson’s Law. He put forward the idea that work expands to fill the time allotted for its completion. This may mean you take longer than necessary to complete a task, or you procrastinate and complete the task right before it is due. 

In other words, when you have time, you take it. You either use the time to complete the task more slowly or you procrastinate and complete the task right before the due date. 

Parkinson used this example to explain his law: A woman has the sole task of sending a postcard on the day. Because she has the entire day to complete this task, she spends an hour finding the card, half an hour finding her glasses, 90 minutes writing the card, and so forth until she fills her day. His story is meant to explain how work expands to fill the time allotted. 

Closer to our world, let’s consider a proposal for a client. You’re given a two-week deadline to complete it and are relieved knowing you have ample time. However, the distant deadline causes you to take longer than necessary to complete the task at hand, or you procrastinate and complete it just barely before the due date. In other words, the task expands to fill the time you’re given.

The Reality

Clock time says that 1000 seconds was 17 minutes ago. A million seconds was 12 days ago. A billion seconds was 31,7 years ago. And a trillion seconds ago it was 29 679 BC! Clock time is irrelevant though. You don’t live in or even have access to clock time. You live in real time, in a world in which all time flies when you are having fun or drags when you are doing your taxes. Real time is when stuff happens. 

The reality is that managing time is a waste of time if you choose to do nothing about changing your habits. The good news though is that real time is mental. It exists between your ears. You create it. And anything you create, you can manage. 

The Way Forward

Changing your habits requires you to:

  • Focus on three ways to spend time: On thoughts, on conversations, and on actions.
  • Plan your work strategically by using the Eisenhower Matrix to guide you. It says that what is urgent (demanding your immediate attention) is not always important (affecting your work or life) and what is important is not always urgent.
  • Set self-imposed deadlines – and stick to them! This should be based on how much time you need and NOT on how much time you have.
  • Timebox i.e. set goals to complete tasks within a focused box of time, and then take a break. Reward yourself with breaks because you have finished a task, not because your watch says it’s lunchtime.
  • Use task management tools which could range from the good old simplistic “to-do list” right through to project management software.

Implement these new habits today – no more procrastination – and witness the results.

*Not a true story, but it does drive the point home nicely!