It seems that I am getting with blogging in the same area where I've already been with my previous one. I believed that having a fresh start will increase my desire to post much more frequently. Little was I aware that not desire is of the essence here, but time. I consider this an interesting surprise as it seems I am quite willing to write (although never thought of me as that).
But how do we deal with time? What is there to be done in order to be able to actually have time? And further on, for what, exactly?
Some of our contemporary professionals state that own time/free time is a must and that we should be able to make a clear distinction between spending time at work and spending time at home or for your own self. On the other side of the coin we have the new wave of time management professionals mentioning that in order to be able to understand our need for free time, we need to treat both sides together. While the idea of a distinct split is quite clear and resonant with most of us, this new wave time management approach seems more of a shock.
But what is it all about? Basically, this paradigm gravitates around one central idea: time is a resource that you need to allocate to several actions that you need to perform during a time frame. One example of this approach is to use your calendar tool and fill it in with your tasks according to the moment of the day when you need to take them: waking up at 06.30; preparation to leave home from 06.30 to 07.15; at 07.15 leave home and head out to take the kids to school until 07.50; left the kids at school and then go to the office: 07.50 - 08.30; morning coffee at the office and the first cigarette of the day: 08.30 - 09.00; from 09.00 to 09.30 read the off-hours incoming emails, update with the latest news and decide upon priorities you need to approach for the current day; 09.30 - 13.00 meetings or other job-related stuff; 13.00 - 14.00 lunch break; 14.00 - 18.00 other meetings and job tasks; 18.00 - 19.00 on the road to the cafeteria where you will meet your spouse; 19.00 - 20.30 cafeteria. I will probably stop here as only you know if there will be something else after the cafeteria... or not.
In the end, the truth is that there is no universal solution for this challenge; some might find that the first approach is always the best, while others might find that the second one is the Holy Grail; I'm assuming that this type of scheduling could work better in one of the Western European countries where the lunch break has 2-4 hours and it would make all the sense in the world to correctly plan that break as there would not be any time left after hours. Or better yet, a third category could easily find a compromise solution by combining the two to a certain extent.
There is only one thing I strongly believe in: fight against fragmentation with all means possible. We need to accept that our jobs have their routine part or some recurrent actions. Try to schedule your routine/recurrent tasks as much as possible in order to leave room for all your other tasks that might require imagination or creativity. And maybe this way you will be able to completely cut off work on your way home.
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My problem with time management is never the model or paradigm or ideas behind it. I can choose one that pleases me, but making it work, implementing and sticking to it, that's my problem! :)
ReplyDeleteYou hit the bull's eye: how do I find my suitable system? And the answer is: try one or the other or a combination. It is said that in order to get used to doing a certain action, you have to consciously repeat it for, at least, 66 days in a row. Or, just keep your current one if that proves effiicent enough.
ReplyDeletePS: sorry for the late reply. :)