Are the 11 Fundamentals (or Components) in 2Time the right ones?
It’s hard to say, and the truth is that I am not sure. After all, it’s quite likely that an astute reader will look at my list of 11 Fundamentals and suggest that I either add a new one in or remove one or two, and that they’ll make more sense than I have made up until now.
All I think I have to do is to make sure that I stick to the criteria I used to determine whether or not a particular practice should be thought of as a Fundamental or not.
The criteria I used is as follows: must every professional include the fundamental in their daily time management, and is it unavoidable?
It seems to me that once a time demand is understood as an essential “atom” of productivity, then this “atom” that must be included in every time management system that exists, regardless of the knowledge and awareness of the user.
The underlying assumption behind this thinking is that all time management systems are designed to process “time demands.” One sign of success of such a system is that time demands don’t fall through the cracks. In other words, the system does what it is intended to do.
Another assumption is that every user has a commitment to fulfill time demands, and another is that they try to do so in a world limited by distance, form and time.
If any readers of this blog can see other time demands, I am willing to consider them, given the definition I have created above.
This is not just some theoretical conversation. Professionals all over the world are flying blind at the moment, unable to design time management system for themselves that work, simply because they have no grasp of these fundamentals. The cost in man-hours, peace of mind and dollars is no small matter.
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I admit to disagreeing to an extent with the whole paradigm of time management. While it’s true that any commitment involves a time demand, I think the time element is often overemphasized.
When people feel overwhelmed by their commitments, they generally assume that lack of time is the source of anxiety. But if the next action is unclear, of if the outcome remains implicit instead of consciously define, then you can never get enough of what you don’t need — in this case, time.
I would assert that people usually feel overwhelmed by confusing outcomes with actions. So they’ll put things like “Learn Excel” on their to do list instead of “Read manual.” Or they put “Read manual” without having a place to specify what the objective behind reading the manual is.
In some instances, time is an integral component of an action step. If a meeting runs from 3:00 to 4:30, you’ll need a system to hold that time commitment. But for most actions (offhand, I would say 80%), like phone calls, emails, getting information from the web, time isn’t the dependent variable; it just seems that way when they haven’t been defined with appropriate granularity.
I think more along the lines of Andre here, and his estimates seem to be fairly accurate with what I’ve seen.
I also think issues like motivation, focus, and psychic drain are more of the variables at play than time. The easiest thing people say is that “I don’t have time to do everything I need to”, when they probably should be saying “I have no idea what I actually need to do to get the job done” or “I’m absolutely not motivated to get the job done”. But we “understand” time, so it’s an easy coin in the realm of productivity.
So I’m going to ask the dumb question: whence the 11 Fundamentals? The copy of the manifesto I have has 7. It mushroomed?
Andre,
I think you’re right — the truth as far as I can see it is that time actually cannot be managed. It’s a bit like the weather in the a regard! (I make this point someplace in my blog.)
What can be manged are our habits and practices. When professionals focus on the time, it’s a bit like looking for a key lost in an alley only on the side lit by the street-lamp. (Old joke)
Time is simply not the problem. We are.
But, I guess it’s just easier to say “I ran out of time” and “I don’t have enough time” than it is to acknowledge the truth – “my habits suck.”
I’m not sure if your estimate is actually know-able — it all depends on what you call an action. My test in all cases is “what does this do for my peace of mind?” The answer to that question is probably different for everyone, but useful in determining the level of items that should be scheduled in a calendar.
Charlie,
There have always been 11 fundamentals — it’s just the the manifesto could only cover the first 7 due to editorial constraints.
If you download my e-book, they are explained in overview — the missing 4 are Warning, Interrupting, Reviewing and Switching.
There is a post devoted to each fundamental someplace in the blog.
Charlie — what a great way to put it — “time is an easy coin in this realm” — great language!
>There is a post devoted to each fundamental someplace in the blog.
I commented in an email just now that you can get them by entering “component #1″ and “component #” in the search bar. The second search calls up posts on #s 2-11. Very handy!
Thanks for this site.