Chapter 1. Activities Rule! Not the Clock
Don’t Be a Slave to Time
So you’ve read all the best-selling books about time management and productivity. They sounded good at first. In fact, they are good. But, you didn’t implement them, or implemented them only for a short time, because they seemed to further complicate an already complicated world. It’s hard to remember what all those principles and skills are, let alone apply them. The problem with some of the old, established time management strategies is many of them do not fit today’s high-intensity, rapidly changing, and fast-paced environment.
What we need today are fast, flexible, and ridiculously easy solutions to help us navigate “time” for greater productivity.
Is there an easier way to approach the time challenges we face today in this chaotic world? We think so!
You already know what the problem is: Times have changed. Not that time itself has changed; it hasn’t. But the times in which we live have changed. It’s not that we don’t have enough time—we have the same amount of time we’ve always had, and all the time we ever will have.
The problem is that we have more events and activities to manage in the same amount of time. This is due, in part, to technology, the Internet and expectations of doing more with less. We are wired 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, with multiple demands, and hardly a chance to catch our breath. In a way, we’ve become compressors of life, trying to jam an unrealistic number of events into our daily allotment of minutes.
All of this has caused a paradigm shift. A paradigm is a patterned way of thinking. The old way of thinking had us dividing our work and personal life with an imaginary line. For most people, that simply doesn’t work anymore. For some people it never worked, simply because life was too complicated. When we separate work and personal life with an imaginary line, we set the two up in opposition to each other. That drives stress upward. We feel guilty regardless of which side of the line is getting our attention.
The new paradigm is for us to see our work and personal life as one life, with work and personal activities integrated throughout the 24-hour day.
Maybe you’re thinking that an integrated work and personal life sounds undesirable. Maybe, for you, it even sounds as final as placing the last nail in the coffin of work-life balance. After all, doesn’t work-life balance mean equally dividing time between work and personal life? No, that’s the old way of thinking.
The new way of thinking about balance is to realize it means maintaining equilibrium in a sea of change. It requires the ability to flexicute. Okay, so we invented a word—but, you have to agree, it is a very descriptive word and it makes sense. Flexicuting activities means the ability to adapt to changes during the day without letting it throw you. It is executing activities by way of being flexible. As author James Ballard said, “We need to learn to dance while the carpet is being pulled from underneath us.”
The first step in creating ridiculously easy time management is to learn the new “time management dance steps.” In other words, recognize and embrace the simple but significant differences in the new time paradigm.
Here are some old ways of operating as compared to the new ways. Making these adjustments will help you be more comfortable with chaos.
Old way: Balance meant equal amounts of time spent on work and personal life.
New way: Balance is maintaining equilibrium in a sea of change.
Old way: Emphasis on multitasking.
New way: Emphasis on alternate-tasking, alternating work and personal life activities around the clock in a way in which both can be fully experienced.
Old way: Work is a marathon with long, hard hours and inadequate recovery time.
New way: Work is a series of sprints with adequate recovery time. Energy management is an essential component to achieving peak performance. (Source: The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz.)
Old way: After-hours accessibility was limited.
New way: All-hours accessibility is becoming standard with technology.
Old way: Daily schedules and plans were fixed.
New way: Daily schedules and plans are fluid and flexible.
Old way: Work could be caught up and finished.
New way: Work is continuously processed but seldom finished.
Old way: One time management tool provided a complete system.
New way: Multiple tools are combined to create a complete system. We use both paper and electronic.
Old way: Activities were arranged primarily based upon the clock.
New way: Activities are arranged primarily based upon necessity, practicality, efficiency, and spontaneity. In other words, doing activities when they make sense, rather than based on what time it is.
Old way: Performance is judged by the number of hours one puts in at the office.
New way: Performance is judged on the basis of productivity.
Let’s emphasize again that time hasn’t changed. We still measure time by the same calendar and clock. And time is still defined as the occurrence of events one after another. An event is anything that happens, including activities: These are the basic building blocks for designing the quality of life we desire.
Activities Rule
In the new paradigm, the clock does not rule: Activities rule. If you are looking for an easier way to manage time, it is simply to become an effective activity manager.
Let’s take a closer look at the nature of activities, as outlined in the book Tick Tock! Who Broke the Clock? – Solving the Work-Life Balance Equation, coauthored by Dr. William A. Guillory and Trapper Woods.
An activity is something we do. Even sleeping is an activity. From the day we draw our first breath of life until the time we expire our last breath of life, we are executing activities on a nonstop basis. Examining activities further, we realize that activities can be
• Physical
• Mental
• Long in duration
• Short in duration
Activities Are Never Neutral
Some activities of long duration can have very little consequence. Some activities of short duration can have huge consequences. The most important thing to recognize about activities is that they are never neutral. They either enhance or detract from our lives by changing the quality for better or for worse. The following statements illustrate this point:
• Activities that align with what we value give us a greater sense of satisfaction than those that don’t.
• Activities creatively arranged in a sequence can culminate in the achievement of a desired outcome or goal.
• Negative activities repeated over and over again can erode our well-being.
• Positive activities repeated over and over again can make us stronger and improve our well-being.
• Activities repeated over and over again become habits. Habits can be our greatest servants or our worst masters.
• When we choose to do certain activities we simultaneously exclude other activities. It’s about choice.
• We can change the quality of our life simply by changing activities.
• Focus permits us to fully experience an activity.
• The day’s productivity is determined by the activities we choose and those we refuse.
• We live and die with our choice of activities.
To Be a High Performer
Hopefully you feel empowered with a better understanding of activities. The exciting thing here is that to be good at what you want to be good at—to be a high producer in today’s environment—simply be a good activity chooser. It’s easy! Poor choosers become losers when competing for promotions or getting what they want in life. The bottom line is this—self-management excellence is really activity management excellence.
Three Incredible Gifts
Getting down to the most basic of basics, you need to realize that each day we are given three incredible gifts.
They are
• The gift of time, without which activities cannot be executed.
• The gift of personal energy, essential for doing the activities.
• The gift of choice, to determine what activities we will do.
To maximize these three amazing daily gifts, the following activity management skills must be implemented:
1. Choosing activities
2. Tracking activities
3. Arranging activities
4. Flexicuting activities
5. Focusing on activities
This ridiculously easy time management approach is to simply get good at these five activity management skills. We’re going to forget about all the old laws and rules, and just focus on becoming good activity managers.
These skills will help you stress less, avoid being overwhelmed, and deal with interruptions so you can enjoy life. It’s time to color your choices.