Key Ideas
Time is a terrible incentive for productive work: someone who manages to finish their work faster gets penalised compared to a slower employee. As long as both reach their goals on time, there should not be an incentive to keep sitting at your desk once the job is done.
From time measurement to time management
Instead of the hours of work, we should focus on the results. Instead of passive face time, we should strive for mindful productivity. Whether you are a manager, an employee, a freelancer, or an entrepreneur, five strategies in particular can be helpful to stop using time as a measure of productivity.
- Avoid unnecessary meetings. Always ask yourself: “What’s the goal of this meeting? Could the goal be achieved in a more efficient manner?” Very often, you will realise that a meeting does not even have a clear goal. Out of insecurity or habit, people organise meetings to publicly show they are working—that they are “dependable” and “dedicated”. If the meeting doesn’t have a clear goal, ask for clarification or ask to cancel it. If the meeting has a clear goal, consider whether sending a memo around or having everyone send a quick update over email may not be a way to avoid wasting time.
- Define productive goals. Human beings like to keep busy. When we don’t have clearly defined goals, it’s easy to end up filling our time with ill-fitted tasks just so we can maintain the illusion of productivity. For short-term goals, you can use the SMART goals framework. For long-term personal growth goals, use the PACT framework instead, which stands for Purposeful, Actionable, Continuous, and Trackable. Having clearly defined goals will ensure the focus is on achieving these goals rather than passive face time.
- Reduce repetitive tasks. We waste a lot of time repeating the same tasks at work, which can keep us unnecessarily busy and fill up our time without making progress towards our goals. Review such tasks and consider whether you can automate, simplify, or outsource some of them. For instance, tools like Zapier can help you build workflows and connect all your apps together. Or you could hire someone to take care of repetitive tasks on one of the many freelancing platforms out there.
- Focus on the 20%. The 80/20 rule, also called the Pareto Principle after economist Vilfredo Pareto, states that 80% of consequences come from 20% of the causes. At work, 80% of your success will come from 20% of your efforts. Identify these key efforts, try to get rid of as much of the noise in the 80%, and focus on the 20% that really matter.
- Be protective of your time. While passive face time encourages people to participate in meetings and sit at their desk for longer, mindful time blocking is about ensuring you have time to focus on the 20% that matter and achieve your goals. Whether you share your calendar with a team or work on your own, add blocks to your calendar for important tasks. Just make sure to not go overboard, as time blocking starts losing its meaning when everything is blocked in your calendar!
And, most importantly: if you finish a task ahead of a deadline, give yourself a pat on the back and take a break! You deserved it.
Sitting in front of a desk should never be seen as a sign of hard work and commitment. Focusing on results rather than hours has always made sense. In today’s distributed world, it has become inevitable. Hopefully, managers will embrace the change.
The power of flexible consistency and mindful time blocking - Ness Labs