Playing Tetris With My Time
I have a habit (one that I think is a pretty healthy one) of sitting down periodically and taking stock of how I’m using my time during the week. My goal when I do this is to squeeze as much work time into my schedule as possible without compromising on family time and “me time” while allowing margin for all of the logistical stuff we have to do from day to day. It’s a lot like packing my minivan for a vacation. If I don’t pack everything in the right sequence, I end up running out of room a lot sooner. I treat it like playing Tetris, or putting together a puzzle. Placing the pieces in the right order allows me the room to make more time for the work that I need to do.
Going On Another Binge
Another thing I do is to look at where I might be wasting my time. There’s nothing wrong with keeping up with a favorite tv show or catching a movie, but when I see those things in my schedule I have to ask, “Did this accomplish something valuable for me that enriched other parts of my life?” Keeping up with a tv show, though it does not contribute directly to your work, may be a good way for you to wind down and enjoy a break so that you are relaxed and have a fresh mind when you return to your work. On the other hand, binge watching a tv show may not be as valuable or enriching to other areas of your life. Sometimes in this process I find things that I can give up to make more time for work.
Not the Most Time, but the Most of Your Time
While I find it very helpful to seek out more time and to use strategy to maximize the amount of time I am able to dedicate to work, there is an aspect of my work even more valuable that, if I ignore it, leaves me short of doing my best work. I am talking about the efficiency with which I work. It’s all well and good to make more time for work, but ultimately it is what you do with that time, how efficiently you work that really matters. I could have all the time in the world, but if my work efficiency is poor, I’m not going to get much done.
In his book “The One Thing” Gary Keller says “The people who achieve extraordinary results don’t achieve them by working more hours. They achieve them by getting more done in the hours they work.” This idea made me realize that, not only should I zoom out every once in a while to see how I can make more time for my work, but I should regularly look for ways to grow more efficient in my work.
Time Well Spent, Not Overspent
As a side note, I realize that the practice of zooming out takes time. Growing in your efficiency also takes time. From reviewing your work habits to get a basic sense of how you are using your work time, to implementing a new major strategy for maximizing your efficiency, focusing on these things will take time away from your work. Be strategic about when and how often you do this. It is possible to spend so much time trying to become more efficient that you neglect the actual work you need to be doing.
Practice 1: Break Distraction Habits
Though I’m still learning about what I can do to become more efficient with my work time, I’m already implementing a couple strategies that have proven to be effective. The most obvious and simultaneously most difficult, is breaking distraction habits.
I can potentially become distracted by a myriad of things, but the two most common are social media sites and distractions in my environment. Both are social in nature and being an extrovert I naturally seek out social interaction.
Knowing what the distractions are and knowing what causes the distractions are two different things however… If I’m being honest, I don’t go look at Facebook because I’m so intrigued by what I will find there. I go look at Facebook because I’m looking for a distraction and there are a few reasons why I would actually go looking for a distraction instead of continuing in my work. I either don’t have a plan for what I’m doing, in which case I need to schedule some tasks for myself, I feel bored with what I’m doing, in which case I need to either shift to something else or find a way to make the boring task a little more engaging, or I don’t quite know how to do what I’m doing, in which case I should either focus on some aspect of the project with which I am more familiar, or learn what I need to learn in order to move on in the project.
Practice 2: Invest in Building a Better Process
Another thing I’ve done to make the most of my working time is invest some time building a better process and workflow. An example of this is in my web development. As I was developing websites, I was finding that I would spend a lot of time doing many of the same things for each site, so rather than repeat those tasks over and over with each new project, I saved and notated a more complete version of a template that I use regularly that gives me a better baseline from which to start the development process, while still allowing me to provide a unique and effective design.
Notice that I said “invest.” It took me about 5 hours or so to create, notate and organize something that usually only takes me about an hour to do each time I build a website. That’s four hours of work time that I lost while creating this. But, having done this I will save an hour on each website that I build which will save me loads of time in the long run. Also, this solution might be valuable to someone else, and if I publish it I might be able to recoup my investment in other ways.
Ask yourself the question, “What is something that I can build that, though it may take time away from my work today, will save me time in the long run and help me to work more efficiently?” Be strategic about when you build this solution. In the middle of a big project under deadline is probably not the best time to work on something like this, but build it in your margins or between projects, using time that you are willing to invest.
Your Time is too Valuable to Not Make the Most of It.
I certainly don’t want to dismiss the importance of making time for work. For those of us whose available work time is scarce, this is a vital practice, but just as vital is ensuring that we are able to do our best, most efficient work with the time we do have.