Why time management does not work and how to replace it
Miscellaneous / / July 08, 2022
Try to apply the technique of focus management and manage not time, but your attention.
Adam Grant
PhD, organizational psychologist, author of books.
Several years ago, during a break in a class I was teaching, I was approached by a puzzled manager named Michael. His boss said he needed to be more productive, so Michael began to carefully analyze what he was spending his time on. He had already crossed off the less important meetings from the schedule and no longer saw tasks that he could get rid of. And did not understand how to perform them more effectively. “You might think I'm joking, but it's true. The only thing I came to is to drink less water so that I go to the toilet less often, ”Michael admitted.
We live in a society that is obsessed with personal productivity. Devouring books that promise to teach us how to be more efficient and dreaming about the 4-hour work week. We brag about how busy we are. Well, the main key to productivity, according to everyone around, is time management. And this means that if we learn how to better plan our schedule, we can achieve a productive nirvana.
Why Time Management Doesn't Improve Productivity
In 20 years of studying productivity, I've learned that time management isn't the answer to every problem. On the contrary, this is part of the problem.
Throughout my career, I often hear the same question: “How to do more?” Sometimes people ask this because they know I'm an organizational psychologist and productivity expert. But mostly because they read in a magazine or in my book how much I can do.
I don't really feel efficient. I rarely achieve my daily goals, so it's hard for me to answer this question.
Take note💡
- 7 Secrets Productivity Experts Use When They Don't Get It Done
But after talking with Michael, I realized that our productivity does not depend on how we manage time. Every day we are given a limited number of hours, and strict time management only reminds us how many of them we waste. It is much better to use another strategy - focus management, or attention management.
What is focus management and why is it better than time management
Focus management is the art of doing things for the right reasons, at the right time, and in the right place. And its main goal is to divide tasks by priority, no matter how much time they take.
The classic practice of time management suggests setting yourself deadlines for completing tasks. I tried this method while writing this article. My goal was 1,200 words, so I sat down at my desk at eight in the morning and gave myself three hours. By my calculations, this allowed me to write six words per minute.
I spent the first six minutes mindlessly staring at the flickering cursor without writing a word. Then I got curious about how many words I could type per minute, so I took an online test. I didn't like the result, so I found another test. And then another.
I eventually gave up and switched to focus management. During researchA. Grant. Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success for his book Take or Give? I've found that productive people don't wonder which goals to start executing. They naturally lean towards projects that are not only socially significant, but also truly interesting to them.
So instead of focusing on how quickly I wanted to finish the article, I asked myself why I was writing it at all. The answers were:
- I myself can learn something new by rethinking my research.
- I will finally have something to say to people who ask about productivity.
- This article may help someone.
I began to think about specific people who will read these lines. It reminded me of Michael - and boom! - work has begun.
Very often, our productivity suffers not because of a lack of efficiency, but because of a lack of motivation. Productivity in itself is not a virtue, it is only a means to an end. Moreover, productivity is only virtuous when the end goal is worthy.
If your main goal is productivity itself, you will have to constantly rely on willpower and push yourself to the result. But if you focus on what sparks your interest and makes the project useful to others, you will be driven forward by natural motivation.
Check😣
- How to Know if You're Productive Obsessed and Find a Balance
How to Use Focus Management for Productivity
When you apply focus management techniques in practice, it is important to pay attention to the exact conditions in which you perform tasks. I grew up in Michigan. And when I returned there to finish my master's degree, I persuaded my friend from the West Coast to join me. “Too cold and gray,” she replied, arriving in Michigan during a snow storm. And chose Stanford in California. And the next winter in Michigan was the coldest and grayest I can remember. But I have never been so productive - in such weather, there was absolutely nothing to do but work!
Series of studies showedJ. J. Lee, F. Gino, b. R. Staats. Rainmakers: Why bad weather means good productivity / Journal of Applied Psychologythat bad weather is good for productivity, because we are much less likely to be distracted by thoughts of going somewhere. The researchers found that bank employees in Japan completed transactions much faster on rainy days, and participants in an experiment in the United States during bad weather were more effective at correcting spelling errors in essay. That is why I chose the day after the snowstorm to write this article - the melting mess outside looked completely unattractive for a walk.
But my favorite part of focus management is not where, but when. Most often, our productivity suffers when we are faced with tasks that we really don’t want to, but we need to do. For years, I was sure that they should be taken immediately after the most interesting projects, on the rise of energy and motivation.
But then my colleague and I did a study at a Korean grocery store. And figured outJ. Shin, A. M. Grant. Bored by Interest: How Intrinsic Motivation in One Task Can Reduce Performance on Other Tasks / Academy of Management Journalthat when employees were given very interesting tasks, they showed themselves much worse in boring and routine matters. Perhaps this is due to residual attention effectS. Leroy. Why is it so hard to do my work? The challenge of attention residues when switching between work tasks / Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. Our consciousness keeps returning to an interesting task, and this distracts us from an uninteresting one.
However, in an experiment in which we showed Americans interesting videos and then gave them a task to enter data, we found another mechanism - the contrast effect. After funny videos, such a routine task as entering data seems even more unbearable. It's like eating vegetables after dessert. Therefore, in order to maintain attention during boring tasks, it is better to perform them after slightly more interesting ones. Well, leave the most interesting ones for the end as a reward. And it's not about time - it's about choosing the right moment.
How to use focus management for creativity
I think your main goal is not only to be more productive. Perhaps you want to be more creative as well.
Productivity and creativity require different focus management strategies. Productivity is powered by special “filters” of attention that allow us to consciously shut out distracting thoughts. And for creativity, on the contrary, you need to get rid of such “filters”.
How to get the best out of each strategy? AT book "Timehacking" by Daniel Pink writes about how circadian rhythms help us choose the times when we are most productive. It is better for early risers to engage in analytical work as early as possible while they are at the peak of mindfulness. They should leave routine tasks for the middle of the day, and postpone creative tasks for the evening hours, when early risers tend to think more non-linearly. Owls have a different schedule: they are better off doing creative work in the morning, and saving analytical work until the evening.
This is not time management, because we can spend the same amount of time on tasks even after we rearrange our schedule. This is focus management, so we note the order in which it is easier for us to complete tasks, and distribute them accordingly.
Find out more⏰
- Whom to be more profitable - an owl or a lark
Another important thing to do is to reconsider the approach to work planning. I like the idea of Paul Graham who offersP. Graham. Maker's Schedule, Manager's Schedule divide the week into "manager days" and "creator days". On "manager days" you make appointments and calls, and on "creator days" you make time for creative work, knowing that you won't be distracted by distractions that would normally interrupt your work process. Unfortunately, not everyone has this luxury - to divide the days of the week in this way. So, you need to carve out small moments for creativity during each day.
According to the laws of time management, we need to isolate ourselves from all distractions. Not only from those when we are interrupted by other people, but also from those when we interrupt ourselves. Focus management offers a different approach - consciously choosing moments to distract.
Once, when I was still in high school, I spent an entire Saturday in front of the TV. At the end of the day, I was disgusted with myself, but I could not turn it off. Then I came up with a rule: I turn on the TV only when I know exactly what I want to watch. I apply the same rule to social networks: if I work, I go there only to share content. And I scroll through the feed only during breaks - for example, when I'm waiting for a flight or resting after a workout.
Most writers I know wait for "creator days" to start writing. They are confident that it will take them at least 4-6 hours to fully immerse themselves in a complex problem or a big idea. Actually there is proof ofb. Boice. Which is more Productive, Writing in Binge Patterns of Creative Illness or in Moderation? / Written Communicationthat writers who work "binge" make less progress than writers who work in short sessions.
Each of us can take several steps towards a goal in a surprisingly short time. When graduates taughtR. Boice. Professors as Writers: A Self-Help Guide to Productive Writing write in 15-minute intervals, they completed their dissertations much faster.
If you want to be more productive, don't analyze how you spend your time. Better watch what absorbs your attention. Now I looked at my watch for the first time since I remembered the story about Michael. It's 10:36 am and I've already written 500 words more than my goal. I'll leave it up to you to decide whether these 156 minutes count as a smart use of my attention and whether a few minutes of reading this article count as a smart use of yours.
All this brings me to another thought. I'm pretty sure that highly effective people have an eighth habit. They don't waste their time studying seven skills highly effective people.
Read also🧐
- How to improve concentration
- One day, one thing. The easiest way to succeed
- How to increase your productivity depending on whether you are an introvert or an extrovert
Best deals of the week: discounts from AliExpress, LitRes, Christina and other stores