“168 Hours — You Have More Time Than You Think” by Laura Vanderkam (Portfolio, $25.95).
“Being too busy has become the explanation of choice for all sorts of things.” Vanderkam shows how we really can get our work done (before sunset each day) and increase our quality of life. How? Manage your life and work priorities. Separate the important from the urgent.
As I read, I remembered my conversation with Stephen (7 Habits) Covey about separating important from urgent when managing his time. Despite his crazy-busy schedule, he never missed his children’s school events, ballgames or dance recitals, etc. — and he always took a vacation. Even on the road, he talked one-on-one with each of his nine kids 15 minutes each day.
You can’t start managing priorities until you know how time is managing you. Keep a time diary for the next two weeks. You can download a free, time-management spreadsheet (PDF and Excel formats are available) at my168hours.com; click on the “Your Time” tab. Keep it with you. As you log your time, think of yourself as a lawyer logging billable hours. Write down what you are doing, in as much detail as you want. “Work” and “wrote up a marketing plan” are both fine, but one gives you more info to work with later.
“After you’ve recorded 168 hours, break your activities down into categories. How much time did you spend working? Commuting? Interacting with your family? Sleeping? Exercising? Doing personal care (like showering or doing your hair)? Doing housework or household administration? Watching television? Reading? Do these numbers reflect the number of hours you’d like to ‘bill’ to these activities?”
If you’re like me, you’ll uncover at least a two hours a day that’s not “billable.” The question then becomes: “How can you change your schedule to get closer to your ‘billable’ hours?” Here’s where Vanderkam’s process gets personal. Each of us has different priorities. We have to make choices. Have you spent time on what’s really important to you? How much time was wasted on low priority things? How can your schedule accommodate more of the important stuff? Only you can decide.
Once your schedule focuses on “billable” hours, you’ll get more done and experience less time-related stress.
“The Accidental Creative: How to be Brilliant at a Moment’s Notice” by Todd Henry (Portfolio, $25.95).
“Own your growth. It’s not what you know that matters; it’s what you do.” To maximize growth, you need an awareness of the “assassins of creativity” that keep us from tapping our potential. The assassins are:
• “Dissonance; It doesn’t add up.” — We have so much information coming at us, that it’s difficult to decipher the messages. As a result, the why of our work doesn’t align with the what of our workplace activity. An example: Fossilized procedures that make it difficult to do business in a work world of rapid change.
• “Unnecessary complexity” and “Opacity” — Bureaucracy makes it difficult to get to the right people on time. Some of them dwell in silos and don’t see the value in collaboration. Some have conflicting priorities. While the answer may be simple, the implementation process is usually complex. Decisions made without understanding various perspectives create problems, too.
• “Unclear objectives” — The problem stems from the difficulty of meshing project strategy (why, who, what, when, where) with creative strategy (how). All too often, we jump into the how before the objectives of the project are in place. You need to know where you’re going or you’ll waste time getting there.
• “Fear” — We may be afraid of challenging the system. We may fear the consequences of failing. Fear of success comes into play, too. All result in inertia.
Henry shows us how to deal with creativity’s assassins.
Jim Pawlak is a nationally syndicated book reviewer.
