Restless Nights

Restless Nights
It’s 3:00AM and I can’t sleep, instead I think about everything I need to do today, tomorrow, this week, and the coming month. I am overwhelmed and stressed about the upcoming office move, the latest acquisition, my inbox, and all the projects that I need to provide strategic insight and creative direction, not to mention all the family obligations such as attending my daughter’s new school activities, etc.

Man, I have a problem and I need to do something about managing my time more efficiently. So… during the following few days I spent a lot of time both thinking and exploring different time-management techniques. Last night was a repeat episode: I was up again, but this time I wasn’t thinking about everything I needed to do, instead I had the notion of becoming obsessed with efficiency, and I realized that being efficient – getting tasks done quickly – is certainly important, but efficiency for its own sake is worthless.

I think that I paid too much attention to efficiency, that I actually became less efficient. I also noticed that during the time I was thinking about my time management skills I stopped focusing on the things that really matter – the “great work” in my life – that I like to do and the projects that really would make a difference in ten years’ time.

And here I am… trying to share my insight with you all.

The Numbers Game
Efficiency tends to reduce everything to numbers: How many emails did you answer this morning? How many words can you write per hour? How long did you take to make those phone calls?

Now, I’ll be the first to agree that paying attention to metrics can help you with your time management. But not everything can be reduced to a number. For instance:

What if you’re writing the copy for your company’s new product? Is it better to knock it out as fast as possible – or to take the time to make it really good? What about that long, heartfelt email from an old friend? Should you try to answer that in two minutes or less? How about that client who had a lot of questions? Should you cut them short to get all your calls done?

I would say cut yourself some slack and remember that there are many situations that can’t be reduced to numbers. When you’re interacting with other people (clients, colleagues, friends or family), try to honor them as important and worthy of your time. Don’t just think about the results you might get from them or the time that you’re spending.

The 80/20 Rule
And when thinking about life efficiency I am drawn to the Pareto Principle. Also known as the 80/20 rule, the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto observed in 1906 that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population. He even developed the principle further by observing that 20% of the pea pods in his garden contained 80% of the peas.

It is also a common rule of thumb in business that 80% of sales come from 20% of your clients. Roughly 80% of your prioritized efforts come from 20% of your activities.

The Pareto Principle was a prominent part of the 2007 bestseller The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferris. Ferris recommended that we should focus our attention on the 20% of our activities that contribute to 80% of our income.

Time management is so much about living a life that is efficient – concentrating on what is important, what produces, and discarding the rest.

In other words, efficiency doesn’t have much to say about relaxing, recharging and simply having fun. Sure, you’ll come across some tips along the lines of “take frequent breaks so you can focus better while you’re working” – but you won’t find much that helps you really live a richer life.

People who become obsessed with efficiency can become rather joyless (I was for those few days). They might find it hard or impossible to “switch off”. They may be constantly worrying about the utility of a particular aspect of their life. Efficiency often says “keep doing more.”

I would say that instead of trying to be efficient, think about being effective. How can you make a difference in the world? What would you really love to do?

Of course, efficiency does have a role to play. If you’re doing work that you enjoy, you’ll want to do it well. You’ll also have chores to complete that might not be fun or fulfilling, but which need to get done – and so you’ll want to find ways to get these out of the way as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Now… if you wonder about me, I much prefer to be up at night thinking about everything I need to do (most of which I actually like) vs. being up at night obsessing about efficiency.

How efficient are you? Share your thoughts in the comments