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WHY TIME MANAGEMENT (MORE OFTEN THAN WE LIKE)
FAILS ?#TimeManagement
Massimo Cardaci – 26.10.2013
There are 3 main reasons why
Time Management fails in achieving its promises
There are 3 main questionswhich
allow discovering them
(1)
What is Time Management?
Let’s defeat a few myths
TM is not…
A way to assign more work to you / others
A way to work less
A way to do more things
A “ready-to-use” recipe
Who tells you that is just trying to sell you something
If you ask people WHAT is TM, they will provide one or more of the
following definitions:
It’s a Technique
It’s Planning
It’s Timeliness
It’s Punctuality
It’s Organisation
Do you think it’s right ?
Time Management uses all the above,
but it is none of them
Those are only the “tools”
They do respond to the question: “HOW ?”
They do not respond to the question: “WHY ?”
In reality TM is…
Respect for the others
Sense of responsibility
Will to improve things and ourselves
This is the real final objective of Time Management,
The answer to the WHY
First reason for failure:
Confusing the objective with the means to achieve it
(2)
What is Time Management’s scope?
People would say…
Managing Projects
Managing work requests
Managing meetings
Managing my job
It is naturally right.
But is it exhaustive?
No.
TM is not only related to your job.
In reality TM applies to…
HolidaysProgression and growth as a Person
HobbiesSport
Family lifeWorkplace
TM’s scope is our whole life
Present and future
Time is finite in any timescale: from a day to the whole life
Time is a good unique, running away regardless if we use it well or just
waste it
Every activity we do (even if we consider them separated, as work and private life) has the usage of our time
in common
So, every activity we do is interdependent, since they insist on the
same (limited) resource: our time
Second reason for failure:
not applying TM to all aspects of our life
(3)
Priorities? What are they?
The best way to explain priorities is to read a story
Up to you then to derive the third reason for failure
The story of a professor and a very special can of jam
A professor was standing in front of his students.
He took a very big empty can of jam and started to fill it with stones of 3 cm.
Once done, he asked if the can was full.
The students responded: yes!
Then the professor took a box full of bins and poured them in the can, shaking it to allow
the bins to fill the holes.
Again he asked if the can was full.
The students responded: this time... definitely yes!
The professor then took a box of sand and poured it into the can.
The sand filled every remaining hole, covering everything up to the top.
Again he asked if the can was full.
The students responded: yes, without any doubt!
At that point the professor took a bottle of beer and poured its content in the can,
wetting the sand.
The students began to laugh.
When they stopped, the professor said:
“You need to understand that the can is your life.
The stones are the really important things: the things that if everything else will be lost, your life will still be full.The bins are the other things which are important to you.The sand is all the rest, the little things.”
“If you fill the can with the sand first,
there will be no space for the more important things”
“Set your real priorities
and stick to them”
“The rest is only sand...”
A student asked what the beer meant in the story.
The Professor responded:
“I’m glad that someone asked:
The beer is ‘a Smile’
“It is to demonstrate that regardless how full your life is
there is always space for a Smile.”
THANK YOU!
More about me:LinkedIn Profile: Massimo Cardaci [English]
Volunteer activities:Handicap: www.orsaminore.org [English/Italian]Ethical Economy: www.edc-consulting.org [Italian]Time Management: www.time-management.it [Italian]
Some Publications: www.lulu.com/spotlight/maxcardaci- Book on Time Management: “Would you change 25 minutes?” [Italian]- Books on History of Science: “Spots on the Sun? Are you joking, right?” [Italian]
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