Life, culture, theology, & politics through the eyes of a midwestern mom....
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
One problem with time management books
" The goal of much that is written about life management is to enable us to do more in less time." Jean Fleming, quoted in Margin. "Perhaps we need to get less done, but the right things."
There comes a point when "just be more efficient" is impossible. And yet, it's so much easier to see in someone else's life that they're in Impossible Quadrant. When it's yourself, there's still the nagging little voice that it's possible if you just try a little harder.
I am reading "How Can I Change the World If I Can't Find My Keys?" It isn't about doing more in less time, or just sitting out a method to follow that you are lame if you don't. It tries to look at the why we do things the way we do, and addresses the motivation to need to function better (not do more, in fact, it discourages doing more...especially extroverts). I'm finding it is working for me on the couple of things that I am applying it to. My purse is by the door with my wallet and keys in it all the time. That in and of itself has made a difference in my mornings, because the book has made me actually want to...by tying it to how lessening the chaos and finishing things shows love to me and to those who have to deal with me, which is really all we want to do anyway.
I keep trying to look at organizing and time management in the way the book she describes does. Nice to hear that there's a book that maybe looks at things the same way as that.
"just sitting out a method to follow that you are lame if you don't." Yes. Nearly all organization and time management stuff suggests a specific method, instead of working from the person's actual life. And so it's doomed to failure, because everyone is different. No two people think the same way or categorize things the same way (or at all, hahaha.). Everyone's life is a different level of busy with different kinds of busy.
4 comments:
There comes a point when "just be more efficient" is impossible. And yet, it's so much easier to see in someone else's life that they're in Impossible Quadrant. When it's yourself, there's still the nagging little voice that it's possible if you just try a little harder.
I am reading "How Can I Change the World If I Can't Find My Keys?" It isn't about doing more in less time, or just sitting out a method to follow that you are lame if you don't. It tries to look at the why we do things the way we do, and addresses the motivation to need to function better (not do more, in fact, it discourages doing more...especially extroverts). I'm finding it is working for me on the couple of things that I am applying it to. My purse is by the door with my wallet and keys in it all the time. That in and of itself has made a difference in my mornings, because the book has made me actually want to...by tying it to how lessening the chaos and finishing things shows love to me and to those who have to deal with me, which is really all we want to do anyway.
I'm actually enjoying the book.
It sounds interesting, Lora.
What Lora said.
I keep trying to look at organizing and time management in the way the book she describes does. Nice to hear that there's a book that maybe looks at things the same way as that.
"just sitting out a method to follow that you are lame if you don't." Yes. Nearly all organization and time management stuff suggests a specific method, instead of working from the person's actual life. And so it's doomed to failure, because everyone is different. No two people think the same way or categorize things the same way (or at all, hahaha.). Everyone's life is a different level of busy with different kinds of busy.
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