For Time Indebted

After months of my car warning light telling me it needs a service, I finally got it into the mechanic to have a look at it. I like this mechanic, as unlike most who tend to push unnecessary work, he actually looks to limit the cost and informs the client at each step of the way. He was recommended by a colleague, who was recommended by other colleagues and more colleagues. If he is good enough for a hybrid Porsche, my Passat will survive.

While the service is ongoing, I have been sitting at a café in a nearby shopping center, taking meetings and working - rather than walking around doing nothing. Some people seem to look for opportunities to get out of doing work, but I tend to go the other way, as it is more beneficial to get extra done, than not. Especially when bonuses are involved.

My Team has "offset" our quarter, finishing up the month before the rest of the organization. This has given us a far better experience, as we are heavily involved with internal stakeholders and getting them at the end of the quarter is very challenging. This way, we don't have to stress about it and when they are busy closing out their quarter, we have the peace to establish our next quarter with them. While most in the organization don't know we have shifted our cadence, it is highly appreciated by the teams that we don't bother them when busy, but also that we fit important sessions and information into areas where they aren't as stressed. It is as if by "magic" we fit into their schedules.

Time is valuable and the timing of activities empowers the time being spent. It is like cooking in a well-planned kitchen, where one doesn't have to continually retrace steps or get in the way of other people in order to get things done. The equipment is optimized for ease of usage and the cupboards are arranged to facilitate efficiency. It takes a lot of the "stress" out of cooking and perhaps, improves what is being made and also, the chances of cooking at home. I can image that those around the world who don't have access to a decent kitchen, consume differently also - perhaps more takeout?

In the workplace it is similar and I reckon that a lot of the complaints about workplaces is how there are so many seemingly redundant tasks, inefficient communications and of course, misaligned tool stacks. I know that in some companies, people are literally leaving because they don't have access to a decent range of tools to use to perform their jobs, or can't find the right information when they need it, raising daily frustrations. These add up and reduce output, but also reduce employee satisfaction.

How much dissatisfaction is caused by poor planning that could be rearranged, and how much stress is self-inflicted through not taking the time to develop cleaner workflows?

This isn't just a professional problem of course, as it is likely that if you walk into most personal garages around the world, it will be filled with unnecessary clutter and when the time comes to actually do anything, it is a frustrating experience. I know that mine could do with some work - but I have the excuse of renovation activities and materials holding me back - but it is on the list for summer to get it sorted properly.

The saying says that, time is money, yet this is only true when that time is being used to generate an income of some sort. Time itself matters very little if there is nothing to do with it, meaning that it comes down to opportunity cost. A unit of time has the opportunity to be spent doing something, even if that is doing nothing. And, the cost of that activity is spent as it takes away from everything else that can be done with that unit of time.

Some people think that "not working" in a job is somehow gaining, because they are getting paid for doing nothing, but it isn't actually again, other than the unit of time itself. If however, that unit is spent on generative activity, then it would be gaining, as it would be getting paid for not working, and getting paid for the work being done in the not working space. Most people don't actually have much to substitute into this space, so they are just spending the time on nothing of much use. Is that winning?

As said, this isn't just about occupational efficiency and reward, but I think that applying it at work can help us understand various opportunities better, because there is an obvious incentive and reward mechanism built into it. There are also other factors we can experiment with, including how we can influence our internal opportunity too, which can affect the reward mechanisms in various ways.

I was just talking to a colleague about how they spend their time and the challenges they have because they don't have a clear framework for some activities and aren't good at being strict with their time, meaning they get affected by interruptions a lot. It creates a vicious cycle for them, as they fall further behind in their tasks, making their tasks harder to complete, which pushes them further back again. It is a time debt trap, making it hard to ever pay it back fully.

Where is the warning light?

And I think this is something we should consider, as while cars have a warning light to say when it needs to be serviced, we don't have the same systems in place, which means by the time we hear the clunking noise, the engine is already burned out. Being more "systematic" in our approach to our activities means that we are able to recognize both when things are running smoothly and, when they are not, giving us a clear trigger to investigate and make a change early enough.

Yet, human nature kicks in for most of us and we aren't made to plan very far ahead and are made to emphasis immediate reward. This means that when we do have time units available and the opportunity to improve our processes, we are more likely to use them to get an instant gratification instead and feel like we have used our time well.

Until tomorrow, when what we could have done, we didn't do, and now it needs to be done, but we don't have the time to do it.

Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]