My Time Management Web

Chapter 8 - Accomplishing more in less time

We have all experienced those days which were full to the brim and at the same time we have experienced days when a few time consuming tasks have taken up all our time. Why is it that on some days we can do so much while on other days we seem to do practically nothing though we were busy the whole day?

In order to provide an answer to this question, I would like to give you a small illustration. You have been to the beach, havent you? There you might have seen kids building sand castles with sand. You can only build a sand castle with sand of course, but I hope you have seen those kids at work. What they do is that they dig up sand with their spades and fill up their pails with sand. Then they turn over the pails and hey presto they have the base of the castle which can then be shaped.

No, we are not concerned with building castles in the sand or in Spain or wherever. We are concerned about those pails which the kids use to build their castles. If you have such a pail with you, you can understand what I am talking about. Try putting a few small rocks into the pail. When I say rocks I mean rocks probably the size of medium sized cabbages. The most you can put into the pail would be three or four and even these would stick out into the air.

The pail is full isnt it? It is full of rocks. But does that mean that it is really full. Now get some pebbles probably the size of table tennis balls and see whether there is room for a couple of the in the pail. Definitely four or five of the pebbles can slip in to the spaces between the rocks. Is the pail full now? Yes it is full of rocks and pebbles. Now if you will oblige me, see if you can get some glass marbles or beads. Slide them into the pail. You dont have to try too hard; they will find their own paths.

If you think that the pail is full now, think again. Just wait till you get some sand and pour it into the pail. You will be amazed at the speed with which it trickles in. And we are not done yet. You are not going to believe this but the pail will actually accommodate something more. Try pouring a glass of water into it and you will find the water disappearing into the depths of the pail. If you want, you can keep pouring water till the pail brims over. But that is not our intention.

The purpose of this experiment was to show you that what you thought to be full could in fact accommodate much more, but of a different kind of course.

This is exactly what happens to most of us on most of our days. We take on big tasks. Thats well and good. But we get so occupied with these Herculean tasks, which may take more than a day to get over with anyway, that we tend to forget those smaller tasks which may be just as important. This is where we can understand the importance of prioritizing. The big things are important, but the small things may be just as important.

While you are trying to handle those rocks, do not forget those pebbles, marbles, and grains of sand and drops of water. Some people have asked me to give specific examples for these materials. So I would like to take a minute to compare. I believe that things like saying good morning and greeting others generally are very important if you are working in an organization. These things I would compare to the water. Just because you have had a busy day, it doesnt mean that you have to be a grouch.

Telephone calls (remember to be brief) I would liken to the sand. They keep coming all the time. And if you do not answer your telephone calls people will start thinking you do not work there anymore. Responding to emails and dispatching bills and payments can be compared to the marbles Meetings and discussions are the pebbles and major projects and things like audits and presentations are the rocks.
There should be time for everything and everything should have its time.

And with this I would like to tell you to please discard the myth of perfection. It does not exist in this world. Nothing and I mean nothing is perfect. So, it is not really important that everything has to be shipshape. As long as it is presentable you dont have to lose sweat about a project that you have done. But that does not mean that your work should be shabby. Make it as presentable as is possible within the time frame allotted.

And in order to accomplish more within lesser time its about time we took a look at those time savers and that takes us to our next chapter.