I cannot remember the name of a Dutch minister who limited his work to a normal nine-to-five schedule. I’ve always found that intriguing. The more I think about it, the more I reckon it to be true; if you cannot do your work in eight hours, you are likely to set the wrong priorities.
True. There is something like “a flow,” where you enter a state of concentration and you can remain focused on a task for many hours, even late at night. There are ways to decrease the hours of sleep during a night. But do you need it?
Time boxing is a method used in project management to limit the “time” spend on a project. Many projects face a problem where they are nearly finished, but require more and more time to complete. Time boxing prevents this open-end character of projects by defining the time-boundaries in advance. The project stops even the work is not completely finished. The first time this happens, there is a big problem, because you cannot deliver something half-finished. The project manager will have to pay for this, and he will learn to deliver more accurate the next time. Such a next time, the expectations are lowered but the work will very likely to be finished.
The point is - for a personal time management method - that making more hours is never the solution. If you know this in advance, you will learn to set the right priorities. It is always more important to wonder whether you are doing the right things rather than to overwork on tasks that in the end where not really necessary. Talk and communicate more and work less. That is the lesson from time boxing. Overwork - for company projects - is alright now and then. If it is your personal life; try to avoid it as much as possible, you are probably doing the wrong things.
From nine-to-five … that’s enough.
© 2008 Hans Bool
Hans Bool writes articles about management, culture and change. If you are interested to read or experience more about these topics have a look at: Astor White.
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I agree the Dutch minister. Managers here in the U.S. put too much emphasis on the amount of time we spend at the office (thinking this equal productivity) and not on the quality and quantity of work. I used to work for a senior VP (when I had a J.o.b.) who did “desk checks” at 6:00 PM to see who was still there. We were supposed to go home at 5:00. Those who did, got terrible performance reviews and smaller bonuses — even if they did better work! Our boss told us to pick a couple night a week we stayed at our desk until 7:00 — even if we had to play games on our computer. Needless to say, this department had a huge turnover.
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