Time traps: why time management is dangerous

2024 Author: James Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 14:00

Time management technologies are designed to help us organize our time correctly and use it most effectively. However, even a perfect instrument in the wrong hands can cause harm. The same applies to time management - if you understand some of its rules literally and follow them too diligently, you can drive yourself into a trap, from which it will be very difficult to get out.

Time management training has become commonplace, and books on the art of time management have flooded store shelves. Moreover, today you can learn the secrets of this science thanks to special diaries developed by the time management guru. In general, you like it or not, but sooner or later you will think that you are managing your time in some way wrong and it’s time to approach this issue more thoroughly. However, people inspired by the idea of organizing their own lives make a lot of mistakes and eventually find that time management not only does not help them - it harms them. Before embarking on the pursuit of the extra minute, pay attention to the obstacles that you may encounter along the way.

Urgency is not an indicator of importance

When we prioritize, we tend to assess how important or urgent a matter is. And in most cases, first of all, we proceed to urgent ones, and we postpone the important ones until later. But the criterion of urgency is not always decisive. For example, you have a task that is not limited in time, but just needs to be done - say, regular workouts in the gym. And there is another - urgent, but not very important - meeting with a friend who was abandoned by the guy. You compromise your health, desire to have a beautiful figure and listen to a two-hour monologue about what a scoundrel your ex-boyfriend turned out to be. Friendship is friendship, but the time allotted for an important point in the plan for the day is lost. And the urgency of the conversation with a friend was only imaginary - nothing would have happened if you had postponed it to the evening.

Try to prioritize clearly and do what really matters first. Urgent matters, on the other hand, do not always turn out to be so urgent, and some of them may well come true without your participation.

Work cannot be continuous

Some experts in time management advocate the idea of "business time - fun hour". But no person can work effectively if they do not devote enough time to productive rest. Of course, someone may argue that one does not contradict the other: they say, he did the job, then rest as long as you like. But sometimes things require full dedication and many hours of mental effort, and they cannot be continuous - the work process has a certain dynamics, peaks of activity are followed by recessions, etc. And it would be at least wrong to force yourself to work without interruptions, literally "die" at work, not allowing yourself to rest for even 10-15 minutes.

Do not force your own body if you feel that your head refuses to think - drink a cup of tea and look out the window, then return to work with renewed vigor. And senseless perfectionism will not do good.

Not all habits need to be maintained

Yes, you are used to getting up an hour earlier every morning and taking a bath with lush foam and can no longer imagine your day without this water procedure. And the surprised looks of friends, who think that in the morning it is quite possible to get by with a shower, do not bother you a bit. But maybe you should listen to their opinion? The fact is that each of us daily performs a lot of manipulations that are not so necessary, spends our time on them and believes that every minute of life is under control. But in fact, this is just an illusion that turns us into robots programmed for certain actions.

Reconsider your habits - some of them you really don't need. And you can't even tell yourself why you do the same ritual every day. Meanwhile, he takes away hours of precious time.

Long-term to-do lists are meaningless

It's one thing to roughly plan a working day, and quite another to schedule a week of your life. The second idea is absolutely pointless. First, this approach deprives you of the flexibility that any person needs, because the circumstances around us are constantly changing. And secondly, the lists, as a rule, are compiled in order of importance of the tasks to be performed, those that remain in last place very often move to new lists, and then again and so on until they are completely forgotten. Thus, some tasks are not performed at all.

If you cannot deny yourself the pleasure of making a list of at least something or do not count on your own memory, then limit yourself to a plan for the day. It is much easier to complete, and one day is not such a long period of time for circumstances to change dramatically. Although this happens.