Jack’s Buzz

Hacking through your daily list. Not hacking? Not even making too much progress? Maybe your list is too heavy. Like having a cluttered desk leads to less productivity (your mind cannot focus, so not much gets done), having a cluttered to do list can lead to fewer tasks completed.

When you look over your list, choose something to do now. Chandler writes, “NOW or not now. If it’s not now, it’s got to be NEVER, or placed in a time capsule that has a spot on the calendar and therefore out of the mind” (Steve Chandler, Time Warrior, Kindle edition). I’m wondering what his idea looks like. Is it the one thing I’m doing now and a loaded calendar? Not exactly.

Try this. Master list that holds all my thoughts of things I want to accomplish, prioritized of course, (Allen’s corral from Getting Things Done). I do the NOW item, and I get to define that as I please. Phrases like, “important and urgent,” “valuable,” or “OH SHAZZITLE I HAVE TO DO THAT RIGHT NOW,” help define the NOW item.

As I’m reviewing my Master list, I see a tasks that will become NOW items this afternoon or, perhaps, two days from now. I schedule those and forget about them (until they pop up on my calendar). The other stuff? Never.

I keep my list manageable. Light. Breezy. Freeing instead of taxing.

Your thoughts?

Steve Chandler’s book Time Warrior, informs my time management pondering. His writing is fast and pointed – warrior-like perhaps, and I find it creative. It takes some imagination to make time management exciting. Steve’s contribution hinges on his realization that the way we manage our lives is more a function of one’s character than skillful to do list writing.

For instance, he tells us that “[Time] warriors…[let] go of people-pleasing, approval-seeking and every shade of mood-based…thinking.” That kind of provocation gets my attention.

It is my contention that the author describes neediness versus resourcefulness. Rather than figuring things out, toughening up, clarifying values, making the tough call, and doing what’s right, needy people try to make everyone happy. They add tasks for which they have no time or skill to try to make friends. They get into trouble and do everything poorly. They cry for attention, complain, and reject correction. As a result of their need to please, others manipulate them, overload them, and subvert their goals (not to mention their personhood). I’m not talking about accepting new responsibilities or pushing oneself, those are credible attributes. I’m telling about accepting things better left to others because the orienting goal is not to take right action but to be liked. In trying to be liked, the needy submit to time and become its slave. Warriors do not worry about being liked, they consider what the the right action to take; warriors defeat time to their advantage.

The remedy for neediness is resourcefulness. When resourceful people see a problem, they work through it. They take action to defeat the problem. If stopped by real obstacles, they get help, but not before exerting serious effort to defeat the problem. needy people cry wolf; resourceful people cry charge!

I once had an assistant that told me she could not find a phone number I requested. It took me 15 minutes to find the number in more than one place. The problem was not that she needed help finding it; the problem was that she did not make a resourceful attempt. Prior to hiring her, we checked references, which were outstanding, but once on the job, we learned that she was a people-pleaser rather than a resourceful achiever. She did not try to get things done, she did, however, have nice nails. She did not start the day battling through a well-ordered task list, but she did winked at boys and complain (to me) about her unstable life. I was not interested in paying someone to wink or complain.

Her failure to give effort demonstrated a greater problem. Her goal was to be liked; to  superficially please people rather than get right things done. The evidence was clear: an unfocused, scattered approach to tasks, accepting every request without considering its connection to her this-is-what-I-am-paid-to-do-list, and letting the day’s mail or a phone call determine her next task rather than prioritizing tasks. She did not demonstrate a willingness to crush tasks aligned with her job description, so I offered her the chance to find new employment where she could learn the skill.

If you’re needy, you can turn that around. Stop trying to please everyone – do the right thing instead.

Time is not a friend from whom to benefit, a commodity to digest, or an excess to invest. Time is an enemy to defeat. Time marches on – right over you. We age over time, lose a step, and reap what we sew. Left alone, time will eat days, weeks, months, and leave one with nothing.

Time is only your friend when interest rates are favorable and you leave your nest egg alone. Then, and perhaps, in a legal case as facts take time to appear, and some people, over time, tend to come to their senses. Otherwise, to get anywhere takes time, and sometimes it takes more time, but passing time gets you nowhere fast.

This month, I’m on the trail of time, and I intend to clock it. For the last few months, I changed one small habit, and that change won me several battles. I acted on three minute items.

That is, I looked through my to do list and took quick action. Dear Lord, tell me you have graduated from middle school and keep a list of things you need to do. If not, read this, grow up, and come back here later. Sorry for that interruption – I looked at my to do list and picked an item that I took three minutes or less to complete. Then I did it.

Action makes me happy. It also gives me a little momentum to battle something larger. Go get ‘em.

Most people complain, rather consistently, about airlines–especially Delta. I know this because I complain, rather consistently… (you get the idea).

Earlier this month I attempted to fly Delta from Austin to Orlando with the obligatory stopover/plane-change/crowd-swim through The Gates of Hell, a.k.a. Atlanta-Hartsfield-Jackson-Whatever International Airport (the world’s busiest airport and a place where people go to die slowly).

Before I knew that time matters very little when one travels by air, I thought I knew that if I arrived at the Austin airport on time, and the flight was on time, and the weather cooperated, I’d reach Orlando in time to eat at one of my favorite restaurants in the USA (Linda’s La Cantina Steakhouse).

I beat the traffic to the Austin airport. No problem. My flight left on time with me aboard. No problem. Great weather and early arrival in Atlanta. Problem.

The Atlanta airport is one of the world’s great examples of barely controlled chaos. There’s too much traffic–too many planes to fit the available gates. If one plane is early or late, the assigned gate is occupied by another plane and the arriver waits on the tarmac or worse, they drive around looking for a gate like it’s Saturday at Costco. It takes a half hour to make the drive from the formerly reserved Gate B6 to the now available Gate D67. The drive on an airplane that arrived early makes the plane arrive late. Gah!

If a passenger, in this case me, arrives early in Atlanta, he is pretty much guaranteed to arrive late. In Atlanta, people live out Einstein’s theory of relativity, which says that time means nothing if one travels through Atlanta. Had Grant’s troops had to make their way in Atlanta through Hartsfield International Traffic Jam, Dixie would play at Fenway Park.

I missed my connection to Orlando. The ensuing two hour delay meant I missed my steakhouse too. This all happened because we were early. Time management is a tricky business, is it not?

I spent 2005-2009 in a job that included climbing on and off planes twice a month. Never missed a flight. Guess I was due, huh?

Missing a plane and hearing, “There’s another flight in two hours,” is not unlike the feeling one has upon hearing, “It’s your transmission,” or “the service tech can meet you Monday, between 8:00am and 1:00pm,” or “No steak for you, sir.”

I will, however, put in a plug for Delta. The counter guy saw my “I’m going to have to sit here for two hours?” expression and began typing into his magic chaos-fighting machine. Never once taking his eyes off the screen, he smiled, “I can get you on First Class, sir.” I’d never flown First Class before (it’s nicer).

Sometimes, no matter how well one plans, he misses a connection. Time cannot be managed all that perfectly. Sometimes, one trades steak for a little more leg room and whatever is left as Panda Express is shutting down for the night. (Tastes like chicken.)

Here’s a lesson: plan anyway. You will mess up. You will miss a good dinner. You will get a ton of work done in a crowed, noisy airport instead of relaxing in comfort, but only occasionally. More often, you will be glad that things worked out just as you planned–like my trip home.