A good friend of mine, Ivan Mufumba, is sports mad. He has always said that he can judge the skill level of a sportsperson by how late they can execute a maneuver and still do it well. He may have been onto something. Just watch reels of Zidane in his heyday or Serena Williams on the court.
I also had the experience of reading two books with the same title but very different content. Both books are titled “When” and give fascinating insights about the role of time in our lives. The first is When – the art of perfect timing by Stuart Albert and the second is When – the scientific secret of perfect timing by Daniel H Pink.
The silly part is that I ordered Albert’s book first by mistake in that I wanted Pink’s book but didn’t check the title when it was in my shopping basket. Complete with buyers remorse and suffering from the endowment effect bias I proceeded to soldier through and read Albert’s book anyway. On most days is became to me the book about When – hidden secrets of falling asleep at night although ultimately I did take some fundamental insights from it. Daniel Pink’s book on the other hand was interesting and less academic. A bit easier to read and certainly more relatable and entertaining.
Below I detail some the learnings I got from the books, some of my own musing about time and how they may be useful today.
1. We all have peaks, troughs and rebounds during a normal day (Daniel Pink)
We are not always on. Even if our days require us to be working and attentive all day, we are not at our optimum all day. Generally, people’s happiness is at the highest level in the mornings, dips during the midday and rebounds again in the early evening. Try and do your most important work when you are your peak. Save your admin work or least important work for times of day when your energy levels are down.
2. Temporal punctuation (Stuart Albert)
If you have to make a decision you make that decision today in the present. However, your experiences from the past matter although you are ultimately trying to decide on a future.
Past.Present.Future
However, if we view the past as having greater relevance then we could annotate it like this…
[Past.Present] Future
In the example above the present is viewed through a lense of the past. The impact of the past carries a lot of weight. This is legacy thinking where the future is viewed based on what we have today.
Past [Present.Future]
In this second example the past is the outsider. The present is viewed through a lense of what could be. I believe many Millennials and Gen Z think this way.
3. The power of restorative breaks (Daniel Pink)
How many of you knew that judges were more lenient after taking a lunch break? If you are ever in the unfortunate situation of appearing in the dock this is useless information. However, the point is there are lots of examples which show that taking the time for a restorative break can enhance performance significantly. A 20 minute nap can rejuvenate you without impacting much on sleep quality. Never feel guilty for taking a break.
4. Use time to force action
One of my latest tricks to get to action quickly in meetings is to shorten the meeting duration from a standard of 60 minutes to 30 minutes. People get to the point a lot faster and the speed that the decision is reached barely has any impact on the quality of the decision. This is with the important proviso that people arrive prepared for the meeting and that the real work happens outside of the meeting.
5. Starve negativity of your time
If you find that certain situations or certain people really drain you whether mentally, physically or emotionally you can have a deliberate strategy to starve these drainers of your time. As an example if you just don’t want to attend that after work function and would rather spend time with your family then that is what you should do. Schedule draining conversations in between appointments you can’t move to limit their duration. Or whatever other tricks you can consider.
The basic point today…time is your friend. Manipulate it, analyze it, understand it. Making the most of it doesn’t mean simply packing as much into a day as you can. It doesn’t mean working longer days. It’s doesn’t mean being always on. It means being at optimum performance when you need to be.
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